Bird should read this:
Crime
There is a high incidence of petty crime, especially bag snatching and pickpocketing, throughout France particularly on the streets of larger cities such as Paris, Marseilles and Nice. Airports, public transport, tourist areas, hotel lobbies, restaurants and cafes, and beaches are prime targets for thieves who frequently work in gangs using a variety of methods to distract potential victims. Increasingly, such crime is being accompanied by acts or threats of violence. There are frequent reports of crime, including robbery and muggings, on the train system servicing Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle and Orly Airports. Travellers are advised to consider other means of transport from the airports to Paris, such as bus or taxi, particularly late at night and early in the morning.
There is a growing incidence of violent attacks against tourists by groups of young people, usually occurring late at night around major tourist attractions such as the Champs-Elysees, the Les Halles district, the Latin Quarter in central Paris and the environs of the Gare du Nord train station, or in the vicinity of main train stations in the provinces.
There have been increasing reports of crimes targeting vehicles, such as purse snatching from cars stopped in traffic, particularly in the south of France between the cities of Perpignan (near the Spanish border) and Menton (near the Italian border). You should be particularly vigilant at isolated automated service stations and avoid sleeping in rest areas beside autoroutes (motorways) and major roads, or in makeshift or unauthorised camp grounds on the outskirts of cities.
Credit card and ATM fraud involving 'skimming' machines which can store card data is rising, particularly at automated service stations and in tourist areas.
You should be wary of strangers that invite you for a complimentary drink or show at a private club. Some foreigners who have accepted such offers have had large sums debited from their credit cards before they have been permitted to leave the venue.
courstesy: smarttraveller.gov.au
Bird gets sent off for kneeing South's Shane Martene in 2004.
pic; news ltd.
And the little issue of Birdy's visa to play in the Republic:-
Visa refusal
The main grounds for a visa refusal are : security,
character, risk of illegal migration, insufficient financial resources, category of visa inconsistent with purposes and/or circumstances of the applicant. However, by law, reasons for denying a visa may not be disclosed. The exceptions to this rule concern foreign nationals who have statutory residency rights such as dependents of French nationals or European Union citizens living in France.
A refusal of a visa for France may be reviewed by a statutory review board :
Commission de recours contre les décisions de refus de visa dentrée en France,
BP 83609 - 44036 Nantes Cedex 1 (France).
The Consulate-General of France does not provide advice on appeals.
Perhaps Birdy can join the Foriegn Legion, they dont ask questions do they?
