After reading that France is set to ban public smoking and, in one year, smoking in cafes and bars, I'm starting to wonder if Gam and I should take French lessons...
Seeing a documentary on the public bicycle rental programme in Lyon and now reading that it's being expanded to include Paris... and comparing how cyclists are treated in most European countries with how they are treated in Australia... and the fact that the French working week is more family-friendly, they have a strong culture of worker's rights... it all makes me feel very grouchy about our crappy government, from the local to the federal level (it's the Brisbane City Council that are responsible for the 'bike paths' here, not John Howard). Up until now my distaste for being smoked all over has at least allowed me to comfort myself with the fact that people in France were allowed to smoke anywhere and everywhere, making it a place I simply couldn't stand to live.
Now, I think that taking a French course at the IML might not be a bad insurance policy against another decade of Liberal government rule.
3 comments:
I just hope they don't ban selling beer in McDonalds.
As much as I regret McDonalds the second I finish it, a Quarter-Pounder and a glass of beer was a real treat in Paris.
That would definitely come with a certain novelty the first few times you did it, I reckon.
I suppose part of it is that French towns and cities were pedestrian once and adapted to cars where ours are designed around the car and don't factor in the bicycle.
It's a cool scheme!
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