Morning at the Council of Foreign Residents/Matin à l'Assemblée parisienne des citoyens extra-communautaires

Despite my disappointment with the Council and its pointless existence, I was invited to the second waste of time (oops, plenary session). Once again at the Council chamber of the City Council at the Hôtel de Ville, this time in the presence of the Mayor. Last time we had breakfast pastries, coffee, warm milk, tea, juice, etc. in china cups. This time we had just coffee, self serve, in plastic cups, and store-bought cookies. Times are tough, as Delanoe said during his remarks. A violent bit of yelling took place between a member of the council and the deputy mayor in charge of foreign residents. No idea what that was about. Learned that a member of the committee I supposedly sit on (which hasn't met in months) is now a citizen, so this was her swan song on the Council.

Otherwise, I liked the theme, which was "learning French", an important topic, and one that was very timely as we work on our neighborhood council newsletter, the next issue of which will have the theme "reading in Belleville". So I'm going to get the report made by the woman from the city department, which was very informative, and really pointed out the complexity and lack of clarity of the offer in the city. I spoke of the guide to learning French produced by the Belleville neighborhood council. Otherwise, the time Delanoe gave to us was used by very long-winded commentaries/questions/sagas from a few guys of a particular nationality...