When we met Eric at the metro station earlier in the day, he told us that there was supposed to be a strike that day (actually I had heard about this whilst in Singapore, but forgot about it). He was concerned that his students would have difficulties getting to the assigned meeting spot as a result. But it looked as though the transport workers, at any rate, were working.
Later that evening, however, we went to Galeries Lafayette and found that the streets were unnaturally empty and some even barricaded. Then, we saw, a procession approaching. It turned out that the French public sector unions were striking over the increase in the number of years they had to work before qualifying for a full pension. The retirement age before getting their pension is 60 years, but they have to work for 40 years (now being raised to 41 years) before getting the full pension.
The protests were taking place in Central Paris, and this photo was taken just outside Galeries Lafayette. It shows the start of the procession - when we left the building some 1.5 hours later, there were stil a few stragglers passing by.
I'd bought a book - "Sixty Million Frenchmen can't be Wrong", by Jean-Benoit Nadeau and Julie Barlow. This book attempts to deconstruct the French psyche, to help us understand them better. The authors lived in Paris for 2 years and describe in their book how they would check the newspapers for the "forecast" on which roads would be closed due to protests taking place. According to the authors, these forecasts were generally very reliable. To quote a short extract from the book,
"What the French really excel at is protesting. Protests, marches and demonstrations are an essential element of the French social fabric. Rich or poor, bourgeois or working class, the French have no inhibitions when it comes to taking their views to the street, grabbing a sign, chanting slogans, forming human chains around towns, or cracking fireworks in front of bored riot squads. Protest, to the French, is not a mere expression of frustration. It is an important rite of public life"
According to the authors, the French culture and tolerance of protest has its roots in the French Revolution, when the people took to the streets. The French people take these protests in their stride, with probably only tourists bothering to photograph the strikers.
Just to complete the events of the day - after our busy morning at the cooking class, we walked up some 9 flights of stairs (20 stairs each) to the Sacre-Coeur. The place was thronged with tourists. The Sacre-Coeur does not allow any photos to be taken. This in a sense helped preserve the sense of tranquility and holiness in the church.
After our visit to Sacre Coeur, we wandered around Montmarte, did a little shopping and found ourselves in a little church, St Jean l'Evangeliste de Montmarte. It was a simple red brick building but had really beautiful stained glass windows within. It was after our visit to the church that we went to Galeries Lafayette.
Given that we'd had a big lunch that day, we had bread and soup for dinner. Thanks to the lack of serving spoons, we had to drink our soup with teaspoons. If ever you want to make your food go a longer way, that's one way to do it.
Photos here!
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