A Part of History

I feel like I've been a part of history. While we were in Chambery France on our way to the Market Saturday morning we were stopped by a giant demonstration of several thousand French people marching the streets in protest. As we squeezed our way through the crowds to make it to the market in time to pick up our cheese and meats for that afternoon's lunch Joanna said something along the lines of "The french love to protest. They hold demonstrations all the time, but this one is a really big one!"

At the time we weren't exactly sure what the protest was for. There were banners and signs everywhere and people shouting over bullhorns (in French), but the commotion was just enough and our brains were just tired enough to not really care to investigate. I snapped a pictures though.

Later we discovered that they were chanting "60 years is long enough!" Turns out this angry mob of French people were protesting the proposed bill to change the retirement age from 60 to 62.  A few weeks later said bill passed and there have been massive strikes from the working class and many more protests. Some reaching the point where police are involved using gas to calm the crowds. Pretty crazy!

Read more about the protests by clicking here.