<p>It might be more fun to be part of the protest, and participating in a 225 year old tradition, rather than just looking on! Here’s your chance!;)</p>
<p>Mini :).</p>
<p>My daughter will be in Paris this time next spring, if everything stays on plan. I was watching footage of the protestors, and thinking - wow she will miss all the excitement, a learning experience - storm the Bastille!</p>
<p>If things work out, before taking up her JYA in Florence, my d. will be interning with a development organization in Modena. And the last thing she will do is join the annual (since 1961) 15-mile Perugia to Assissi Peace March (where she will meet many of our 500,000 Italian friends.)</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.catholicpressphoto.com/servizi/11-09-2005-marcia-pace/default.htm[/url]”>http://www.catholicpressphoto.com/servizi/11-09-2005-marcia-pace/default.htm</a></p>
<p>As someone who is spending her adult life keeping her kids safe from protests and the consequences of increasing religious extremism in our country of residence can I just say that I find NOTHING glamorous about the idea of ‘voyeurism’ related to religion-related rioting…sorry to burst the bubble…We are hardly faint hearted, we couldn’t live here if we were, but the idea of deliberately taking it on…silly. </p>
<p>NB. I have no experience with other forms of French Rioting and no investments in evacuation insurance company stock.</p>
<p>“idea of ‘voyeurism’ related to religion-related rioting”</p>
<p>Funny. I thought the Paris marches were about pay rates for young workers. (though I do appreciate the view many have of capitalism as a new religion…;))</p>
<p>Or was it that the Assissi March is sponsored by the Catholic Church?</p>
<p>
Who knows, maybe if the hoi polloi get a real taste for blood theyll dust-up the timbers and hone the dulled edges of the guillotines–wheel em out in the unyielding French democratic tradition of Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité surely a Marat or Robespierre will rise like whipped-butter to the top of this aggrieved croissant; but sadly, the French equivalent of the running of the bulls, it is not.</p>
<p>How about Barcalona? Warmer this time of year, Parisian in feel and wonderful food.</p>
<p>True, Mini, nominally these riots are solely related to pay rates. And the Jakarta riots of 1998 were solely related to electricity price hikes. Just ask all those young Christian women whose lives have never been the same. </p>
<p>I have no sense of humor about this because my kids’ school is guarded by guys with AK-47’s and nothing about rioting, violence, protests, etc… strikes me as very funny any more…sorry…too many Friday nights spent discussing the intricacies of US Embassy threats and warnings with a 16 and 17 year old debater in the making…Just want my kids safe, toasty and as far from harms way as possible…</p>
<p>So I still don’t get it - “religion-related rioting?”</p>
<p>(But having lived in India and Iran, I do feel for your experience, though I always felt less safe in Washington, DC than I did there.)</p>
<p>Everything in life is always about sex or religion, isn’t it?? Oops…</p>
<p>Anyways…I just am suspicious that there is not an undercurrent of religion(wage inequities, religious inequities, angry young men…okay a big tangent) in the current wave…but again, I am pre-oreinted to think that way at the moment…</p>
<p>I know…and it is sad that our world has come to that.</p>
<p>These are bourgeois riots. The young people want the same benefits that the older folks have. They want the same comfortable life, government pensions, early retirement. I don’t think they will get it. I don’t think the money is there. We have a similar set up where I live. The government workers have great pensions, salaries etc. The private sector is in bad shape. That is most of Europe.</p>
<p>It’s the same here, with a massive drive toward the bottom, the lowest quintile being significantly poorer than they were 30 years ago, pensions being eliminated, and differentials in wealth widening.</p>
<p>Here, though, it is like the frog placed in the warm water on the hot stove.</p>
<p>Let’s hope he can with a leap of faith escape the iron and find his way back to the pond. That is kind of what I am hoping…</p>
<p>We are getting UN personnel from New York City right now. They are sending workers to cheaper places to live and school their children and in the process save the UN some significant money.</p>
<p>Well, don’t let anyone else know, but the food’s better in Belgium…</p>
<p>Maybe the frog can paddle across the pond and discover Belguim! But should be try for Paris. Mais non!</p>
<p>Binx,</p>
<p>We were in Rome in June and rented an apartment because we needed 2 rooms and the hotels were too expensive. Our apt was 1150 for seven nights - and it was big!</p>
<p>Here are some other hotels that people like:</p>
<p>Albergo del Senato (also expensive)
Hotel Teatro di Pompeo
Albergo Cesari
Hotel San Francesco
Nicolas Inn</p>
<p>Check out tripadvisor.com for reviews. Post on either slowtrav.com or fodors.com for ideas. Overall, I think hotels in Rome are pretty pricely for what you get.</p>
<p>Yes taxes a fees on Ryan Air add up! We flew from Rome to Paris and our tickets were like 18 and they came to like 80. Carefully read Ryan Air’s baggage restrictions too.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>I am not interested in going to Paris for the moment. This is not due to current protests or anything else mentioned in this thread so far.
Last weekend we got together with some friends to watch a video. One of our friends chose the remake of “Sabrina”. I forget who played Sabrina but Harrison Ford played the stiff business-only guy who falls in love with her despite himself. At the end of the movie he catches up with her in Paris and says “(Obi-wan Kenobi?) You’re my only hope”. </p>
<p>Gah! That was only one of the terrible lines and scenes. Those two airheads might still be in Paris; think I’ll stay away for a while. (OK. it was only a movie, but still!).</p>
<p>IMHO, once demonstrations turn to violence, it’s mob psychology aka political power trips, no matter how valid the original reasons for protesting were.</p>
<p>Here are some current threads on my favorite travel forums regarding the Paris demonstrations: </p>
<p><a href=“http://p104.ezboard.com/feuropetogofrm9.showMessage?topicID=133.topic[/url]”>http://p104.ezboard.com/feuropetogofrm9.showMessage?topicID=133.topic</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://slowtalk.com/groupee/forums/a/tpc/f/3956056284/m/7511038321[/url]”>http://slowtalk.com/groupee/forums/a/tpc/f/3956056284/m/7511038321</a></p>
<p><a href=“Rapid feedback-riots-jeans-French rudeness - Fodor's Travel Talk Forums”>Rapid feedback-riots-jeans-French rudeness - Fodor's Travel Talk Forums;
<p><a href=“Riots in Paris - Staying at Marriott 70 Avenue des Champs-Elysees-Safe to go? Cancel? - Fodor's Travel Talk Forums”>Riots in Paris - Staying at Marriott 70 Avenue des Champs-Elysees-Safe to go? Cancel? - Fodor's Travel Talk Forums;