The Protests

Last night we ate at Les Bouquiniste, serving modern French cuisine on the left bank. The meal was not the most memorable part of the night as the student riots stepped up a gear. We'd been seeing Police in force all day, but when about 150 rioters, some of them weiling batons, ran past the restaurant, metal shutters came down over the windows within seconds. I'd been keeping an eye on an almost-full moon rising, thinking what a spectacular photo it would make poised above the West wall of Notre-Dame, and now, through the restaurant's only uncovered window I could see police vehicles, and curious onlookers.

The door was locked, and the diners carried on unperturbed. Were they used to this? Used to it enough I thought - those shutters were employed within seconds and would have cost a euro or two.



The centre of the protests was the main square of the Sorbonne, and we could see thousands of people and flashing police lights just a few blocks from us down the Boulevard St. Michel. The protest is against new labour laws, especially a new for of job contract which will allow employers to sack young people within two years without giving a reason.

Restaurants closed early; we were advised by security people to get indoors and our hotel doors were locked behind us.

Police used tear gas and rubber bullets to control the angry crowd, as cars were overturned and a bookshop set alight.