Knowing how to speak Verlan – France’s back-to-front language – doesn’t mean you should do it as a foreigner, at least according to one French-language expert.
Read more at THE LOCAL: Should foreigners steer clear of France’s ‘backwards language’ Verlan?
Since the start of 2019, crime on Paris public transit has shot up, most from pickpockets, organised in groups who target tourists in metro cars. The Paris police prefecture has registered an increase of 33 per cent in the number of pickpocket crimes reported on the metro, RER and local trains.
The thieves’ methods are as varied as they are familiar. Groups, often of young women, get close to their victims, then leave as the train doors are close, a smartphone or wallet in hand. Or they bump into someone getting off a train, and take advantage of the confusion to slip a hand in an open bag or pocket.
While Parisians are used to keeping their bags close to them, visitors are less wary, and become targets.
Police have trouble apprehending the perpetrators, as over half are minors, which makes it difficult to prosecute them, or deport them, as many are foreigners.
Train drivers will often make their own announcements to warn passengers to hold onto their belongings if they see a pickpocket gang on the platform.
The RATP, which runs the Metro, has set up a way for victims to file a complaint directly in 49 stations, without going to the police, which allows for victims to quickly receive documents to provide to insurance companies or to ask for a replacement passport at an embassy.
Source: Massive increase in pickpocket crimes in Paris metro – France – RFI
The 29th edition of the Musicalarue festival ends this Sunday, August 12th. Once again this year, the 700 inhabitants of the small village of Luxey (Landes) perpetuated a festive tradition started in the 60s. The village festival has become a festival that attracts more than 45,000 people attracted by the state of mind and by a poster that mixes Big Flow and Oli, Pierre Perret or Shaka Ponk.
Musicalarue is certainly one of the oldest festivals in France, one of the most convivial too. It all started in 1968. At the time, young people from Luxey (pronounced “Luxeille”!) Decided to organize a village party around August 15th which mixed music of all kinds, street shows and carnival parade.
From one thread to another, the patronal feast became a festival in the 90s but without losing this spirit “great artistic country buffet” as François Garrain describes it. Today president of the association Musicalarue and director of the festival, he was part of the group of young people who launched this adventure. “Musicalarue is a different kind of party, with the live performance in high point and the meeting between all the generations,” he explains. “It’s a family” added Johanna Turpeau, one of the 150 volunteers mobilized for the festival. “Once we’ve done one, we all do it!”
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Reportage: Mr. Vial / J.-C. Duclos / J. Michaan / E. Goldstein
A study by the European Transport & Environment association published on Friday confirmed that spending a few days in various popular European capitals is equivalent to smoking between one and four cigarettes.
Spending a long weekend in Paris could be as bad for your health as smoking two cigarettes. But this is at least a lot less polluted than in Prague, where your mini-break could be the equivalent of smoking four cigarettes, or even worse in Beijing, where it could be same as puffing up to 16 cigarettes.
You no longer need to sit next to a dedicated smoker to be a victim of passive smoking. Air pollution is such that you only have to walk around for a few days to breathe the toxic equivalent of several cigarettes. This study obviously has serious implications for tourists, who typically spend their days wandering the streets visiting sites, but it also will cause concern for native cyclists and joggers striving for a healthier lifestyle but instead exposing themselves to toxins.
The Transport & Environment study compared the contamination from fine particles of the ten largest European tourist cities by converting it into the number of cigarettes smoked. The NGO used a method of calculation created by Berkeley Earth, an international climate association [ . . . ]
Continue reading at FRANCE24: A year in Paris is as bad for your health as smoking 183 cigarettes – France 24
Pas De Merde 