I forgot to mention

I forgot to mention one of the most interesting aspects of my trip to France the other weekend. As Emma and I were waiting in the train station, thinking we could just stay the night there, we were approached by three or four French police with big, mean looking dogs. They told us the station was closing and we couldn't stay there overnight. Emma went up to buy a ticket for tomorrow morning so we wouldn't miss another train. As she was talking to me about which ticket to buy, the cops asked us where we were from. Being in France and all, we were a little hesitant to say we were from the states. Eventually we told them we were from the US, at which point one of the cops started taking off his clothes. Well, maybe not his clothes, but his jacket at least. Emma and I were a tad freaked out that a large policeman was removing his jacket and gesturing to something after finding out we were Americans but decided not to make any sudden movements. His friend started motioning to Emma that she should look at the officer's right shoulder. Cautiously Emma and I took a look at his shoulder to discover what was perhaps the last imaginable thing we could have seen. His entire left shoulder was covered with a red, white and blue tattoo of the American flag. In a half moon curve on the top was "9-11-2001 New York, New York" and the bottom read "We shall never forget". He was so pleased to show us his tattoo and how proud he was that he could show it off to Americans. It was such a funny thing to see how excited he was to show off his tattoo, and to see how much solidarity there was between law enforcement 'brothers' a world away even when the host governments weren't getting along at all. I'll find a picture and put it up later, that story was just too good not to share.