Random jottings re. strikes and riots
"Oh yes, it was the strike today", said one student yesterday evening. That just shows how normal everything is here.
Riot police. Don't over-react. There is usually at least one police van in Place de la Victoire day and night. It parks near Macdonalds. I don't know why its there, except that the square is pretty central to Bordeaux.
Again on the police. The police here are a little heavy handed by British standards. The other day I was in the main shopping street and there was a chap sitting on the pavement, in the rain with his back to a bollard. As I got closer I saw that he was handcuffed to the bollard, hands behind his back, sat on the floor outside a shop, in the light rain. Two or three police were guarding him. I don't know what he'd done. He didn't look scuffed or anything. A shoplifter or pickpocket, I'd guess. But nobody in the crowds batted an eyelid at seeing someone handcuffed to a bollard like that.
Again on the police. A friend of mine fixes bikes for the city. During a recent fete of some sort he was on a police stand where nice policemen were offering free servicing for bikes. Ordinary, decent-looking middle class people of all ages were making all sorts of insulting remarks at the police as they passed the stand!
Riot police. Don't over-react. There is usually at least one police van in Place de la Victoire day and night. It parks near Macdonalds. I don't know why its there, except that the square is pretty central to Bordeaux.
Again on the police. The police here are a little heavy handed by British standards. The other day I was in the main shopping street and there was a chap sitting on the pavement, in the rain with his back to a bollard. As I got closer I saw that he was handcuffed to the bollard, hands behind his back, sat on the floor outside a shop, in the light rain. Two or three police were guarding him. I don't know what he'd done. He didn't look scuffed or anything. A shoplifter or pickpocket, I'd guess. But nobody in the crowds batted an eyelid at seeing someone handcuffed to a bollard like that.
Again on the police. A friend of mine fixes bikes for the city. During a recent fete of some sort he was on a police stand where nice policemen were offering free servicing for bikes. Ordinary, decent-looking middle class people of all ages were making all sorts of insulting remarks at the police as they passed the stand!
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