Get Here, If You Can …

‘The 3rd Forum to integrate the handicapped into the community’ is billed to be a real wheelchair stopper.

Held under a 1500 sq m temporary structure on the paved area outside the Paris Town Hall, 110 associations, professionals and institutions will present their ideas and programmes for the benefit of the nation’s handicapped.

“A place to discuss and promote the future of the handicapped person”, says the event flyer …

The thing is, the nearest underground station, Hotel de Ville, isn’t handicap-friendly. No lift, no escalator, no nothing ...

... can’t quite see them getting integrated that easily.


High Tension …

A fourth night of unrest in the Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois passed on Sunday, after which, nine youths were held by French police after they had been throwing missiles and petrol bombs and set 15 cars alight.

The violence began on Thursday after two local teenagers died when reportedly fleeing police. The authorities deny that officers were chasing the boys, who were electrocuted after jumping into an electricity sub-station.

Interior Minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, has pledged that ‘hot areas’ will receive regular visits by police in an effort to combat terrorist activity which has been brewing in Muslim communities.

I’m spending an overnight patrol with the ‘BAC de nuit’ (la brigade anticriminalité) on Wednesday … oh goody.

Cosh on,

Stu