In June 2000, Saintes became the first French city to join the international "Abolition 2000" network. Since then this town in Western France has been the venue of national and international gatherings for the abolition of nuclear arms and other weapons of mass destruction: first the Nuclear Disarmament Days of May 2001, during which the "Nuclear Disarmament Flame" was first lit; and since 2004 the Rallies for International Disarmament, nuclear, biological and chemical (RID-NBC). In March (...)