Tuesday, February 11, 2014

French tolerance 1 : The traveling people IV - Expulsion?


I can't believe it, they actually took our parking spots!

Last week they were occupying the last row of the parking spots, in which most of the time were almost empty. So my coworkers who used to park in that row just moved to the middle row. This row is usually 90% full.

One thing I love working in this office is that we have no problem finding a parking spot. I usually park in the middle row. However, one day, I was surprised to find that the middle row was also invaded by camping cars, they took around 70% of the spots. Some of my coworkers had to park between camping cars, some parked on the side road. At first I parked between two camping cars and I was very worried. While walking towards my office, an owner of a camping car told me to park in another spot. I think he meant well, as parking between two camping cars could cause problem in case they decide to move around.

The photo above was taken before 9am so there were still some spots left. It filled up quickly. Our managers informed us that the property management had sent their protest to the Préfet (police), some of the camping  car owners already got the expulsion notice. However, they have 21 days to leave the place. So meanwhile, we were advised to park in parking lots of other offices around 5 minutes walking distance. 

French laws, or French police, in my opinion, are very lenient in terms of land trespassing. When they are too strict, things could turn into violence, and they get enormous pressure from the medias and public. This leads me to think about trespassing laws in the USA. I once heard that an owner fired his gun when a group of people came to his property for threat or trick during Thanksgiving. The medias condemned him but he had the right to do it. So, what if the property owner fires a gun towards the sky to chase away these camping cars? I think he would be the one arrested.

Counting the days when the camping cars will just be gone and leave us go to work in peace.

1 comment:

  1. Oh dear, I hope the police will do something about this. Meanwhile please be careful when parking your car.

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