"C'est la Guerre!" screamed this morning's
newspapers. Even normally restrained Le Monde called for "Paris
contre Politesse" as the crisis in French cultural values
deepens.
Since yesterday's catastrophic outbreak of American-style
customer service in Paris, the city has been in turmoil, at a
loss to know how to cope with this onslaught of perceived US
cultural imperialism.
In the St Germain des Pres district, local councillors rushed
through a by-law to compel dog-owners to take their pets to
defecate on the pavement or face a spot fine, in order to re-assert
French values in the quarter.
At the Channel Tunnel, French farmers have been piling up dead
sheep in an effort to block the entrance, following rumours that
the outbreak had entered France through the tunnel.
In Paris, where metro workers are on semi-permanent strike,
drivers have upped tools in protest about the dangers to their
lifestyle presented by the so-called "Americanisation".
But what way forward is their for a government that has already
vacillated about what course of action to take, and still seems
to have no clear plan.
A source inside government circles revealed to us that, "They
probably won't do anything now until the month after next in
order not to breach 35 hour week regulations, plus the 7 bank
holidays we have coming up."
Gestures of support came from around the world including Chinese
officials who blamed the disaster on "the US intefering in
the internal affairs of other countries."