Economist.com Cities Guide: Paris Briefing - October 2005

News this month

Tackling terror

Police detained nine people during raids west of Paris and in the Normandy town of Evreux on September 26th as part of a crackdown on suspected Islamist terrorist activities. It is believed the men were planning attacks on the Paris metro, a Paris airport and the headquarters of France's domestic intelligence service—though no evidence of an actual plan was found. They are thought to belong to the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, an Algerian organisation which threatened France earlier this year. Among those held was Safe Bourada, who was released from a French jail in 2003 after serving five years for his part in bomb attacks in France in 1995.

The swoop came on the same day that Nicolas Sarkozy, the interior minister and head of the ruling UMP party, said the terrorist threat in France was very high and that there were “cells operating in our territory”. The French government has drafted anti-terrorist legislation to increase video and internet surveillance, and tighten border controls.

Royal president?

French feminists had reason to celebrate in September, when two female politicians declared an interest in running for president in 2007. Ségolène Royal, the Socialist head of the Poitou-Charentes regional government, explained that her tentative candidacy was conditional on her party's support (there is a glut of Socialist candidates) and that of her partner, François Hollande, the Socialist Party leader, who was reportedly surprised by the announcement.
Although some pundits believe Ms Royal has a chance of securing the top job, her statement has been met with some odd, seemingly chauvinistic criticism. “But who would look after the children?” asked Laurent Fabius, a former prime minister and candidate for the Socialist Party leadership.

Days later, Michèle Alliot-Marie, France's first female defence minister, tossed her hat into the ring for the nomination of the ruling UMP party. “It is clear that I will take part in the presidential debate,” she said, positioning herself against Mr Sarkozy and Dominique de Villepin, who usually dominate conversation about future presidents from the UMP.

France has never had a female president, and women are woefully under-represented in politics. (Edith Cresson was prime minister in the early 1990s, but that is not an elected post.) Just 71 of the 577 National Assembly deputies are women, a smaller percentage than in Afghanistan's assembly.

When two is not enough

To increase France's birth rate, the government has announced financial incentives to encourage more women to have a third child. From next July, the social security payment to mothers with a third child will rise from €512 ($618) a month over three years, to €750 a month for one year (although mothers can opt for the three-year rate). Offering a higher payment over a shorter time period is expected to encourage women to leave the workforce to have another child. For fertile Parisians, this boost in benefits will improve their financial standing, but many will still move to the suburbs, where living is easier and cheaper for households with more children.

Existing childcare benefits—which include tax breaks and reduced pension costs—have already resulted in a baby boom. France now ranks just behind Ireland at the top of the EU birth-rate chart, with 1.916 children per family. The new measure is targeted at 100,000 couples thought to be hesitant about having a third child.

Bridge 37

Bertrand Delanoë, the mayor of Paris, has announced that the city's newest bridge will be named after Simone de Beauvoir, author of “The Second Sex”. The pedestrian walkway, to be completed by June 2006, will be the city's 37th bridge and the first dedicated to a woman. It will link the National Library in the 13th arrondissement with the Bercy district in the 12th and will provide Left Bank pedestrians with easier access to the rue de Bercy and its newly opened Cinémathèque Française (at No.51). The building, which first opened in 1994, was designed by Frank Gehry to house the American Centre, but financial problems forced it to close soon afterwards. The new cinémathèque is a treasury for cinephiles: it screens films and hosts exhibitions, with a collection of 40,000 movies and 1,000 costumes. The move is part of a huge construction programme in the areas along the Seine to the east, where old docklands and railway yards have been transformed into cultural venues and ministry buildings.

Poster boys

Rainbow Attitude, a gay business and culture fair (October 21st-24th), got more publicity than it bargained for when its advertising posters were banned by Métrobus. The transport company refused to run the posters, which featured two same-sex couples—male and female—kissing, on the capital's buses and underground trains, arguing they “could shock passengers”. The organisers prepared new visuals that were deemed acceptable by Métrobus. Régine Corti, one of the organisers, told Têtu, the city's main gay magazine, that Métrobus's decision was “disgusting and revolting”.

Catch if you can

October 2005

Girodet at the Louvre

Until January 2nd 2006

Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson (1767-1824) was one of the most inventive painters of the early 19th century. His works flirted with the literary, the bizarre and the erotic. Though his name rings fewer bells than that of his mentor, Jacques-Louis David, Girodet is often ranked among the most significant painters of the French school. This exhibition, which brings together 100 of his paintings and drawings, mostly from the Louvre's collections but supplemented by loans from other museums, succeeds in revealing the depths of Girodet's remarkable talent.
Visitors can admire his satirical treatment of Mademoiselle Lange, an actress, and appreciate the homoeroticism of “The Sleep of Endymion” (pictured). He is satisfyingly unsparing in lampooning Napoleon Bonaparte.

A seductive, roguish hero, Girodet's life was filled with intrigue and unsavoury drama: he battled syphilis, spent time in an Italian jail and was disqualified from the Prix de Rome for fraud. Commenting on one of his paintings (“Déluge”), a critic at the 1806 Salon noted it bore “the hallmark of extraordinary genius: it will have neither mediocre enthusiast nor mediocre detractor”.

Louvre Museum, 99 rue de Rivoli, 1st arrondissement. Tel: + 33 (0)1 40 20 50 50. Open: Mon, Thurs, Sat, Sun 9am-5.30pm; Wed, Fri 9am-9.30pm. Entry: €8.5-13. Métro: Palais-Royal-Musée-du-Louvre. See the museum’s website.

More from the Paris cultural calendar