I predict a riot

Mardi Noir - Black Tuesday - The End of Days

So there's been a bit of trouble surrounding the CPE recently. Ok, so perhaps it's a bit more than "a bit of trouble". For those of you that don't know, the CPE is a new contract that the French government has introduced to try and reduce the ridiculously high youth unemployment rate.
The main issue with the contract is that for up to 2 years there is pretty much no job security. There is what is effectively a really long trial period in which time the employer can fire you at will. The idea being that employers will be more willing to create positions if they are not fearful of firing people when they are no longer necessary. Labour laws are particularly difficult in France and may people who get fired take legal action against their ex-employer.
The situation has been made worse by the fact that Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin did not negotiate the terms of the law with social partners and the law was passed in the evening during the holidays (when everyone was skiing and subsequently not there to protest).

So, people have been up in arms trying to get the law withdrawn and for the past few weeks there are been several "manifestations". Universities have been closed and blockaded - most of the people protesting against the law are students (but not just from universities, some are from colleges). In fact, most of my friends have been off uni for over 3 weeks and are, understandably, getting a bit worried about their work and the summer exams.

Today there was a general strike. From the newspapers (well, Metro) and people I know it seemd like this would be really big. This time it wouldn't just be students, but the Post Office, the RATP and SNCF public transport workers, and anyone else.
To be on the safe side, so I wouldn't miss the meeting I was meant to have at 8am (which didn't happen in the morning) I went to work by bike this morning. I was a little annoyed to read www.lemonde.fr at lunch to find that 70% of the public transport system, including my bus route, was running.
Anyhow, the world didn't come to a stop. I don't know if anything happened during the day on the March from Place d'Italie but by the time I got home (after running from my apartment to La Defense to pick up my dry cleaning having just cycled home) there was some good rioting on TV. The manifestations have attracted unemployed youths from the banlieues (suburbs) and they, along with the Paris youths were making a bit of trouble at Place de la Republique. I wasn't there but, thanks to Sky News I do have some interesting pictures to show you.
After a few hours and a fair bit of tear gas and use of the water cannon, the CRS (French Riot Police who are notoriously violent) managed to disperse the crowds.

So, as you can see, it's all fun in Paris!

The week

I was really tired for most of the week. Going to bed late on Sunday didn't help and things just built from there.
On Tuesday we had another of our big monthly meetings. This time it wasn't held at the office where I work but was on another site to the north of La Defense. It's a big site in 4 parts and is easier to get to than where I work.
I left work at about 17:30 and went home, picked up my camera, and went out again to try and get some pictures of Paris as the sun was setting. By the time I got to Place de la Concorde it had already set but I managed to get a couple of the obelisk and the Eiffel Tower lit up.


Whilst I was there about 8 police vans went past. They were off to see off some more people protesting about the CPE (I'll write about this soon - probably this weekend as there may be a general strike next Tuesday).
Afterwards I went to a place called "The 5th". It was quite a good place - beer was €3.50 a pint which is the cheapest I've seen it.
The next day I was so tired at work. So I did the obvious thing and went to a French friend's place for pasta. A few of us got together as one of the girls from work has left (she's finished her internship).

Despite being tiring, the week went pretty quickly and Thursday evening was spent packing ready to go back to England.

It neither rains nor pours

It's amazing how much we take things for granted. You never realise it until you're made to go without something. When I first arrived in Paris I bought bottled water. Not because the water's not safe to drink or anything but it just kind of became a habit. Anyhow, not too long ago I stopped buying bottles. Big mistake! ..........

Friday night I went to "Night Fever". It was at Elysee Montmartre again (like the rock night was) but this was a disco night. Lots of 80's music. I'm not sure I'd have chosen to go but the guy down the corridor was trying to convince us all to go and I thought it might be a laugh.
Anyhow, in the end only me and the guy on my corridor went. It wasn't bad but it would have been better if more people had come. The music was pretty good and the DJ was as good as at the rock night.

Saturday fairly uneventful - sleep, shopping, haricut - until the evening that is....
So, back to the water. I went to get a drink Saturday evening and found that I had no water. Not a drop. Not from the kitchen taps, the shower or even the toilet. I went down to ask what was up and it turned out that a pipe had broken in the underground car park. Although the whole residence wasn't affected, a column of apartments - mine included - had no water.
I guess it was too much to expect something to be done quickly, in France, on a Sunday. I ended up filling up some bowls at a friends' and on Sunday I attempted to have a shower in one of the apartments they'd set aside for drought ridden people. I say "attempted" as, although they were kind enough to provide apartments with water, hot water was a bit too much to ask for.

Sunday I watched the Grand Prix with the guy from down the corridor and then we went to our friend upstairs' apartment to watch the appaling England v. France rugby match over some beers and crepes.

Almost cultural

Well, I was almost cultural this weekend. The guy on my corridor had told us all about a free classical music concert being put on at the Maison de Radio France last night so we arranged to meet outside an hour before the start in the hope of getting tickets. 2 of the 6 of us who were going got there a bit earlier and managed to get in just before we joined the queue and, unfortunately they ran out of tickets so we didn't get to go in. So, we did the next best thing and headed for a bar!
This one was at Grandes Boulevards not too far from Galeries Lafayettes (a big department store; on the same scale as Harrods and with similar prices) and it was happy hour when we arrived so we had a couple of drinks before heading for a crepe.
One of the girls that the guy on my corridor goes to uni with joined us while we were at the bar and invited us to come and meet her Dad. He was staying at the Hôtel de Crillon so we didn't pass up the chance to say Hi. The Hôtel de Crillon is one of the most luxurious hotels there is and is just off the Place de la Concorde at the end of the Champs Elysee.
So, that's about it for now. Time to iron my shirts and head to bed ready for the week ahead. Yay, work. Fun :-/

Rockin'

Ok, second post of the night. But I know a friend of mine won't stop nagging me if I don't write more!
So, I've got a lot of work to do at the moment, it's not exactly thrilling, and getting asked to re-write an analysis of a survey because "partially satisfied" users don't actually count as satisfied is a bit annoying.
I was looking forward to the weekend and going out. I didn't really have much planned but knew some people were going to Culture Bière on the Champs Elysee. I got asked if I wanted to go for a Chinese with some friends from my building but I was already half-way through cooking so ended up going straight to the pub. Anyhow, I had a good time there and, just as we were leaving, one of the girls said she was going to a rock night at a club/venue tonight and asked if I wanted to come along with her and her friend. I figured "why not", I hadn't been to a club since I'd been here and thought it would be good. I'm not usually a clubbing person but as this was rock music I'm not sure it counts as "clubbing". Anyhow, it was fantastic. The venue, Elysee Monmartre, is at Pigalle which you may have heard of as it's the red light district. The venue isn't in the red light end but it's close enough. They played some great music (everything from Franz Ferdinand to The Killers to Blur to The Darkness and then some 80's (the French seem to be obsessed with 80's music) and Elvis) and the hall was pretty big. There's another night next month so I'll try and go again and see if I can get some more people to come.
We left at about 3:30am having got there at about 12-12:30 and caught the night bus back. That was a bit of an adventure as, after my friends got off, I carried on to Pont de Neuilly which was the end of the line. Pont de Neuilly is on the way to La Defense before the road crosses the Seine. So, I got off and crossed the road to wait for the other bus which would take me to La Defense....only to find that the wait was going to be 86 minutes! Standing in the cold at 4:00 in the morning on my own wasn't too appealing so I caught a taxi the rest of the way.

Anyhow, it was a great night and I'll try and go to the next one. Otherwise there's "Night Fever" which I think some of my friends are going to this Friday but I'm not sure about that one yet.

Puck Off!

A couple of weeks ago (Saturday 25th February) I went with some friends to watch the ice hockey. The local team Club Olymique Courbevoie was playing Dunkirk at home and as it was free we thought we'd go along. None of us had ever seen Ice Hockey before and we didn't really know the rules so it was interesting trying to work it out.
It was fantastic! I'd never seen it before and knew it was meant to be quite violent. It was incredible the speed they went at. I am thankful for the toughened glass screens they put in front of the stands though. They weren't right up against the rink so you didn't get people faces being squashed against it as they got rammed into the side (which would've been funny) but considering the speed that the puck goes.... In fact, being in the audience isn't completely safe. The puck did come over the barrier twice and landed in our row both times. Once it hit some kid on the foot/ankle so the team doctor/coach came along and sprayed something on it (to numb/cool it I guess).
Anyhow, after a bit of a warm up, and after someone had driven around on a little tractor thing to melt/smooth the ice the match started. Courbevoie seemed to be doing pretty well and were leading 2-0 by the end of the first third. It was interesting trying to work out what some of the penalties were. The woman on the tannoy seemed to be saying things like "Incorrect Charge", although, having read the wikipedia page it seems there are legitimate times when you can hit/barge/ram people. It was a little difficult to follow at times as the teams are allowed to substitute players at any time, and every so often the whole team would swap. When players beat each other incorrectly they have to go in a sort of penalty area for 2 minutes (or 4 minutes if they do something really bad) and, I must admit, it did seem like Courbevoie were in there far more than Dunkirk.
Anyhow, it kind of went downhill after the first third and Dunkirk went on to win 7-2. I thought Courbevoie played pretty well though and will probably go to see them again.
If you want to see the "COC's" you can visit their website at www.cochockey.org (no joke!).

I've got a page at Flickr now so you can see some more photos I've taken while I'm here. If you want to see the ones of me with my friends you'll need to sign up and let me know your user name so I can add you as a "friend". There are plenty of photos you don't need to log in to see though so take a look at www.flickr.com/photos/aross .