Stephen Clarke, a blogger for the UK Telegraph Expat site, has an amusing article on efforts by authorities in Paris to address the growing problem of noisy late night revelers who disturb the sleep of residents living close to clubs and bars.
Paris has come up with a hilarious solution to all this, Clarke writes.
“The city is going to pay ‘mediators’ to go around asking people to be quiet.
“Reasonable enough, one might think, but these peacekeepers are going to be dressed up as Marcel Marceau, with white faces, and are going to do their campaigning in silence, with mimed exhortations to make less noise.
“I can picture the scene already. A group of half-drunk party people are standing outside a bar enjoying a hearty chat.
“Suddenly, a person with pasty make-up arrives and starts going “Ssshhh†and leaping round pretending that their ears hurt.
“First, there will be a rousing cheer, followed by a volley of laughs and insults loud enough to wake the dead.
“By which time the local residents will be leaning out of their windows begging the mimes to go home and leave everyone in peace.
“Contrary to most people’s impressions of the French, their drinking doesn’t consist of sipping expensive red wine and trying to guess the vintage. They get well tanked up, and, in party areas like Bastille and Saint Michel, things can get seriously rowdy.
“My fear is that some of the ‘mediators’ will end up trying to work out how to mime, ‘Help, I’m being thrown headfirst into a dustbin’.â€
