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 Jeff Steiner's Americans in France.Resource for people that would like to live or travel in France. |
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NewsletterFebruary 2002
Sale price
January not only brought the Euro and the 35 hour workweek but also the French special sales time. Sales in France are regulated and can’t just happen when a merchant wants them to. The state has set side six weeks starting in January and six weeks in the summer as sale times. What made this January sales challenging was the double currency: the old Franc and the new Euro. With people still thinking in Francs and the Euro only a few weeks old most merchants where forced to list four prices on their sale goods. One price each for the Franc and the Euro at the regular price, then one price in Francs and in Euros at the sale price. The Euro police kept merchants on their toes. State inspectors went to stores making sure that there was no rounding up the prices when they were changed from Francs into Euros.France’s finest
Over the last few months there’s been extensive reporting on the working conditions and morale of police in France. Most report state that working conditions are bad, a third of all police cars in the Ile-de-France (the area around Paris) are not working at any given time. Most police officers have to share computers. Some officers resorted to buying their own. Then there is the question of pay. An officer ten years on the job can only expect to make around $1,500 US per month. Starting pay is often under $1000 US per month. Police are also not on the 35 workweek. There is the question of their safety. Many officers were killed on the job in past few years. Police anger over working conditions led to the unthinkable, police taking to the streets in protest. The national police, the Gendarmes, although prohibited by law, did participate in protests.Fast tractor
José Bové, the French farmer and anti-globalization activist, was sentenced to three months in prison. A few years ago Bové drove his tractor into a McDonald’s in the town of Millau as a protest to globalization. After his sentencing, he said that he would refuse to serve his time. Bové is seen as a populist in France, someone that stood up to the American multinational, McDonald’s. To the French globalization means among other things American culture. The French have a love hate relationship with American culture. You will find a McDonald’s in about every urban area in France, full of French people eating Big Macs. Yet there is anger, typified in Bové, with what some see as an Americanization of France and the lost of French traditions: home cooked meals and family farms.Presidential election
The French presidential election is getting into full swing, with the first round of voting only two months away. In France after the first round of voting, if no candidate receives more than fifty percent of the popular vote, then there is a second round with the top two candidates. The winner of the second round then becomes president. For a candidate to get on the ballot they need to get the signatures of 500 mayors. What I fine interesting about this presidential election is that the two top candidates, President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Lionel Jospin have yet to declare their respective candidacy. The way it was explained to me was that both Chirac and Jospin need to wait for the perfect moment. Presently only candidates from the smaller parties are campaigning; I guess their perfect moments arrived. Jospin for his part, stated that he felt that his job was to run the government first, then be a presidential candidate. Therefore he will not be a candidate until parliament recesses.Same old same old
I was listening to a documentary on French Inter, one of the French state radio stations. The program discussed the war in Algeria and its effects on the home front. It seems that during this time, the early sixties, the OS (French secret police) sent out threatening letters. These letters were mailed to people deemed un-patriotic, i.e., those French who supported Algerian Independence. The commentator cited the fact that French ministers were appointed despite their past actions. Maurice Papon, active in the Vichy government, based in Bordeaux, Papon oversaw the transfer of Jews to concentration camps. Late in the 1950’s Papon became Paris police chief. Under his leadership the police killed around 300 Algerians demonstrating for Algerian Independence in Paris. At another demonstration the number killed is unknown. Papon served as budget minister in the Mitterrand government. In the late 90’s Papon was convicted of crimes against humanity. The court bases for conviction: his actions as the head of the Vichy government in Bordeaux. The commentator ended by stating that is it any wonder that over the years the French state has used Gestapo tactics. With so many ministers from the Vichy government used in post war governments.Follow @jeffsteiner
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