Stormy Paris sky

Women can soon wear trousers

A few months ago I posted a link to an article on the rule banning women in Paris from wearing trousers. It now appears that the archaic law may be lifted. Read about it here.

Yet ANOTHER strike

French civil service workers went on strike today in protest of Sarkozy's plan to raise the retirement age. Read about it here.

French tantrum leaves South Africa

France’s World Cup team lost against South Africa. Now the players have to come home and deal with the upset fans. Team captain Patrice Evra has already apologized and claimed that the French people will find out what really happened in the coming days. Time will tell…

French football team implosion

I don’t know what’s going on with France’s World Cup football (soccer for my compatriots from across the ocean) team, but it seems to be having some serious issues.

First Zizou says the team manager is not a coach and disapproves of the lack of teamwork. Then one of the players, Nicolas Anelka, gets into an argument with the coach, refuses to apologize and is kicked off the team. Anelka’s removal resulted in the team refusing to train. And now France’s team director, Jean-Louis Valentin, has quit.

Zidane has added another two cents saying he believes the team can win against South Africa. But at this point, does it matter? The team sounds like a bunch of preschoolers in need of a nap.

Chalk drawings

These yellow chalk drawings have been appearing in my neighborhood during the past few weeks. I have no idea who is drawing them or what they mean.

SPD violence trend

One would hope that the SPD’s recent headline-making brutality was a rarity, but another unbelievable incident makes me think that Seattle police officers are losing their minds.

A policeman stopped a 17 year old female and her friend for jaywalking (yes, the Police in Seattle apparently have nothing better to do) and when they resisted he ended up punching her in the face. I think she and her friends went overboard in their behavior, but did the officer have no options aside from decking her? Video of the incident is here.

Splatter perimeter

I was heading to the metro when I passed a man walking in the opposite direction. I didn’t pay him any attention and when he turned his head the other way and tilted it down I just assumed he was going to spit as you often see men do in Paris. How wrong I was. As I passed him, he vomited on the sidewalk. Fortunately he was far enough away that it didn’t splatter on me. The joys of living in a big city…

At least he left something on

We’ve had some very nice (and some not so nice) weather here lately. It’s not surprising that when it’s sunny, Parisians go outside in droves and apparently some people are more “comfortable” with their sunbathing than others.

I was having lunch with a few colleagues in a small park, when I noticed a shirtless man walk by. I didn’t pay him much attention but a few minutes later one of my colleagues motioned in his direction. I looked over and saw him removing his trousers (I didn’t think to take a photo until after the trousers were off). He was in the park, wearing nothing but his boxers. My initial reaction was ça se fait pas, but apparently ça does se fait. I suppose I should be grateful that he wasn’t wearing a speedo or tighty whities.

McDonald’s in France welcomes gay people

This seems like an odd message for a fast food chain to send unless they’ve had problems in the past with being seen as homophobic.