Alcohol Ban on the Pont des Arts

No Alcohol on the Pont des Arts
Originally uploaded by malias.

One of the great pleasures of living in Paris is the tradition of picnicing in lovely surrondings whether it be the Parc de Vincennes or the Canal St Martin or, my personal favourite spot The Pont des Arts.

I organised a picnic recently on a fine spring evening on this delightful old bridge. No sooner had we placed our baguettes on the passerelle, unwrapped the Camembert and uncorked a couple of bottles of Bordeaux than we were approached by two uniformed policeman (see photo of them harrassing some other tourists). "Parlez vous français?" they enquired solemnly. When they discovered that we could indeed muster up a few coherent sentences in their gallic tongue they proceeded to inform us that alcohol is now banned on the Pont des Arts.

That's outrageous! We protested. A French picnic without wine is like having a Ferrari that only goes up to third gear. It's just not the same! After our protests we became rather violent, we threw one of the policeman in the river and tied up the other one against the fence.

Ok, the last bit's not true but nevertherless I cannot see any harm in enjoying a little wine with a picnic. If someone is acting drunk and disorderly that's another story and there are laws that deal with that but a sip of vin rouge? S'il vous plait! So Please Mr Policeman give us back our wine.

In Trouble With The French Police

Parapluie Paris
Originally uploaded by malias.

Back in Paris I had this bright idea to go down to La defense to hand out leaflets promoting the language courses that I run in the hope of attracting some lucrative business contract.

La Defense is the business district of Paris and early September is the time of the rentrée when Parisians return bronzed and refreshed from their summer vacation. It's also the begining of the academic year so it's the best time to get work.

I went down with a friend early on Friday morning to catch the salarymen as they arrived for work.

We started to hand out leaflets but withing two minutes the police arrived threatening us with a 65 Euro fine each. We were outside on the street so I couldn't see what law we were breaking but apparently the concourse at La Defense is privately owned and you need a licence to distribute publicity (but If it is privately owned then why were the police enforcing these rules?).

Someone once told me that Paris is a very 'keep of the grass' city. I now know what she meant whatever you do it seems that you are transgressing one rule or another.

You have been warned.

Paris riots in Gare du Nord

An unfortunate series of events led to a riot in Gare du Nord yesterday. A 33 year old man who'd jumped over the barrier without paying for his ticket was confronted by ticket inspectors. He punched one of them. The police were called and he was arrested but the onlooking crowd thought he was handled rather roughly. A riot ensued with a 100 people involved in turning over vending machines and rubbish bins finally tear gas was used to quell the trouble. Full story is here.

Today as I passed through Gare du Nord the place was swarming with police some were even armed! And all this because a man didn't want to spend 1 Euro 30 Cents for a ticket.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6501997.stm
Remember that even the smallest of gests can trigger frightful consequences.