Beware la Crise Economique!!!

Hi Gang,

I had a few days to take a mini-vacation to Paris and I was smacked right in the face with a cousin of our own economic crisis: "La Crise Economique."  On a much smaller but no less painful scale than the U.S. recession, the global recession has saturated just about every aspect of French life.  

20 years ago I was lucky enough to study a year abroad in Paris at La Sorbonne and literally the FIRST WORD you learn if you go to live in Paris is... "greve." It's pronounced "Grehv" and it means "strike."  Fast forward to last week, and yes, the French didn't disappoint... sure enough, my husband and I arrived at Charles de Gaulle aiport only to be welcomed by a greve.  When we asked what it was people were striking against, we were told, "La Crise Economique."  Now, forget the fact that that's just ridiculous... you strike against a company or a government, NOT A GLOBAL ECONOMIC ISSUE, but we quickly learned how bad things are in France right now.

Aside from the fact that previous Socialist governments have made it extremely onerous to conduct capitalist-style business, unemployment (le "chomage") is at a 2 year high and angst about declining exports is at a multi-year high. They're batting around the idea of a stimulus package of their own, but President Sarkozy and his pro-capitalism government are trying to figure out how not to make the same mistakes the U.S. stimulus plan might make. For now, they're rejecting "Obama-style" stimulus.

Either way, it's worrisome. But is all really lost?  Despite the "greve" and the "chomage", a crowd of tens of thousands lined up at 2am last Friday at the Petit Palais museum to see the "Maitres de Picasso" (Mistresses of Picasso) art exhibit. Alas... the French 'joie de vivre' or "joy of life" endures.

And I'll always find a few Euros for a Nutella street crepe.

A toute a l'heure!

Liz