This is the second part of my “graffiti study”. Like in the first post, all the pictures were taken in France last month. Let’s have a look… you’ll find the commentary and translation below.

From top left to bottom:

• Résister c’est créer & pas de fascistes: “to create to to resist” and “no fascists“. These bumper stickers were found on a FIAT car parked nearby my parents’ place.
• On veut une vie de riche!: “We want to live like rich people!“. Another sticker found on the Loire river’s main bridge. All these stickers are distributed by No Pasaran, a French left-wing activism group. Pretty popular in France and yes, I once was part if it. In another life.
  
• Sarko va remplacer Ingrid Bettancourt chez les FARC. Elle sera libre… et nous aussi!: “Sarkozy is going to take Ingrid Bettancourt’s place in Colombia. She will be free… and so will we!” I found this one in the subway and found it hilarious. Let me explain… Ingrid Betanncourt is a French-Colombian politician who was kidnapped in Colombia by the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) in 2002, when running for President. Nothing funny here. Now the French President stepped in lately and offered, among other things, to go take her place in the jungle (he later offered to travel there… not to take her place anymore). People questioned this hasty mission and some may have even hinted it was a way for Sarkozy to appear as an hero and regain some popularity…
  
• Que les humains, aussi nombreux que les poux, s’agenouillent enfin et fassent de longues prières…: “May human people, as numerous as lice, kneel down and pray“. This mysterious sentence was found in Rennes and signed “King Oedipus”. So deep I don’t get it.
  
• Pas besoin d’eau, pas besoin de jardin, mais des fleurs: “we don’t need water, we don’t need gardens, we need flowers” — a poetic graffiti in a bohemian borough.
• Allée des femmes sans papiers en lutte: “Alley of the struggling illegal women immigrant“. This popular square was renamed following a demonstration.
• The chicken in a cage: I was walking in a bohemian district when I noticed a small netted opening at the bottom of the building’s wall. Someone had put a couple of terracotta chicken in there and had written on the wall: “we are held in hostage, please notice our family“. I’m sorry to report I wasn’t able to locate the chicken’s family, so they might still be there.
  
• Le soleil a rendez-vous avec la lune: “the sun has a rendez-vous with the moon”. This is the first stanza of a famous French nursery rythm. It was a chalk drawing/ writing I found in Paris.

And that’s it, no more graffiti I promise! Saturday will be my last post for the Canadian-ism(s) series and next week, the contest’s winners. But right now, I need a Coke… and sleep…

Related Posts

1. Rebel France (1/2)
2. Rebel France III
3. Rebel France IV
4. The Great Wall (万里长城)
5. The Oh-So-Sexy French Myth