Same for some tourists:

Sorry Nicolas, maar ik deel nergens een morele “free pass” uit. Wie de brand in Limoges heeft aangestoken, wie daar en elders heeft geplunderd, moet voor de rechter en de gevolgen dragen (trouwens al 850 verdachten gearresteerd). Erfgoed in de as leggen is onvergeeflijk, geen discussie. Ik zeg nergens dat dit geënsceneerd is door een politieke partij. Ik zeg iets veel eenvoudigers: wie de lucifer ook aanstak, het effect op de politieke verschuiving is hetzelfde. Angstbeelden op repeat in elke feed en een bange kiezer die naar de uitersten schuift. Dat is geen wegkijken, dat is net naar het geheel kijken.

I feel you

Social media doesn't just report conflict, it amplifies it. Fear and chaos get the clicks, so fear and chaos are what you're fed on loop, from every angle. That changes our mental states. A scared electorate votes for the extremes to change their state. Please remember that before the next election. Love from Paris.

Which is exactly why I'm writing this down (from the unbroken side of the window) Two people could safely cross this sunny city today from the Bourse, Saint-Honoré, the Quartier Latin, Jardin du Luxembourg, Odéon and never be directly touched. That isn't denial. It's the part of the day no algorithm will show you.

I say all this as a fortunate tourist on a romantic weekend. Museum, cinema, dinner. Many Parisians working today, or sweeping up glass tomorrow, didn't have that choice. I'm not claiming their day, but mine was a normal Saturday in Paris.

My worry isn't broken windows (they’ll get repaired). It's the clivage. Limoges town hall burned tonight. Lille and Marseille town halls stormed. That's election fuel, but not good for the balanced compromise middle, but for the radicals at both ends of the political spectrum . "Order" sells when people are scared :(

So your brain (exposed to news & social media clips) does the maths: 50 clips of looting = the whole city of Paris is being looted and dangerous. It isn't. Same day, same city center: a full museum, a quiet lunch, pleasant cinema, full restaurants and all in walking distance from the Seine. None of that amplifies in your feed, because nothing “exploded” there & nothing to exploit or divide!

Your feed tonight is 100% broken glass & fire in Paris/France. Majority of clips is real. But the algorithm only serves the 30 seconds of fire & looting, never the hours of quiet nearby streets around it..

What changed: the handful of “trouble makers” has grown, seems well organised (not “first time minors in a march”) and more violent than before. Some opportunistic thieves & a few arsonists who found a crowd to hide in. The students who started this week asking for sufficient school funding & quality education.. their message is the first casualty.

In a democracy you can't arrest someone for looking like trouble only for causing it. That's not weakness, that's the rule of law. It's also why organised groups exploit it. Something I know from the other side of the barricade.
decades ago I organised large student marches in Brussels. We had our own stewards and block security. Anyone who came "for violent action" got spotted and asked to leave/outed. Any organiser knows. “Protect your message”.. or watch it get hijacked by a handful of opportunists.

14h30, rue Saint-Honoré: I crossed one of the 2 manifestations. Peaceful. Mixed ages, mixed backgrounds. Mixed messages. A few fully masked figures mingling in, clearly not there for those messages. The crowd itself was not the problem.

Leaving the Bourse, the doors shut behind us as guards were told to lock up the museum. Casseurs already hanging around outside. Inside: Barbara Kruger's "The History of Tears": screaming words, faces, commands, surveillance <- hung by a French billionaire. Outside: tear gas. Paris today, in one scene.

Shops hit: Monoprix, SFR, McDo, several sportswear around République. Later the Champs & Montaigne weren't spared either. Real damage for real shopkeepers, such as a family owned 3rd generation florist. However not a city in flames and that distinction matters.

Paris numbers tonight: ~110,000 marchers (~550.00 all over France). By 16h: 200 arrests (“only” 13 minors) and exactly one Paris resident. Most arrests were for reinforced gloves and balaclavas before anything happened. The looters seem to have been coming from outside, prepared and knew the “drill”.

Morning: limited number of shops boarded up on my way to the Bourse. By 11h40 I'd seen the first casseurs come out of the metro behind the Pinault Collection: black clothes, biker helmets, gloves. CRS (riot police) a few metres away. Nobody moved. They just eyed each other. Everyone knew what was coming.

Paris, Saturday. Yes, there was damage today. Yes, there was tension, but life went on. A thread from someone who walked through it, not someone watching it on a loop. 🧵

No mist this morning.

The force is strong with that one. Bruges and Brussels were really showing off tonight.

Early bird gets the misty sunset