Thus the frequent strikes, and the patience of the French for them.
Not just patience but also perhaps a little adventure. Now please don't jump on me for that statement let me explain. I still have fond memories of a taking a free (since no one was checking tickets)& very slow train from Bordeaux to Paris during a strike in December some years ago. Of course the fact that I was on school vacation and didn't have meetings to attend made it more fun than stressful. However, most people on the train were laid back about the whole adventure. In fact I wonder if we didn't all slow down a bit since we were forced to. People talked more readily then usual and exchanged stories of other strikes they got caught up in and the ingenious ways in which they managed whether roller skating to work during the Paris subway strikes or creating new & impromptu carpools with neighbors and/or co-workers. Getting to work became a big production but people for the most part (at least in retrospect) seems to have funny stories and not such bad memories. After all every generation of French students whether in high school or at the university have their own marches through the streets to draw on for first hand strike recollections. My siblings and I each had our respective wave of strikes when in high school. I'll admit that I don't recall in detail what sparked each one but there was always the sense of a need to be heard. One of my favorite stories about the impact of French strikes is from a book titled "Sixty Million Frenchmen can't be wrong" written by two Canadian journalists Jean Benoit Nadeau and Julie Barlow. The authors describe a Halloween parade they witnessed:
People, of course, draw on the models they already have - Halloween in Honfleur looked and sounded more like a labor strike than the traditional children's ritual we were accustomed to. The Honfleur children marched in a crowd between police cruisers, their little fists raised, chanting, "We want candies! We want candies!" And what did they do as they proceeded along the port? They actually stormed all the restaurants and boutiques in their path ordering merchants to hand over the goods. We were stunned at this hostile pack of rampaging ghosts and ghouls (they were having fun, tough) but even more surprised to see the grown-up French going along with it.
But when we thought about it, it made sense. Begging for candy - even pretend begging - isn't noble ... Demanding candy via a legally recognized, police escorted manifestation made more sense to the French, even when they were just having fun. p.13
