I was reading out some of the statistics in Norman's recent posting about France's poorest towns, to a friend of mine here in GB. She was astonished at the unemployment and income figures. No surprise that the two things (the towns with the least money and highest unemployment vs the violence etc) are closely linked, is it? About the France think, Idun. I do think that many people have a holiday view of a lot of countries but most are the same in my experience - they have their good and bad. Why anybody would expect France to be different or thinks it is, is beyond me also.