A Little of the Old Ultra-Violence

Bonjour! In answer to the various folks from the US who keep emailing us, yes, we are still alive and doing fine so far as we ride our way through this bizarre wave of violence that has seized France. I thought today's picture was a nice choice, since we may all end up living in such places! This is a little museum down near La Croisic. It was originally a German artillery emplacement in WW2, and it's quite an interesting historical oddity. The thickness of the reinforced solid concrete walls is as astounding as the paranoia-inducing interior is claustrophobic - The place seems built to be staffed by dwarves, as the ceilings were constantly scraping my head. The funniest bits about it are the painted windows on the exterior (visible when the pic is enlarged). Fearful of naval shelling from sea, the wily Germans built a quick roof on the thing and painted fake windows on the sides, hoping to fool Allied warships into believing it was an ordinary house!

I don't know what to make of the wave of riots that has hit France. At first, we brushed it off as normal Paris craziness, but as the ripples of violence have spread out through the country, we have grown increasingly cautious. Over the past few nights there have been riots in Nantes and Rennes, both barely an hour's drive from here even though they are different worlds from our rural area. What has boggled me the most is the near-total non-response from the French government - A UK paper recently ran the headline "French government fiddles while Paris burns", and it isn't far off the mark. When the LA riots occurred in the US, the National Guard was on the spot almost immediately and there was no joking around about the use of lethal force. I am very surprised that this has been allowed to run so long without military intervention, but Chirac seems to be slipping into a near-catatonic disconnect with the populace he supposedly governs. The whole country feels, to me, momentarily like a huge ship whose helmsman has just decided to take an unannounced break... Sheer inertia keeps things moving forward, and everyone still has to get to work, but there is a palpable sense that no one is quite in charge. Sarkozy and Villepin keep pulling the situation first one way and then the other (I told my mother it was like putting Dick Cheney and Ted Kennedy in co-charge of a US crisis, and giving them equal authority). To put it mildly, the message is mixed... First they want to negotiate with the rioters, then the rioters are scum, then the government is announcing massive welfare spending to help these people, and then the riot police are given powers to raid any homes at will. I hope to write more on this later - I have invited some of the locals here in Herbignac to contribute their thoughts, so perhaps I'll have some interesting insights to pass along the next time I post. In the meantime, we'll just keep the window shades cranked down and a hefty crowbar near at hand!