Graffiti

[Gareth]

Hi,

I used to live just outside Saint Malo around 10 years ago for over 6 years. I thoroughly enjoyed my time there. I considered France to be rich in culture, art and much more advanced than many other European countries including the U.K. I had to return to the U.K in 97 and have been there ever since. Over the last year I have had the urge to return to France because of less family ties etc. I cannot believe that some people in this post haven't noticed the graffiti. It is a national disaster!! I am in my mid 30s and am far from being narrow-minded but I really think the graffiti is out of control in France. For all those people who haven’t noticed it take any autoroute to the south of France, or maybe round the peripherique of Paris (it's both sides of the autoroute for miles and miles, large pieces on every piece of concrete). Or take any SNCF train ride I can guarantee my last Euro it will shock you! Cannes blew my mind, the sheer scale of it. As mentioned, even on peoples front gates and houses. Whole intermarches covered in hip hop style graffiti and tags, with windows smashed. I must say the local councils and motorway maintaince are trying to combat it. Every bridge from Caen (Normandy) to Cannes in the south has grey paint covering the graffiti up. I decided to rent a holiday house just outside Nimes in the south to have a venture around and see if I like the area, possibly to settle. My first impressions were to return to the U.K because of the graffiti problem they have got here. I'm even paranoid about parking my new white sprinter van just in case it gets tagged!! I agree if you're living in Brittany and never really move outside your village then fair enough you probably won't see much of it. Compared to the U.K, France has a much more serious problem. In London I know it's pretty bad especially south London, but I travel a lot in Britain around Birmingham and the North and have hardly seen one piece. Never normally under a bridge!

What's happened to France? I’m really having second thoughts about moving back here!

 

[Richard-R]

One must remember that 'Graffiti" is a political form of expression first and foremost . In the U.K. is is council house scum writing it on wall ( Shazie eat eat my ####) and the like but there is still stong tradition in Europe for political slogans, hence the the lact of responce to erasing any messages painted on buildings etc.

[Gareth]

Thanks for your response Rdkr,

I agree with your statement, but I'm refering to mindless tags and graffti which started in New York and means absoluelty nothing! How is the "2BadCrew" , "F###" , "Da Lyon Bomin' Crew" refer to a potlictical slogan? It's just bored kids influenced by clap-trap Amercian media eg. MTV Base etc. and think they are playing out a role in a hiphop gang. It's pure vandlism and is rapidly devalueing France. I think you mean along the lines of "Libre Bretagne!" or "Breizh" meaning the liberation of Brittany etc.

[Quillan]

As it's been mentioned, we have some down here. I went up to the mountains the other day and stopped in the middle of nowhere and there it was all along a wall on the side of the road. Why somebody, or in this place quite a few, would bother to come all this way to the back and beyond amazes me. They all seem to be political or about prisons, I don't know why they have passed comment on the latter.

We do see it near major cities, there is loads in and around Toulouse but does it make these places a bad or unsafe place to visit? The French seem to ignore it to a degree, perhaps thats why they writers are more active and some of the stuff is getting rude, attention seeking and all that.

The only time it shocked people down here was when it was discovered on the outside of our little train (baby bullit as it is affectinally called round here as it looks like the bullit train but only one car) that runs between Quillan and Carcassonne. The answer to this was to repaint the train but the colour was picked by advertising the different colour schemes in the local paper and we all had a vote on the one we liked.

[geno]

I'd really like to know what all the anarchists are doing in bus shelters in the first place :-)

[Patf]

Did anyone see the last episode of Romans last night? It was going on

in those days ie "Kill Caesar" in pictorial form and someone was

ordered to wash it off. How do they know? Perhaps some graffiti has

survived to this day. Pat.

[Teamedup]

I have loved 'Rome'. And yes graffitti seems to have been the thing in ancient Rome making todays offerings rather tame in comparison really.

However, it is a real problem in lots of France.

[Renaud]

Graffiti has been around in France longer than it has in the UK. I spent 6 months in Grenoble in the 60s and was surprised to see it there - and in other French towns - as I had never seen it in the UK.