Tuesday, March 08, 2005
Best Laid Plans
The Members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) are coming to Paris tonight and boy is the city dressed up. There are the neon signs, there are the special metro tickets, there are signs and posters everywhere and now.....on the way to school today my son points out that the buses have flags. Lo and behold, the buses were dressed up today with a 2012 Paris flag on each side. So I started reading the articles about Paris welcoming the IOC and found this article about how Paris is turning gaudy and that the city is decorated like a whorehouse to try to win the 2012 Olympics! Really?!
While Paris is burning with desire to host the 2012 Olympic games, others have decided that this would be a really good time to set up a protest. Apparently, the "leading unions have called for a day of strikes and demonstrations throughout the country to demand pay rises and to protest against changes to the 35-hour working week." My French teacher read that city officials did ask the protestors to put off their strike for a week, but they refused. Wonder why? I must note that in one paper the Mayor of Paris is quoted as saying that "unions have made clear their support for the Paris Olympic bid and their desire not to disrupt the work of the commission." Guess we will see about that.
So all of you arriving or leaving Paris on Thursday, check your transportation information before you leave your home. More details about the strike will be released tomorrow.
On a final and unrelated note.... my son has recently built up the confidence to start trading his yu-gi-oh cards. I took a picture of my son and his friends at the park yesterday. They could be anywhere in the world trading cards and I guess that's what I liked about the picture.
-- said Auntie M in Paris
10:42 PM
Curious to see how the strike plays out in Paris. Let us know.
Terry in SF
# posted by Anonymous : 11:56 PM
Otherwise, I think the Unions are crazy if they strike tomorrow. If they continue with their plans, there is no way Paris will receive the Olympics for 2012 and I think that will be a huge shame.
# posted by Jason : 9:59 AM
Jason, I really hope all is well and that you can get out of Paris without much incident... I'll be thinking about you. Best of luck.
# posted by Auntie M in Paris : 11:04 AM
re: Paris 2012
I've been following this very closely since the discussion on Jason's blog last October (http://jasonstone.typepad.com/nycaparis/2004/10/no_welcome_in_f.html#comments) …
The betting gap over at ladbrokes.com has narrowed insofar as selection of the 2012 Olympics city is concerned:
October, 2004:
Paris at 1 to 2
London at 4 to 1
Madrid at 4 to 1
New York at 8 to 1
and
Moscow at 20 to 1
and
March, 2005:
Paris at 4 to 9
London at 2 to 1
Madrid at 14 to 1
New York at 16/1
and
Moscow at 40/1
Should be interesting … Paris is still odds-on, but London seems to have gained …
L'Amerloque
# posted by L'Amerloque : 1:16 PM
# posted by irene : 2:31 PM
Hello Irene. I think the flags look cute, but they will probably look pretty dirty and unkept by the end of the week!
# posted by Auntie M in Paris : 11:33 PM