MERDE IN FRANCE emails this picture — taken by cellphone — of a rather limp anti-war protest in Paris today, and notes:

Here are some photos taken with a Nokia 7650

from the Bastille Opera just 1 hour ago.

As you can see the organisers are having trouble drumming up a crowd even though France is supposed to be leading the opposition to military action against Iraq. The French work only 35 hour [weeks], have long lunch breaks, and it is a mild pre-spring day here in Paris, the Bastille is one of the major ‘meeting places’ in Paris, and this is the best they can do.

Looks like Chirac is taking French support for granted.

Interesting. I love getting pix by cellphone. Here’s the full-size image, by the way.

Visit Merde in France later on, where I presume he’ll post some comments once he makes it to a computer that’ll let him access his blog.

UPDATE: A followup:

Thanks much. I was just out again at the same spot (exactly 1 hour later) and everyone and everything had left.

Incredible. No sign of life.

Lame.

ANOTHER UPDATE: More bad news for the French — Daniel Drezner reports that the E.U. is becoming an English-speaking zone.

YET ANOTHER UPDATE: Go here for more pics from Paris — including some more from the “big” march later that turned out not to be especially big either.