Letter From Paris
Paris Kiosque - November 2007 - Volume 14, Number 11
Copyright © 2007 Harriet Welty-Rochefort - Used with permission.
November : crisp falling leaves, rays of sunshine you know
won't last - and party time in my household for
it's the month of my birthday and my wedding
anniversary, not to mention the birthdays of those near and
dear to me : my brother, my first grandson, and my first
great-niece.
So many pleasant associations for a month that
doesn't always cooperate weatherwise.
Or otherwise.
For example, this November will be « strike
month » in France with thousands, perhaps even
millions, of unhappy French men and women pounding the
pavement to protest President Nicolas Sarkozy's
daring reform of what the French call « régimes
spéciaux » - special pension funds
that over the past fifty years have given SOME French workers
in SOME sectors SOME very cushy benefits they do not want to
relinquish.
What sectors ? How about the national railroads, national gas
and electricity company, and the Paris transport authority Ð just
for starters. How many workers ? About 470,000 Ð a mere
0.8 per cent of the French population.
That small - but vociferous - minority is hopping
mad to see their goodies being taken away from them. To
demonstrate just how vexed they are, they'll shut
down the trains and metros that ferry the majority of the
population to work (well, tough luck, they'll just
have to find bikes or walk for miles!).
Fall is the traditional season for strikes in France. In October,
we had two just to get us in shape for the ones to come in
November. First of all, a nice little metro/train strike messed
up two entire days of work. Then, in late October Air France
cabin crews went on strike right before and during the All Saints
holiday. The cabin personnel were ticked because the
company made benefits that didn't filter down to
the workers. I can sympathize with them on that point. Their
choosing the exact time thousands of their compatriots were
leaving on vacation was par for the course but I have a harder
time sympathizing with them on their choice of dates. I know, I
know : Why go on strike if it doesn't hurt anyone ?
You get so much more publicity when you leave innocent
travelers stranded in airports and ruin trips they've
planned for months.
I hope I'm wrong but apparently those two conflicts
are nothing compared to what's coming.
Starting November 13 (hence the ides of November) the
following companies will be on strike : the SNCF (national
railroad company), the EDF and GDF (national electricity and
gas companies), and the Opera (if you had plans to catch a
performance, forget it). The RATP (Paris metro authority) is
still deliberating over whether it will join the movement. On
November 20, teachers in the national education system, Post
Office employees, workers at France Télécom
and the Crédit Lyonnais bank as well as fishermen
angered by the mounting price of oil and judges enraged by the
reshuffling of judicial districts will also strike.
That makes a lot of ticked off people in the streets but none of
this is very unusual. We've had strikes before and
will have them again.
The difference this time around is that President Sarkozy has
clearly said that he's not going to give in. And in
France, those are fighting words.
By deciding to reform the « régimes
spéciaux » Sarkozy took on a task that is
anything but easy. Some of these « regimes »
and the privileges that go with them were set up in the Ancien
Regime. For example, privileges accorded to opera personnel
go all the way back to Louis XIV. The privileges ? Dancers at
the Opera retire at the age of 40, choral members at 50,
technicians at 55, and musicians at 60 Ð all with full pension.
The new government wants to do away with this system Ð and
understandably (from their point of view) the 2000 employees of
the Opera Bastille and Palais Garnier aren't having
it. They don't think they're like
everyone else and shouldn't have the same rules.
After all, voices tire out ! It's hard to sing at 60,
non ?
A lot of the debate over why some people can stop work earlier
(with full pension) than others has turned around the question of
« penibilité » » or how hard the
conditions of work are in certain areas. Train conductors are
allowed to retire at 50 even though we're no longer
in the days when they had to stoke coal. In fact, a survey
showed that the most physically challenging jobs
aren't the ones where people benefit from the
« regimes speciaux » : sitting all day in front of a
computer screen, standing all day long as butchers or
hairdressers do. I haven't seen hairdressers or
butchers on strike in France but that's because
they're too busy - slicing meat or cutting hair !
But don't get me wrong. In France, even the
people who don't strike rarely criticize the ones
who do. They say it's their right and generally
sympathize with their cause (this, while they themselves are
going to work !). The French may disagree on just about
everything under the sun but they all agree on the sacred right
to strike (perhaps because they're so dependent
on the government - they're rather like
adolescents rebelling against an all-powerful
parent).
But enough may be enough this time around and the millions of
workers who don't have these special deals may
just get sick and tired of having to set the alarm for 4 am to get
to work on the days the strikers decide to defend their
privileges.
My husband and I decided that since we can make our own
schedules, from now on when a strike looms we will simply
escape. We started early by going to Marseilles where,
miraculously, no one was on strike. Marseilles is one of the
cities in France where strikes are the toughest so we felt quite
« privileged » ourselves not to be in the midst of
one.
On our perfect fall week-end there, the metro was
running as were the tubs taking tourists out to see the fantastic
« calanques » , a natural wonder of steep white
stone cliffs plunging down to the azure ocean. To celebrate our
non-strike week-end, we tripped over to
star chef Lionel Levy's creative restaurant, Une
Table, au Sud, whose windows look out over Le Vieux Port, to
feast upon some of the most original creations I've
ever seen or put in my mouth: a « milkshake de
bouille-abaisse » , a spectacular
re-creation of the traditional Marseillais fish soup
called « bouillabaisse » . The gem, we all agreed,
was a single tiny Saint Jacques scallop posed delicately upon a
bed of Jerusalem artichokes seasoned with a gelatine of sea
urchins. That incredible culinary experience was followed by a
chantilly of roquefort with a marmalade of prunes in port with
nut flavored crostinis. The dessert was another
re-creation, this time of one of those Suchard
chocolate mounds. Levy style, the deep rich chocolate ball was
spiked with nuts and served with a delicate orange sherbet.
We enjoyed ourselves so much that we decided to get out of
Paris for the next strike which is scheduled for November 14.
On November 13 or even before, we'll get on one
of the trains still running and go as far west as we can, to Brest,
and then on a boat to the island of Ouessant.
Well, maybe. At the very moment I write this column, fishermen
are stopping all boats in the harbors of France to protest the
price of oil.
It looks like the only place we're going to travel to
with no hassle in November may be - our own backyard in
Paris.
Harriet Welty Rochefort is the author of
French Toast: An American in
Paris Ce
leb
rates the Maddening Mysteries of the French and French Fried: The Culinary Capers of an American in Paris.
French Toast was hailed by the Los Angeles Times as "wise and devastatingly
funny". For world-famous chef Alain Ducasse, her second book French Fried
"in a lively and hilarious style ... gives an inside look at the world of
French cuisine and wine." Both books are published by St. Martin's Press.
She is currently working on her third book about the French.
Coming to Paris? Harriet gives
tailormade wine and cheese tastings to individuals as well as to university
groups. For more information, visit her webpages:
www.frenchfolio.com and
www.understandfrance.com .
If you've had some funny, startling, satisfying, or dismaying
food experiences in France you'd like to share,
you may contact Harriet directly at
harriet.welty@hwelty.com.
Editor's Note:
Dear Readers, while our writers are always
delighted to hear and to receive comments, both about their columns in the The Paris Kiosque,
as well as your experiences in Paris,
they are unable to answer requests for travel information.
Thank you for your understanding.
French Fried: The Culinary Capers of an American in Paris