she DOESN'T think your tractor's sexy..

Until Friday, whenever the I heard the word STRIKE! or PROTEST/MANIFESTATION! in conjunction with France, I giggled. I've always marveled at how the French will strike/protest/whatever at the drop of a hat and at the great lengths that they will go to do this strike or protest. (just fyi, in French, the word for protest is 'manifestation'). In fact, strikes (grèves) and manifestations happen so frequently that most French people don't really even notice, and go about their lives as normally as possible. The authorities are always notified when one will occur and are therefore able to take measures to allow life to go on as normally as possible. So, I've always wondered, if manifestations are as common as they are and are not particularly noted by French citizens, then how can they be effective and why do these people even bother with them? This question was answered for me on Friday.

I had no classes on Friday, so I went into town at about 1:30 to study LSAT and run a few errands. I was planning on spending the night with a friend in a nearby town Friday night, so I planned to be back in my room by 4 so that I could go to the grocery before I left and so that I'd be able to be at the train station in time to catch the 5:44 train. I finished studying at about 3:30 and decided that I'd walk back to the train station and catch my bus from there. On my way to the train station, I was halted from crossing a street by a bunch loud commotion that turned out to be a large number of French farmers in their tractors driving through the middle of town (actually the same street that I saw Sarkozy on the day before). They were honking their horns and had signs against Sarkozy and an agriculture policy on the several of the tractors. I had seen these Tractor protesters on the news, apparently they've been holding up traffic all over France for the past few weeks. This should have been a sign, but instead I was completely unfazed and took a few pictures and crossed when two tractors stopped to let me cross (all the while catcalling - real classy). But when I got to my bus stop at the train station, I found a sign which read that because of the manifestation all buses would be stopped from 2pm till it was finished. Great. So I started walking. Keep in mind that this is 3:30. And that I live about 20 mins by bus from the city center. The tractors also kept going along my walk, which would normally be my bus route. After about 20 mins of walking, I realized that the tractors were probably going to go most of the way to where I live, and that there were going to be no buses at all whatsoever. I shed both coats that I had on because I got pretty warm (even though it was pretty cold outside). About 2 hours and thousands of honks and catcalls later (i won't lie, it did boost my ego a bit) at 5:20, I FINALLY arrived at my room, only to very hurriedly pack a bag and then have to take a 16 euro taxi BACK to the train station, because the tractors were still protesting. I wonder if I can contact the farmer's union to reimburse me...?

So, before Friday, I thought the French protests were kind of a joke. I thought that no one took them seriously because they didn't really affect them. I was wrong. WRONG. There were French people walking everywhere, and none seemed too bothered. I guess I wouldn't have been had I not had somewhere to be. So, to all the striking, protesting French farmers out there: I appreciate that you feel passionate enough about things to do something about them, but I am an American living temporarily in France. Therefore, 1. I rely heavily on public transportation and 2. I can do NOTHING to help you in your plight. So please don't mess up my afternoon again -- maybe it would get you farther if you parked your tractors on Sarkozy's front lawn...