I wonder if the French elections coming up will effect the travel experience for tourists. I have traveled but once during a national election of a country not my own- Italy's in April 1996- and found that, but for an occasional poster plastered on a wall, you wouldn't have known an election was being contested. Still the case?

Yes. Travelplans will not be effected by elections.

On election night, if the right wins people will flock to Concorde. If the left wins, people will flock to Bastille.

And where do we go if it's Bayrou?

Hi George W, I don't know about France but I can tell you I have experienced no taxis on Election Day in Florence..it was not a good day..a long story that I won't bore you with.

>.And where do we go if it's Bayrou?<<

Round and round in circles?

Half of the people to Concorde, the other half to Bastille!

And if Le Pen wins second place to get into the runoff as he did last time or time before i believe... where do they gather - in the northern suburbs?

Bayrou's party will be right in between the Concorde and Bastille - half way

If Le Pen is in second place, once again, few will admit that they voted for him. That is one of the most disgusting aspects of French politics -- the refusal to admit one's opinions.

Kerouac,

The refusal (presumably because xenophobia and racism is not acceptable) to admit voting for Le Pen is in line with this old maxim:

<i>L'hypocrisie est un hommage que le vice rend &agrave; la vertu.</i>

Remember that the vote on April 22 is only the first round. The winner won't be decided until the 2nd round on May 6. Unless of course Jean-Marie LePen gets into the runoff as he did last time ... in that case the race will effectively be over on April 22, because whoever runs against LePen will win in a landslide ...but that's an unlikely scenario.

Jack svp - when i was in France in February it seemed that Le Pen had not garnered enough of the required number of mayors endorsements to get on the ballot or some such thing even though in the polls he was fairly high

I assume he is on the ballot now?

Merci

Yup, he's on the ballot, along with Jose Bove, who didn't know until they actually counted and checked his submission whether he'd got the 5000 signatures or not. So now there are 12.

Let' see if i have this correct:

Suburban youths rampage at Gare du Nord and are justly condemned...

Bove bulldozes down a McDonalds and becomes a folk hero to agrarian and other xenophobic interests and runs for President.

We have 3 Trotskyist candidates (only in France!), a hunter, a communist, an ecologist, a socialist, a fascist, a &quot;centrist&quot;, a degenerate aristocrat, a pure right winger and an ecolo-left wing peasant who grew up in Berkeley.

Jack - you mean this time around there is no Royalist candidate, to restore the monarchy, heaven forbid.

There might be fewer French people taking holidays around May 1-May 8, since the 2nd round of the elections falls on May 6. If this hadn't been the case, you might have expected congested airports, train stations and roads as the French took a long holiday from Friday April 28 through Tuesday May 8 (since there are 2 statutory holidays, on Tuesdays, in that period). Opportunistic labour unions might have decided that this was a good time to strike, so that they could snarl up plans and make everyone miserable.

Those who lived in France longer than I have might be able to advise as to whether the risk of labour disruptions will be lower (not because they wouldn't like to protest but because the government wouldn't let them get away with on or just before an election day).

Strikes are quite rare when elections are imminent, except for the most desperate cases, when the strikers have absolutely nothing left to lose.

There won't be many strikes until September. In any case, France has the lowest percentage of unionized workers of any industrialized country, and we haven't had any good strikes for ten years...

GIVE A HAND TO LE PEN for his remark at the Elle forum recently where he defended his opposition to giving condoms to high school students, saying:
&quot;For those who are fixated on it, I recommend 'manu militari,' this is the simplest method&quot;

'manu militari' is a tongue-in-cheek reference to masturbation (NYT 4-11-07)

It also say Le Pen is currently fourth in the polls and 'seems to revel in making headline-grabbing statements'

Let's give a hand to Le Pen!

He can't have mine, sorry.