In Paris Without Papers, and Seeking Visibility

– By Scott Sayare, for The New York Times –
PARIS — The 2,000 illegal immigrants camped in this vacant warehouse are not hiding. Quite the contrary.
These West Africans, Turks, Pakistanis and Chinese have done all they can to publicize their camp, a sprawling colony of mattresses and cardboard, quilts and concrete at 14, rue Baudelique, [...]

French Rap as a Flash Point

– By Scott Sayare, for The International Herald Tribune –
PARIS — A gentlemanly patron of the arts, Frédéric Mitterrand, France’s culture minister, seems an unlikely champion of rap. But when the French artist Orelsan called publicly for his support at the height of a months-long free-speech polemic around the rapper’s song “Sale Pute” (Dirty Whore), [...]

Football, American Style, Is Alive in France

– By Scott Sayare, for The New York Times –
PARIS — The National Football League scrapped its overseas experiment two years ago, but that does not mean Europeans have stopped playing the game. In France, despite what one may expect, football does not refer exclusively to soccer.
Semiprofessional leagues have long been fixtures across the continent [...]

A battle out of time: The coal-miners’ suit

– By Scott Sayare –
PARIS — They waited more than half a century for the law to change and cover their claims. And last week, a court outside Paris announced that it will rule in September on the case of 17 coal-miners, fired for their participation in labor strikes — in 1948 and 1952. The [...]

Paris Journal: Mourning AF447

– By Scott Sayare –
PARIS — Amidst a pallid, unearthly Paris haze that seemed to stifle the horns and sirens and bustle of the city, a crowd of thousands gathered last week outside Notre Dame cathedral in hushed remembrance of the victims of Air France 447.
The lonely tolling of a churchbell called forth hundreds of [...]

Tour de Felon: French prisoners pedal the coutryside

– By Scott Sayare, for The Associated Press –
PARIS — Most days, they live behind bars. But last week, a pack of French inmates — joined by their jailers, a police escort and a string of support vehicles — embarked upon their own Tour de France, trading concrete cells for the vineyards of Provence, the [...]

Paris Journal: What a day for a daydream, reprise

– By Scott Sayare –
PARIS — For six weeks, French mailmen, teachers, train conductors, factory workers and government employees have been rallying the troops, readying banners and stoking the flames of popular discontent here before taking to the streets today in a massive protest.
But on this warm and sunny Thursday morning, you might not have [...]

Paris Journal: Students in the streets

– By Scott Sayare –
PARIS – The green trucks and cleaning crews were there well before it was over, waiting in the streets behind the crowd. At 6:15, just before dark, thousands of marchers were asking, “Is it finished?” between cigarette drags. By 6:30, a line of 50 riot police and plainclothes officers in orange arm bands had [...]

The Leftist press a “hostage” of its own ideals

– By Scott Sayare –
PARIS — The front page was finalized, facts checked and re-checked, last-minute revisions fired off, headlines inspected for the appropriate level of populist bite. The paper even went to print.
But Libération did not hit French newstands last Saturday, except around the eastern city of Lyon.
“With disbelief, the management of Libération has [...]

France: One step closer to genetically modified crops

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