France: Innocent Abroad

Smoke gets in your eyes

"As I write this letter to you, I imagine my eyes still burning from the clouds of tear gas that seem to be a regular occurrence. . . Today the air seemed charged with rage. The entire city felt as though it was going to explode with anger."

The reflections of a bystander trapped in Chilean riots? A note composed during demonstrations in Warsaw? If the author of those lines, American Traveler Richard Perkins, is to be believed, the city described was Paris. Furthermore, what Perkins saw during a six-day trip to France earlier this month...