What is it with the mass amount of hobos that have gathered outside Les Halles, Pau recently? Sorry to be an awful snob, but it's not like they seem to be having a bad time. There's a massive gang of them that spend every day meeting up and getting plastered together. The equivalent of a Church coffee morning, but with Christians replaced by tramps, and coffee replaced by beer, and Church replaced by the road outside Les Halles. On arrival, I gathered that this lively market spot during the morning cum huge, empty basketball court for the rest of the time acts as the tramps' preferred place of residence. But throughout the term this colony of vagabonds have increased in number from about five to thirty five. Before, walking past the homeless crew simply involved a harmless, drunken demand for a beer. Nowadays, a simply dash to Spar is a terrifying adventure past the hairy, dirty mass of drunkards. I have experienced multiple shouts of abuse, dodged fights and nearly been vomitted on, all before midday and on numerous occasions, when all I wanted was some eggs and milk.

But where have they all come from? And why Pau? Do they perform some kind of opposite technique to hibernation in which they sleep under some bush throughout the summer then crawl out during the downpours of winter to hang out and get hammered in the rain together? Or do they migrate from Northern towns such as Paris and Lille to the South for the winter, to stay where it is warmest? Or is this just another dismal effect of the economic crisis? Were these stinking cavemen once high earning bankers whose drowning of their sorrows after being 'let go' have just gone a bit too far?