A Surprise

Yesterday, we visited the Musée d'Orsay art museum and purchased an annual pass.  We visited the extensive Impressionist gallery and enjoyed seeing Susan's favorite art.  Greg especially liked the early Cézanne pictured below.

After, we walked back to our apartment.  Well, we attempted to walk to our apartment.

As we got closer, we started to notice things that were out of the ordinary.  There were many vans filled with police, waiting for something.  Two major streets were closed to traffic.  The Tuileries, the large garden next to our apartment, was locked.  There were a lot of flashing lights in the distance.  

We continued walking and finally figured out what was going on.  There was a protest march on Rue de Rivoli, the street that runs near our apartment.  It turns out that yesterday was a national strike by one of France's largest and most powerful unions, the CGT--the Confédération générale du travail (General Confederation of Labor).  They were protesting against many things (poor pay and benefits) and we heard lots of anti-Macron cheers.  (Emmanuel Macron is the President of France.)   

The marchers, who numbered in the thousands, were boisterous yet peaceful.  We observed them from a safe distance, behind the line of riot police, in case the peaceful demonstration turned violent.  All of the shops along the street had closed.  

Marchers along the Rue de Rivoli

A map of the route

Joan of Arc (the gilded statue pictured below) had a prime seat to observe the march.

There were a lot of police in riot gear. 

Our apartment is on a side street on the other side of the marchers' route.  So, we waited a long time until the marchers thinned out.  

Our apartment is located on a side street.  The blue arrow indicates the location around the corner. 

After we returned to our apartment, we watched the demonstration from our window.  

  

A short video (below) provides a sense of what the march was like.

The concierge in our building quipped matter-of-factly:  "It's Paris."