If France is a country of illusions — a beautiful and seductive land offering many of life’s greatest pleasures that sits atop and conceals a crime-ridden, drug-plagued world of violence — then the past week offered a rude awakening to this dual reality. The Olympic flame arrived on French soil last week in the ancient port city of Marseille as a joyous crowd thronged the beautiful harbor. The chatter was of peace ahead of the Games, which begin in July. But the flame also arrived in a city whose northern districts are the epicenter of the French drug trade, where 49 people were killed last year and 123 injured in drug-related shootings. This, just 85 miles from the capital, was a methodical execution in broad daylight on the main road from Paris to Normandy.

---

Persons: —, Mohamed Amra, Jérôme Durain, “, ” Organizations: Socialist Party Locations: France, Marseille, Paris, Normandy