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Incident in the Rue St Antoine
Tuesday 26 September 2006
Another memory I have of our recent visit to Paris occurred while we were taking lunch at table on the pavement at the Café Crème in Rue de Birage. While we were sitting there, we heard a loud bang: at the bottom of our road in the Rue St Antoine a large unmarked white van crashed broadside into a nice little Peugeot 205 leaving the Rue de Birage. In England, the two drivers would have got out and exchanged names and addresses and insurance details. But here in France, on this occasion, what happened was that the driver of the white van shouted something which I could not translate (probably happily) and after a short pause (while a crowd gathered and gaped) the two drivers simply drove away. The crowd stood and discussed the incident for a while and then dispersed. We could hear a succession of cars driving over the broken glass and tangled bits of metal. After about ten minutes a man appeared with a broom and brushed up the debris, taking his life in his hands, as traffic swerved to avoid him.
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