Impressions on the Rue St. Jean the day before the summit.

I spent today wandering. Good thing too, since the fence went up at 6 p.m and it's not coming down until Sunday, so this was my only chance to check out the actual Summit of the Americas site. It's a gorgeous castle, across the street from less-gorgeous Hilton and Radisson hotels, where the delegates (including George W. Bush, I suppose) will be staying. Around 1:30, I was at the gate in the old city wall along the Rue de St. Jean. A guy in a little yellow forklift was moving sections of the fence into place, and a bunch of activists, tourists, and reporters were standing around watching. There were about six policemen too, most of them in olive green riot gear, holding their helmets self-consciously and smiling nervously. They got even more nervous when a guy with long blond hair and a Canadian flag bandana stepped in between two of them and posed, smiling, for the cameras. Then he put his arms around them. They all smiled big. The cameras clicked. I expect to see it on the front page of the local papers tomorrow. Someone behind me said, half-jokingly, "The calm before the storm."

By 6:30, the fence was complete: 2 miles of mesh wire, about eight feet high, with a 2-foot concrete base, completely surrounding the meeting site on the cliff at the top of the city. Along Rue St. Jean, normally a quaint, pricey tourist strip, the stores fence had braced themselves too-- most have covered their windows in either plywood or chicken-wire. My favorites are McDonald's and The Gap, who are at least smart enough to know they're symbols of global corporate hegemony (there's no Starbucks on the street, lucky for them). McDonald's has painted its wooden shields in cheerful daisies and serene blue skies with puffy clouds; and The Gap, I swear to god, has somehow managed to plan its panels so they match the decorating scheme of the store's window trim. At the fence itself, a small crowd of gawkers was taking pictures of banners hung on and behind the barricade ("A police state -- is this what you want?," "Life before profit" -- except in French of course). On the way back down the hill, I bought a copy of the New York Times' Wednesday edition at the International Maison de Press and took it with me to a pub. There were two short stories about FTAA and Quebec on page four. In the longer one, George W. Bush was quoted as saying, "There is a vital link between freedom of people and freedom of commerce." The waitress came, and I ordered a beer. She asked if I wanted small, medium, or large. "Large," I said.

--Jesse Fox Mayshark