Paul from Paris

Mont Blanc tunnel (French side)

Anniversaries and memorials are often marked in France, a country that takes its history seriously.

On this day in 1999, a fire broke out in the Mont Blanc tunnel, killing 39.

The Mont Blanc tunnel links Chamonix, France, to Courmayeur, Italy, a distance of more than 11 kilometers (more than 7 miles). When it opened in 1965, it was the longest road tunnel in the world.

Since 1965, the Mont Blanc tunnel has been used by truckers. As the volume of exchanges between France and Italy (and beyond) has grown, so has the number of trucks that use the Mont Blanc tunnel.

On 24 March 1999, a truck carrying flour and margarine caught fire deep in the tunnel. Causation remains disputed or unsettled, but the fire may have been started by a discarded cigarette, sucked into an air filter. The fire grew and spewed great quantities of toxic fumes. Despite the intervention of firefighters, the fire wasn’t completely extinguished for more than two days.

After the fire, the Mont Blanc tunnel remained closed for three years, during reconstruction and renovation work. The tunnel operator today takes pains to emphasize measures taken to improve tunnel safety.

Traffic volume remains a contentious point with residents on both sides of the tunnel. Tunnel use by especially polluting vehicles has been curbed, but realistic alternatives to truck traffic, especially  road/rail multimodal combinations, have been a long time coming and are still off in the future.

The legal and managerial question that the Mont Blanc tunnel disaster leaves with me: how much initiative should tunnel managers show to ensure the safety of tunnel users? My question is one of effort, not money (because the Mont Blanc tunnel generates revenues through tolls). Are managers obligated to actively keep abreast of developments in tunnel safety –which certainly evolved since 1965– and make use of innovations? If so, does their obligation know any limit?

Last fall, a band seized and occupied a hotel particulier on the place des Vosges in Paris. I wrote about the incident.

This weekend, I was able to visit the site. It’s a remarkable historic building, with an inner courtyard, a terrace, large rooms, and a lovely staircase.

courtyard

staircase, polychrome beams

salon

I know that the term, “pirate”, is used today for films starring Johnny Depp or for persons alleged to have infringed intellectual property law, but I think that it’s altogether apt to designate the band that took a fancy to the property, then took possession of it by extra-legal means.

The pirates don’t seem to have been destructive or careless. The property is in a decent state of repair, and the pirates have put up some decorations. This having been said, being a pirate does seem to require consuming lots of beer and flicking cigarette butts out of windows.

lots of butts

cute touch

The pirates also seem image-conscious, probably from concern of impending expulsion. I entered their lair under cover of an art happening. The Puccini-esque “La Bohème” ambiance was paired with concession sales; for revolutionaries, these pirates have a fine market sense.

Truth be told, during my visit I saw many visitors but no art. I tried to be uniformly pleasant and found most of the occupants to be agreeable. The one exception was a young man whom I made uncomfortable by photographing the salon. He told me that there would be a show but no visits that day, a proprietary instinct that I found cheeky coming from someone who has taken the license of occupying the premises without obtaining anyone’s consent or paying anyone rent.

Cardinal Richelieu founded the Académie française in 1635, under the reign of Louis XIII.

Its 40 members defend the French language: their unending effort to define words, with a common meaning and spelling, contribute to national unity.

The Académie française enjoys special prestige among the honor societies that French culture has produced. It has only 40 members. Membership is permanent; “academicians” are even nicknamed “immortals”. A new member is elected by the sitting members, but anyone can request membership. Members are entitled to wear a green outfit suggestive of what a bullfighter might wear, and to bear a ceremonial sword (religious figures are exempted from sword-bearing).

“Academicians” historically have been a diverse group. But given the society’s mission to defend language, many of its members have been writers, especially illustrious writers of the day. For this observer, as literature has increasingly become equated with entertainment, the number and stature of writers in the Académie française has declined. And the decline of writers has led to the ascendancy of another group: politicians.

Simone Veil

The member most recently inducted is Simone Veil, a French politician who has long enjoyed popularity or celebrity. The back story: deported from France to Auschwitz at age 16, Simon Veil went on to a career in the civil service and politics, culminating as health minister in the mid-70s. Acting later on the European stage, Simon Veil became president of the European Parliament. Simon Veil is a woman accustomed to receiving honors.

Simone Veil’s best-known political action was her support for legalized abortion; the law that made abortion legal in France carried her name. In mainstream French discourse, legalized abortion falls under the umbrella of feminism or women’s rights. A prime example of the cultural divide that can separate Americans and French, abortion rights aren’t polemical. The issue isn’t contentious; it’s closed.

I asked people whether they thought Simone Veil’s induction to the Académie française had anything to do with abortion, and no one in my informal poll thought it did. My American eyes did glimpse one small sticker, affixed to a street sign (of a parent and child walking together), by an anti-abortion group that criticized “the entry of the culture of death” at the Académie française.

Seen in the window of a pharmacy while walking in my Paris neighborhood: breasts, actually a breast-and-a-half.

It’s the visual behind an advertisement for a new cream, Buste, which for less than €20 per tube promises “a firm young chest”.

The photo is really big –maybe three times life size– and I’m sure that male passersby noticed. Actually, it would be hard not to notice the display.

Two questions passed through my mind.

First, do the breasts and the hand below to the same person? Or was there a breast model, plus a hand model?

Second, what ingredient could achieve the promised goal?

I tried to look up the manufacturer; what I found puzzled me. Buste is manufactured by a Belgian company, DexSil Labs, whose logo suggests a man being drawn and quartered, and whose web site is under construction (“Please come back later.”). DexSil Labs would seem to have no relation to Dexsil, a US-based manufacturer of portable tests and instruments to detect and quantify contaminants in soil, water, and oil.

The entire DexSil product line, including Buste, revolves around one key ingredient: silicon. How fascinating! I don’t know what to think: computer chips? meteorites? breast implants (sans the implant or the silicone, itself made from silicon)?

The Vancouver 2010 Winter Paralympics are going on now, from 12 to 21 March.

French television covers the Paralympic Games daily, at mid-day (12:50 pm). For this spectator, this programming decision isn’t simply a show of solidarity, but it’s also good for sport: the Paralympic Games broaden the kinds of athletes and events we can watch.

I’m keeping this post short to encourage readers to check out the Paralympic Games, on television or by Internet.

Interesting points I’ve learned after a week of viewing:

• Skiing for the disabled developed just after the second world war.
• Ice sledge hockey was born in the ’60s, in Sweden.
• Russia has taken a commanding lead in the medal count. Ukraine and Belarus are also serious contenders.
• The biathlon for the visually impaired includes shooting. Athletes take aim using auditory cues.