Paris:- Saturday, 26. October 1996:- Few French schools are equipped with storage space or lockers for their younger students. They have to carry their textbooks and exercise booklets from school to home and back to school. The little student may be getting a bus ride and may be driven by a parent, but at some stage they are going to have to carry their 'cartables,' on their backs or by its handle.

In a study conducted by doctors in 1994, it was discovered that 15 percent of students suffered from curvature of the spine. The government, alerted by this news, sent out a directive the following year - limiting the weight of a 'cartable' to 3.5 kilos. The trashcan is the usual destination of these 'directives.'

The deputy, Jean-Yves Haby of the Republican Party, has caught the ear of François Bayrou, the minister of education, with proposals to reduce the size of text books, or publish them in inexpensive pocket-book form, and this will be done... Soon.

Some parents got together last week in Paris to weigh kids coming out of school. With average weighs of 30-36 kilos, they were carrying 'cartables' weighing between 6-10 kilos. My own 29 kilo version came home one day last week carrying 8.4 kilos. Correction: I carried it from the car to the flat.

Police Sort-of On Strike

The police are angry and they want everybody to know it. Instead of going into the streets with banners, slogans and a big parade, they have instituted a strike. They are not giving out tickets for minor infractions - the ones that represent no danger to the public.

One police unit which gave out more than 5,000 tickets in October last year, has written out no more than 500 for the same period this year. The loss of fines is estimated at four million francs in the Ile-de-France.

This does not mean that the police are not reacting to infractions of the laws. They are stopping motorists, but they are giving out lectures instead of fines. Police all over the country are doing this. So far, it is mainly the CRS that is having the slow-down, but the movement is spreading, with Paris police expected to join in next week.

The police feel that they are the 'sewer-workers' of society, caught between their managers, the justice system and the public - and loved by none.

The current dispute is about a 'reform' of working hours for the police. I have no details about this 'reform' - but it is supposed to be the last drop of water in a bucket already full of grievances.

If crossing the street in the middle of the block where you live is an offense - you do not need to worry about getting a fine for it in Paris. That is, unless you get hit by a car - then you might be fined for obstructing traffic.

And Now the Crime Report

Armed robbery investigators have just pulled off a coup in capturing a hold-up artist who went on a little spree in October, with six stickups to his credit. With the aid of a surveillance camera at the last location, the police were able to identify the culprit.

The arrest was effected without problem - at the prison where he was incarcerated for a minor role in a homicide - after he returned for the night, as he had after each of the holdups. Rapidly identified by victims in a lineup, he was placed in a more serious prison - without day-leave - to await his trial.

Director's Cut Open to Public

Hollywood on the Seine finally has its Cinéma des Cinéastes - the 'Director's Cinema.' It the realization of a dream imagined by Truffaut in 1968 and picked by the director Claude Berry, the founding president of the Association of the Directors-Producers - the ARP as it is known in French. The association has more than 150 members.

Claude Lelouch, the actual president, was much more relaxed than for one of his own premiers at its opening last Wednesday. On the location of the one-time Café-Concert Le Kursaal, at 7. Avenue de Clichy in Paris' seventh arrondissement, it was also the site of the Cabaret Père Lathuile, built around 1765. The architect of the new 314-seat cinema has left some of the original decor intact, with a poster for the 'Kursaal.'

The new cinema has many purposes, but the main one is to show uncut new copies of French films, made from 1960 to 1990 - films that may only be found by accident at dispersed cinemas, or reduced for TV's small screen. Old cinema film is fragile, and mint copies are rare - yet there is a need for the films to be shown and not locked up in archives. For the next ten months, the Cinéma des Cinéastes will be showing 40 French titles. For information about the current program, tel.: 01 53 42 40 20.

Never On Monday - Metropole Wrong Again

When I wrote the mention about Jean-Paul Belmondo in Metropole's 'Au Bistro' column, in issue 34, there was a mistake in the practical information. I wrote 'closed Mondays' but 'La Puce à l'Oreille' actually had its first public performance - last Monday.

The piece, written by Georges Feydeau in 1907, was well-appreciated by Le Parisien's critic, although a B-minus was accorded the director, Bernard Murat.

Some friends of Belmondo's were in the audience and Alain Delon stood up and led the applause. Joining in were Claudia Cardinale, Johnny Hallyday, Béatrice Dalle, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Julien Clerc, Michel Galabru, Michel Leeb, Françoise Sagan, Socialist party leader Lionel Jospin and former minister of culture, Jack Lang.

'La Puce à l'Oreille,' at the Théâtre des Varietés, 7. Boulevard de Montmartre, Paris 11. Nightly at 20:30, plus at 15:00 on Sundays. Seats from 60 to 300 francs. Tel.: 01 42 33 09 92.