http://tinyurl.com/2678wd

How awful for all the commuters and travellers who happened to be there when this violence erupted. I sure hope no one from the Fodors community got caught up in it.

Peace, Robyn >-

It's interesting how each special-interest group wildly speculates on the reason for the disturbance, depending on which ax it wants to grind.

In France, the axes are well ground, and ready to be swung at any pretense.

Just missed the trouble at gare du nord by one day.

...happens.

Story 1.

I hit Paris for a 4 day weekend (in the middle of business travel).

The first night was my birthday and the metro had a one day strike that started around the commute hour.

Took a rookie to the Eiffel Tower, and then tried to get back. Luckily it was a deluge of rain falling and we had to walk back to the middle of the Champs. After over an hour we found a restaurant and tried to dry out and have dinner.

Afterwards, I remembered enough French to just walk in front of a taxi and commandeer it, promising a large tip.

This is a simple story not related to the violence, but the story becomes, you have to cope or learn to cope with what you have and what's thrown at you.

Story 2.

Same trip as above. Got to LHR from the U.S. early and had a chance to catch an early connection to AMS, but turned it down because we were hungry. Turns out the plane we turned down crashed on landing at AMS and there were about 10 people dead. ...happens.

Jean-Marie Le Pen charged that the riot in a Paris train station showed French cities had become unstable due to "mass immigration".


A French court jailed two young men for their part in a riot at a subway station that ballooned into a major issue for the presidential candidates

These things always balloon into major issues, because there are many parties that have a vested interest in making a mountain out of a molehill, albeit for quite a variety of different reasons.

My H and I took the train to A'dam 3 weeks ago and there was a lot of police presence there. The were also soldiers in camouflauge (not sure if they are police or military). We did see one person being escorted in handcuffs. I'm glad nothing happened while we were there.

The soldiers in camouflage are military, and mostly for show.

Yes, I always wonder what their instructions are for using their automatic rifles if something happens -- spray the crowd with bullets?

Their weapons are not loaded, precisely to prevent any such mishaps.