“C’est la crise, madame!”, you can hear everywhere when visiting France.

Nantes was pretty lucky during World War II: unlike a lot of French cities, it wasn’t totally destroyed by bombings.

Class struggle is still omnipresent in France. Because politics is a national pastime, people like to describe themselves as “à droite” (right-wing), “à gauche” (left-wing), “soixante-huitard” (a person who either participated in the May 1968 Movement or has Utopian ideas) etc.

If you follow the Loire river from downtown, you will find a bridge that crosses to the “isle of Nantes”, a former shipyard turned into a leisure and cultural site.

We flew to France yesterday, and after our travels in Latin America, where airport security is straightforwards and quite basic, it was a shock.