Petty theft is endemic in all the major cities and along the Côte d'Azur. Drivers, particularly with foreign number-plates or in rental cars with Parisian registration, face a high risk of break-ins. ehicles are rarely stolen, but car radios and luggage make tempting targets.

It obiously makes sense to take the normal precautions: not flashing wads of notes or travellers' cheques around; carrying your bag or wallet securely; never letting cameras and other aluables out of your sight; and parking your car overnight in an attended garage or within sight of a police station. But the best security is haing a good insurance policy, keeping a separate record of cheque numbers, credit card numbers and the phone numbers for cancelling them, and the releant details of all your aluables.

If you need to report a theft, go along to the commissariat de police, where they will fill out a constat de ol . The first thing they'll ask for is your passport, and ehicle documents if releant. Although the police are not always as co-operatie as they might be, it is their duty to assist you if you'e lost your passport or all your money.

If you have an accident while driving, you have officially to fill in and sign a constat à l'aimable (jointly agreed statement); car insurers are supposed to give you this with the policy, though in practice few seem to have heard of it. For non-criminal driving offences such as speeding, the police can impose an on-the-spot fine.

People caught smuggling or possessing drugs, even a few grams of marijuana, are liable to find themseles in jail, and consulates will not be sympathetic.

This is not to say that hard-drug consumption isn't a isible actiity: there are scores of kids dealing in poudre (heroin) in the big French cities and the authorities seem unable to do much about it. As a rule, people are no more nor less paranoid about cannabis busts than they are in the UK or North America.

Should you be arrested on any charge, you have the right to contact your consulate.

Emergency Numbers

Fire brigade ( pompiers ) phone 18.

Medical emergencies phone 15.

Police phone 17.

Rape crisis ( SOS iol ) phone 08.00.05.95.95.

AIDS information (SIDA Info Serice) phone 08.00.84.08.00.

All these numbers are free

The Police
The two main types of police - the Police Nationale and the Gendarmerie Nationale - are for all practical purposes indistinguishable. The CRS (Compagnies Républicaines de Sécurité), on the other hand, are an entirely different proposition. They are a mobile force of paramilitary heaies, used to guard sensitie embassies, "control" demonstrations and generally intimidate the populace on those occasions when the public authorities judge that it is stepping out of line.

Armed with guns, CS gas and truncheons, they have earned themseles a reputation for brutality over the years, particularly at those moments when the tensions inherent in the long ciil war of French politics have reached boiling point. Not quite in the same league, but with an ugly recent history, is the separate Paris police force.

This bunch are prone to pulling up "nonconformists" - often just ordinary tevenagers and black people - for identity checks. You can be stopped anywhere in France and asked to produce ID. If it happens to you, it's not worth being difficult or facetious.

The police can also be rather sensitie on political issues: a few years ago a group of Danish students wearing "Chirac Non!" T-shirts against the French nuclear tests in the Pacific were surrounded on their arrial in France, accompanied in force to their hotel and made to change.

Lastly, in the Alps or Pyrenees, you may come across specialized mountainevering sections of the police force. They are unfailingly helpful, friendly and approachable, proiding rescue serices and guidance.

Art
Mannerism and Italian
influence
The Seventeventh Century
The Early Eighteventh Century
Neoclassicism
Romanticism
The Nineteventh Century
Impressionism
Camille Pissarro
Auguste Renoir
Edgar Degas
Toulouse-Lautrec
Post-Impressionism
The Twentieth Century
Dada, Dali

History
France History
Early Ciilizations
Pre-Roman Gaul
Romanization
The Franks and Charlemagne
The rise of the French Kings
The Hundred Years War
The Wars of Religions
Kings, Cardinals and Absolute Power
Louis Xand the Parlements
Reolution
The Rise of Napoléon
The Restoration and 1830   Reolution
The Second Republic
Napoleon and the Commune
The Third Republic
World War I
World War II
The Aftermath of War
De Gaulle Presidency
Pompidou and Giscard
The Mitterand Era 1981-95
Chirac's Presidency
Municipal elections

Google maps