Later that day, we saw a different style of dress was also in vogue in Dijon…
We had rented a ground-floor apartment for the few days we were in Dijon. Sitting in the living room, I glanced out the partly open window and saw police standing just a few feet away. They were suited up as if about to go into battle.
Intrigued, I had to go outside to see what was going on. As I walked out the door (the archway on the right in the photo below), I stepped into a crowd of “gilets jaunes.” There had been violent clashes between riot police and demonstrators in the preceding weeks. I had suddenly come face to face with protestors, some wearing gas masks and helmets, moving towards the police. When they turned and saw me leaving the building, they parted, leaving a path for me, and saying, “Pardon, Pardon” as I passed each one. Only in France do protestors move out of the way and apologize.
But this was serious. Directly across from me, two paramedics stood wearing helmets, eye protection, and gas masks. To the left, a news photographer in similar attire. And to the right, a protestor – also wearing a helmet and a face-covering. The journalist in the middle, in the orange jacket, seems a bit out of place – and a bit under-protected.
A few metres away, riot police stood at the ready as the crowd approached.
Then, all of a sudden, gas filled the air. The colour of everything changed.
It was at that point I decided to retreat to our apartment. The next morning when I went outside, there was not a sign that anything had happened. There was no garbage. There was no broken glass. Nothing. I have noticed in France that whenever there is any sort of public event (from a music festival to a riot), when it is over, there is not a trace that it had happened. How civilized.