P is for Protests

P is for Protests

Il y aura un tollé général — There will be a great outcry

We have a friend staying with us, who likes to go to the really good Chinese buffet restaurant in Montauban. The sun was shining, we’d panic bought some diesel, so decided to set off for lunch. About 500 metres from the restaurant, everything came to a halt. The unions were blockading the road to protest about pensions and reforms to the age of retirement.

We didn’t think we could discuss with them the fact that M. Sarkozy was raising the French retirement age to 62, whereas Mr Cameron was going to make our compatriots struggle on until 66, so we graciously accepted a leaflet, turned round and headed to the Chinese restaurant in a nearby town. It was closed on Thursdays. Still, we had a very nice Cassoulet in a Basque restaurant near home, where the waiter’s command of English was limited to “Bye, Bye!”.

Unfortunately, the blockade meant we couldn’t visit the Lerclerc supermarket where we wanted to buy some wine, were unable to get to the garden centre where we wanted to buy some fish for our new pond, and couldn’t detour via the goats’ cheese factory to replenish stocks.

I did try to read the leaflet later, but my command of militant French trade union vocabulary needs just a little bit more work.