Cannes of worms
From Mr Michael Fabricant, MP Sir: I read Charlotte Edwardes's Diary (27 May) concerning her experiences with the French authorities following a mugging in Cannes with a sinking feeling and growing recognition. Three weekends ago a friend and I went for a long weekend to Cannes. The weather being bad, we escaped the coast to base ourselves in the ancient uni- versity town of Aix-en-Provence. We parked our hire-car in a busy main road, having secured all our valuables safely out of sight in the boot. Forty minutes later, having found rooms, we returned to our car and drove to the hotel. We opened the boot. It was empty.
Entering the hotel reception, sans lug- gage (and, in my case, sans trousers and passport — I had just a pair of shorts to my name), we were given directions to the Police Nationale. I had little hope of recov- ering the stolen goods but at least I could quickly file a report for insurance purposes. Or so I thought. The police station had been built in the Sixties and was particular- ly uninviting. A large sign proclaimed `Defense de fumer' while a heavily armed but shabby gendarme sucked on a particu- larly rancid local brand of cigarette. We went to the main desk to report the crime. A police officer suffering from terminal acne, who looked 16 and about five-foot four, gesticulated at a bench and said 'deux minutes'. We joined a group of disgruntled American and German tourists all of whom had had their hire-cars broken into and all of whom had been waiting for more than 'deux minutes'.
After an hour of sitting there we inquired again and were told to sit down: 'deux min- utes'. Two women police officers then arrived and sat at another desk, After a few minutes of uncertainty in which no one had approached us, a scramble then ensued to be first on the list that they seemed to be compiling. We were asked why we wanted to see a detective. We told them we had had all our luggage stolen. They asked what we expected the Police Nationale to do about it. After three hours and 20 minutes we got to make our report. I collected a form which may enable me to claim back on the insur- ance but, we were assured, offered no hope whatsoever of finding our belongings.
My friend, who is well travelled, has stood for the European Parliament and is something of a Francophile, said, 'It was like dealing with officialdom in a Third World country.' For once on a European issue, I was able to agree with him.
Michael Fabricant
House of Commons, London SWI
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