It has often been remarked by speakers of the more utilitarian Germanic languages that French is so elegant a tongue, that almost anything sounds good in it: compare the light and rather cute La Poubelle, for instance,  to the base, unsophisticated 'dustbin' (trash can, if you're in the States); compare the cheekily suggestive bête noire to its much less interesting English equivalent; for that matter, compare the vanilla-laced tones of crème brûlée to it's English equivalent, 'burned cream', which just doesn't have the same sense of expectation about it, somehow.

Accordingly, if your travel agent suggested you spend a few weeks absorbing the atmosphere in the pleasant-sounding Villiers-le-Bel, you would probably not be averse to the idea. If you were to take him up on his suggestion, however, the atmosphere you would be absorbing would be less characterised by effortless chic and the wafting smell of freshly cooked crêpes than it would by angry north Africans brandishing bricks and metal bars and the acrid stench of freshly ignited cars. You can put any images you may have had of elegant eighteenth-century architecture, outstanding food and gently rustling avenues containing booksellers and philosophers out of your mind. Villiers-le-Bel has become Paris's Compton.

Unlike the Los Angeles riots, however, it doesn't take a police officer beating up a motorist to get the African community in Paris on the warpath. In 2005, two African teenagers trying to escape from police investigating a break in chose to hide in an electricity substation. It is no great shock (no pun intended) to learn that they were killed by huge electric shocks. This, however, was enough to spark the most serious riots in France since 1968. Minority communities - mostly of north African origin - rose in quasi-revolution throughout the country prompting a state of emergency to be declared.

The death of the teenagers was certainly the catalyst for the violence, but it was not at the root of it. France is famed and much-respected in Europe for its absolute and uncompromising separation of Church and State. The ban on the wearing of religious symbols (including headscarves) in schools and in civil service jobs is something which did not sit well at all with the conservative Muslim north African community. Whilst poverty and social disenfranchisement were certainly factors (and it must not be forgotten that non-Muslim residents of the suburbs, not wanting to feel left out, also joined in the rioting), arguably the most significant element in the unrest was a desire by a largely Muslim community to attack one of the most fundamental pillars upon which French society is constructed. The arrogance of that, when one thinks aobut it, is astonishing.

The riots were eventually put down and limited government concessions  relating to immigrants' status and legality to work were introduced by Nicolas Sarkozy, then minister for the interior, who, ironically, had argued for a reduction in the separation of Church and State and for government subsidies of mosques. This went some way towards placating the immigrant community in France and, for the timebeing, the barricades were removed and the philosophers and booksellers came back out on to the streets of Paris.

The concessions, however, were no more than a sticking plaster. Today, the Africans are at it once more. Again, it is the deaths of two youths that has sparked the riots off. The teenagers, who were not wearing helmets, hit a police car while travelling at high speed on a motorcycle which was not registered for use on the street. Inevitably, the involvement of the police has led some to suggest, somewhat incredibly, that the authorities may have, for some reason, orchestrated the incident. A more reasonable and level-headed community (and one in which rumour was not the chief conveyor of information) may have mourned the unfortunate incident and moved on. France's north African community in Villiers-le-Bel, however, resorted to the only form of expression it understands, and started setting fire to things.

In the ensuing violence, six police officers were seriously injured and are in critical condition in hospital; tens of thousands of Euros' worth of damage has been caused; and the reputation of France's north African community has been blighted further.

The irony of the whole situation is that France is a remarkably tolerant country, by European standards. It has the largest Muslim population in western Europe (far larger, incidentally, than the more vocal and often demonised Muslim population in Britain) and has a repuation for promoting interfaith co-operation and relations. The actions of the north African communities in Paris's suburbs smack of arrogance and short-sightedness: they are rioting for the sake of it. Most concerning of all, though, is the their naivety. Their selfish, foolish and vain actions could seriously endanger one of the most successful paradigms racial harmony in Europe. Vive la différence for now; but for how much longer?