Les Jardins Tuileries is a picturesque garden with children running around, small open cafes under the highly groomed trees, imposing statues sunning themselves with open chests and well carved facial features. There are both Parisiansand tourists lining the pond side benches and aromatic lawns as this downtown haven is sandwiched with Le Place de Concorde and Champs Elyseeson one side, and Le Louvre on the other. While walking here beside the ponds filled with little sailboats, one expects to perhaps see couples sharing an ice cream cone, mothers with strollers, and tourists snapping pictures left right and center. I myself was astounded to find all this, and a little more I would never have hoped for.
I was almost all the way through the garden to the Louvre entrance, when I spotted the unnerving sight of 6 French soldiers strolling alongside a decorated lawn, nonchalantly carrying machine guns through the beautiful gardens. I litterally stopped in my tracks and took a look around as they approached forward. I expected to see people gawking, looking nervous, perhaps herding their children a fraction closer. There was no reaction from anyone, asidefrom passing glances. In a garden more than 4 centuries old, I am sure that the paths had seen it’s fair share of knights with well sharpened swords on their way to court some pretty girls, but these men were missing their suits of shining armour. Armed men patrolling to keep the peace, is often a facade to an entirely different thing. At the time of the Medici’s, the purpose of knights and their soldiers, was to protect the balance of power so that it remained securely UNbalancedin favour of the wealthy aristocrats and monarchs. I was under the impression that France had had a revolution, but appearances can be deceiving. Armed men, under the facade of protection of the peace or people, usually serve an entirely different purpose.
As a Canadian citizen, I am used to my friendly peace keeping army personnel, keeping to their areas of practice and out of our lives and civilian areas. I have certainly seen guns before, and they aren’t an unnerving thing on their own. The french are very proud of their revolution, and well they should be, but one has to wonder how much has really changed in this solcialist nation when men with guns patrol the gardens of a former palace.
There are two things which have lead to weapons alongside the house of the Mona Lisa. To this day, France remains a heated nation, constantly revolting and uniting to challenge their leaders. As a people they speak up and demonstrate, sometimes wildly. These shows, sometimes little, sometimes big are put under control by the authorities the same as most countries. However, there is a thin line between control and suppression. The other reason, it the paranoia about terrorism. There were plenty of cops in new york on the 911, and plenty of cops in London during the 7/7 bombings. All with guns.
The people here seem not to even notice the guns. I wonder myself how in the city of love people have become so numbed to the threat of violence in a country, and to the blatant parade of firearms under the command of the state, while they themselves are almost completely unable to own guns. Here is why according to Sarkozy, “Security is the responsibility of the state. I am against the private ownership of firearms. If you are assaulted by an armed burglar, he will use his weapon more effectively than you anyway, so you are risking your life.”
Under the shadow of a former French palace, in the gardens started by the Medici family, and just south of Le Place de Concorde where Marie Antoinette was executed, the sight of guns is both ironic and shocking for a people who supposedly had their revolution to freedom.
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A Canadian Red Head in Paris 
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