The Latest in Striking Workers

Ring, ring…

Ed calls me right after I drop the boys off at school to tell me that the buses seem not to be running quite right today and that we may have trouble getting to chess class this afternoon. 

Ring, ring…

Ten minutes later Ed calls me and tells me that he is walking to work and that he overheard a woman speaking in Russian on her phone.  He struck up a conversation with her and discovered that the buses were not working because there was a protest in the center of town.  “What is it about?” I ask.  He wasn’t sure… the Russian woman seemed very apolitical to him and she was just disgruntled about the lack of proper bussing.  Did I think that I might be able to do a bit of reconnaissance to discover more about the protest?  Ed was hoping for something really big…

I decided to curtail my morning plans and walk down to the Rotonde.  Sure enough, as I got down to the Cours Mirabeau and looked down towards the fountain the roads were all blocked off.  Delivery van after delivery van after delivery van, all parked cheek and jowl.  There was a small group gathered nearby and I took one of the flyers being distributed.  No chanting, no discussion, just one sign stating, “Rendez-nous notres Mardis.” Give us back our Tuesdays.  Hmmmmmm……

When I arrived back at the house I sat down to finish deciphering the flyer.  It turned out that the protest was being staged by the regular market vendors who sell on the Cours Mirabeau on a weekly basis.  They set up their stalls and sell lots of household items as well as fashion items all at bargain prices.  However, their location had been upstaged by the city installing “chalets” for the Christmas season.  There is now a long line of charming wooded chalets, all identical and all selling holiday items at holiday prices. 

The venders were upset because they could no longer set up their wares along the highly social and commercial strip of the Cours Mirabeau.  The city was trying to be accommodating and offered a different, equally long, strip of sidewalk space along a different road extending from the Rotonde, the stretch between the Rotonde and the Gare Routiere, the bus station.  However the venders were less than pleased to set up along a functional strip of walkway, rather than the chi-chi, coffee-drinking, people-watching stretch of the Cours Mirabeau. 

“Seule solution, que nous regrettons: Bloquer la ville, pour une duree indeterminee…” Their only solution, which they regret, is to block the city, for an undetermined amount of time…

So, for the last several days we have worked our way around the protest.  The city has provided police officers to block off the blockage, the buses have all been rerouted and mostly life is going on as normal.  The venders continue to protest, instead of selling their goods, and to complain that they are losing over four months worth of income over the displacement.  Vive la France!