Any follow-up on this?

Look, you have to understand the cultural context. Protests in Paris are like earthquakes in California -- they're quite common, rather less destructive than people imagine, and people kinda just shrug and live with them. And the protesters talk themselves up, break into factions like a Monty Python, rarely if ever actually do more than a fraction of what they threaten, and life goes on. This was merely more of the same.

Personal example: there was a big protest right out front of Versailles when I was there last year, several hundred utility company trucks doing a rolling-blockade of the street. . . didn't even put a dent in the visitor traffic. Just a couple of cars of gendarmes reinforcing the outer security, and they popped off a couple of canisters of tear gas when some of the protesters got a little too close/aggressive but didn't even close the gates.

The main effect was that tourists had to be dropped off a short distance away and had to walk a couple of blocks to get to Versailles. . . oh the horror! To be fair, there were a few tourists that really did look like walking any distance at all might cause them to drop dead. Why they came to Versailles at all is beyond me, the palace is an extensive walking tour!
 
Look, you have to understand the cultural context. Protests in Paris are like earthquakes in California -- they're quite common, rather less destructive than people imagine, and people kinda just shrug and live with them. And the protesters talk themselves up, break into factions like a Monty Python, rarely if ever actually do more than a fraction of what they threaten, and life goes on. This was merely more of the same.

Personal example: there was a big protest right out front of Versailles when I was there last year, several hundred utility company trucks doing a rolling-blockade of the street. . . didn't even put a dent in the visitor traffic. Just a couple of cars of gendarmes reinforcing the outer security, and they popped off a couple of canisters of tear gas when some of the protesters got a little too close/aggressive but didn't even close the gates.

The main effect was that tourists had to be dropped off a short distance away and had to walk a couple of blocks to get to Versailles. . . oh the horror! To be fair, there were a few tourists that really did look like walking any distance at all might cause them to drop dead. Why they came to Versailles at all is beyond me, the palace is an extensive walking tour!
Yet the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris is just 2 months away.
 
Yet the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris is just 2 months away.
And if Paris was actually under blockade since the farmers' protest declared this 'siege' at the end of January, it would be continuously in the news. The fact that it hasn't shows that -- as usual -- things were not taken to the extreme and the protests were quietly and peacefully resolved in a few days, perhaps a week at most.
 
And if Paris was actually under blockade since the farmers' protest declared this 'siege' at the end of January, it would be continuously in the news. The fact that it hasn't shows that -- as usual -- things were not taken to the extreme and the protests were quietly and peacefully resolved in a few days, perhaps a week at most.
Fingers crossed the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris goes off without chaos.
 


The French military test-fired their new fighter-launched nuke-capable Mach3+ missile.

Remember, France has the nuclear warning shot doctrine, and this is the sort of missile they'd likely use to carry it out, if need be.

Heard polls showing Marine LePen most likely will become France's next President in 2027.
 

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