Just returned from a week in Paris; talking about things that struck me besides the usual tourist stuff:

THE HOMELESS TENTS
I had read about the hundreds of tents dotting Paris these days but had forgot about them until upon arrival i walked from Austerlitz along the Seine and saw a veritable tent city huddled together under one of the Seine bridges.

This was the first time i saw the tents, which looked topnotch as did the sleeping bags protruding out of them in which the tent city's residents were mainly swilling cheap wine.

That night i asked my inlaws about the tents i had seen and they told me that the ones they see on TV were along the Canal St Martin.

So next day i set for the canal and there, not far from the Gare de L'est i indeed did see hundreds and hundreds of nice tents lining both quays of the canal. The tents, supplied by some kind group, were all the same and many of the tent's brand names had been crossed out (why? don't know maybe just wiping out free advertising or some complain?)

But here was a large tent city that seemed fairly clean and apparently food was served to them daily as well. (Actually on the French news that night it said that authorities had gone to a soup kitchen to check IDs of the homeless and were arresting several for immigration violations - causing many homeless to not go for food that night. Caused a bit of a controversy.

The tent residents here too looked like the ubiquitous Parisian clochard or 'bum' and alcohol and beer were being drunk in copious amounts even in the morning. Quite a few tenters had dogs staying with them.

Looked for Polish plumber types but really could only see indigenous clochards.

So i guess i'm encouraged that these type of people have been given decent shelter from the cold winter but as many of the tents had signs saying they really wanted some indoor accommodation.

I don't know enough about the history of this movement...giving tents and allowing tenting in Paris but these things intrigue me and are part of what i find so fascinating about cities like Paris. And unlike London and Rome which i visited again and where people literally are sleeping all over the streets i noticed nearly none of this in Paris.

And the nicest tent spot i saw was in the car park at Austerlitz station where one tenter had blocked off a whole space for his tent, in which he was always laying with his dog whenever i passed by. How this can be allowed i don't know - blocking off a paid parking space. Oh well...mabe that's a good sign as well.

I understand that the project was funded by a single benefactor who had made a lot of money in, I think, the film industry. The project runs under the name "Les Enfants de Don Quichote" (Don Quixote's Children).

It was not simply an effort at making homelessness more tolerable; it was apparently intended to make it more visible to put pressure on the authorities to address the problem. I gather that they were embarrassed into finding at least some housing units.

What is a "Polish plumber type?"

"A Polish plumber type"

This has now become a joke. Just before Poland joined the EU, some people started complaining about all those foreigners who would soon move to France and work for a lesser salary, among which Polish plumbers.... Why plumbers, I don't know.

The Polish tourism Ministry published several ads with an extremely handsome man dressed as a plumber and the caption "Come and visit Poland"

Instead of which, they mostly came to Britain, since they know what we're like with plumbing....

Oh yeh...the Polish Plumber i think was evoked in the campaign for French passage of the proposed EU Treaty, which i believe was defeated. The threat that a legion of Polish plumbers and other trades folk would thence be able to descend on France, displacing French workers for lower pay. Much like the North African and Portugeuse immigrants have been blamed in the past.
But i originally read that many of these tents were being used by East European immigrants, legal or not, and this is why i said i didn't see any Polish plumber types in them...just indigenous winos it seemed, though i didn't peek in very many tents!

Hi,
They're moving today to quai de Jemmapes before going to le fort de Nogent, a big building requisitioned for them at last.
"Augustin Legrand, porte-parole des Enfants de Don Quichotte, a accueilli favorablement l'idée du relogement de SDF au fort de Nogent proposé par Villepin, confirmant qu'il ferait déplacer vendredi les tentes du canal Saint-Martin, en réponse aux plaintes des commerçants"

http://www.lexpress.fr/info/quotidien/actu.asp?id=9327