hmm, for the record let it be said that it never really was closed as most of the ppl don't go through the official circuit but rather through the really underground one, with it's own entrances, caves ... and skulls !

The action here in Paris was really uncanny.

For example one could see French police taking away Tibetan flags from pacific protesters standing on the side of road. The Tibetan flag is illegal in Paris as much as it is in China it seems ...

Protesters were everywhere along the way, including members of the parliament who were under a massive pro human right banner (for some reason the police did not try to take away the Tibetan symbols those were sporting, go figure). In typical French political fashion, it's important to note that members of both the right and the left parties were present, which is a rare occurrence.

There was a lot of violence against the protesters, including blood & arrests, and lots of direct action against the torch were tried.

All in all, it looked really pathetic for the Chinese officials, who were afraid that the torch could be blown out by some protester and thus decided (twice) to turn it off by themselves.

The Free Tibet movement is a cause that almost everyone understands, and the economical interests beyond our government not protesting against China are also very clear. This protest goes to show that the people beg to differ !

So all i can say is GO U.S.A, now it's you turn !