As mentioned elsewhere,I liked this and look forward to seeing more of the same.
But I wondered when was it set,late 1940s? after the war certainly.
What weapons did the police have at the start?
The date on the horse racing ticket said 1955. The same year Rowan Atkinson was born, interestingly.
sharethanks,I wonder about the date because it always interests me how France went from post war poverty and war damage to 1960s wealth and style without as much praise as the German economic miracle always receives.
If it was a British tale I would more easily guess the year it was set.
You made some intriguing observations: maybe we should consider France started the war as supposedly the strongest military power in the world only to be defeated on the battlefields in a matter of weeks and endured a shameful servitude to the nazi for many years except for De Gaulle's will to uphold the Country's honor and fight for it.
It should be said De Gaulle personality somewhat alienated both American and British governments through the years for many different reasons, and possibly he was also considered a bit of a tyrant even in France. I have the impression that somehow France after fighting alongside the Allies to the end of WWII had some unique place in the world politics and economy, as a kind of outsider going its own way and more involved with its own affairs (much like the British in regard to the Colonies) being less involved/indebted to the US politics/economy perhaps finally had some more independence but less of a centrality on the global stage. It's just an assumption and I may be wrong: it's a complex argument...
As for the weapons used by the French Police in 1955 I was also kind of surprised by the pistol seen in Maigret's hands: at first glance I thought it was a Russian Tokarev but I believe it was a Ruby instead:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby_pistol
or another possibility is the Unique Rr 51
http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/Unique_Rr_51
for further reading about this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Police_(France)#Weapons