Paris: Demonstrating in the rain

Here we are in wet and dreary Paris. After a smooth and enjoyable journey from Ebbsfleet International Station to Gare du Nord, and not forgetting our picnic breakfast,

we stepped off Eurostar to be greeted by torrential rain and grey sky; we also found that of all the days to arrive in Paris, 31st March was probably the worst possible choice. The transport systems and other public services have been affected by a national day of action and protest against the French government's plans to change the labour laws to make it easier to hire and fire staff and to relax France's current strict 35 hour working week arrangements. So we found that the metro and other train services were disrupted. However, we stuck with it and were able to get across to Gare de Lyon with only one change using the RER system. One hint for anyone else travelling by RER and Metro, keep walking past the ticket machines at the entrance to the station, which have long queues, and use the machines further into the station - no queues at all.

On arrival at the huge Gare de Lyon, we navigated our way to our hotel but not without first having to pass a sizeable group of riot police with batons at the ready and then cutting across the demonstration itself to get to the road we needed. The activity we saw seemed good natured and peaceful, although apparently there had been some skirmishes between a small group of demonstrators and the police earlier in the day near to the station. I must say it did hearten me to see thousands of people walking through torrential rain to let the government know how they feel about the planned erosion of their working rights when in the UK we seem to just moan about it, but do nothing to really signal our concerns when the welfare of the most vulnerable are threatened.

We ended the day with dinner in a brasserie just round the corner from our hotel. We both noticed how many tables, at least 5, were occupied by single men having dinner, not something you would see that often in the UK, where eating out is more of a social occasion, rather than just having a meal. We would have ended the day with a stroll but it was still raining so we opted to go back to the hotel for an early night and some reading and blogging. I think we are both tired after all the planning and anticipation, and my husband worked late last night to leave things at work in good order. Also, we are planning an early breakfast tomorrow as we have booked a special lunch before we board the train tomorrow afternoon for Switzerland and don't want to get too full at breakfast time so we can't manage our lunch. The forecast for tomorrow looks a lot better too, so we want to get the full benefit of that in the morning.