For the last week the right wing in France has been attacking the socialist government over public order. Nothing particularly surprising there except that the rightists are accusing the left of being too brutal in stopping a protest march that strayed from its authorised route.

A bunch of anti gay marriage activists decided to go down the Champs Elysées and were stopped with teargas.

The rabbits (I think they're actually hares) in the picture above illustrate a world turned upside down but the monk who drew them could not have imagined a world as topsy-turvy as ours before drinking several hogsheads of bière d'abbaye.

I don't go on nearly as many demonstrations in Paris as I should but they nearly all end with us chanting 'Elysées, Elysées, Elysées' and the organisers and speakers telling us not to go there. And we don't. Apart from anything else we're not stupid enough to believe we'll get to walk in front of the President's Palace or the US embassy (both of which are just off the Champs Elysées) without getting teargassed by the French police and risking much worse from the US marines. You can't even walk on the pavement on your own in front of the US embassy.

But rightists don't understand this. This is because they believe the Elysée Palace belongs to them. I hope a little tear gas will help them understand this is not so.