Skip to content

New Life Steev

Travelling the world, not taking a gamble!

×

Home
About Steev
Travel
Recovery

Home
Recovery
Travel
Welcome

Day: 29 December 2019

Nasty in Nantes

France / Travel

29th December 2019

8 mins
5 years
1,188 word
5

Nasty in Nantes

Now I have had advice before – that when it comes to local disputes, stay away.

Read more here

This all started with an elephant. Nantes has a famous elephant, not a real one – but a mechanical one that can move and carry up to 50 people. That has to be worth seeing, so I decided to make the trip. But, this is France during a national strike and so it wasn’t going to be easy.

Brightly coloured ceramic elephant — Here and above some of the many elephants in the parade of Elephants at Les Machines de L'ile - Nantes

The first indication I got that something was wrong, was when the bus indicator showed that it was only going to the next stop. “Odd,” I thought, but I caught it anyway thinking I might get another from there to the city centre. At that next stop, the reason for the curtailed service became clear, as I saw the police had cordoned off the road letting no traffic pass. I could still walk through – and decided that, even though it would be a long walk, I would go for it.

Soon, I came to the reason for the police cordon. A protest march connected to the current strikes.

Now I have had advice before – that when it comes to local disputes, stay away. This is flagged up loud and clear by the British Foreign Office’s “advice to travellers” website. But, hey it’s France, the procession looks calm enough. There’s even a brass band playing. But no sooner had I got to the police line, when things started to turn. First insults, then stones, then bottles and just missing me, a brick. Then as I started to walk swiftly away, the tear-gas started. It was all so quick. I think the police threw the canisters towards the march and then some people just threw them back. One landed close to me and within seconds I was crying and struggling to breathe.

The only place to go was through the police cordon and luckily for me, the younger guy in front was stopped by a couple of cops and I snuck past.

A view of the march before the tear-gas!

Once on the other side, what a difference! Shops open, people sat outside cafes sipping coffee and when I turned a corner, there was a Christmas market in full swing with bottle, chocolate and nougat stalls.

A microcosm of the whole world really. When the Balkans war was happening in the 1980s – I recalled that only a year or two earlier, friends would talk about holidays taken in Yugoslavia. Flights took 1.5 to 2 hours … Less time than it took me to get from Vannes to Nantes by bus the other day. Now the violence is slightly further afield, in Libya, Syria and Yemen to name but a few conflict zones. A bit further down the road in whole world terms, but tear gas would not be anything special there.

I took a seat at a table to let the gas wear off – one espresso down, I was able to walk back to my digs and sleep away the effects.

The funfair ride just yards from the demonstration.

The next day, I was due to go to my next destination of Limoges, but one of my 3 trains had been cancelled and there was no lift-shares or buses available. It meant that I was just travelling across town to new digs, hastily arranged. This time the journey went without a hitch. I spoke to someone on the tram (in English) about the strike and he was broadly in support. The dispute is about pensions and he sees the public sector pension as being worth fighting for, as it is the base line for all private sector pensions. They can only get worse if the protests fail. Although I am being negatively affected, I am also in support of the strikers. Partly because I was a trade unionist and can see the benefit in taking action. Partly because at 62 myself (the age at which most French people can take their pensions) I know what it is like to have to wait another 4 years.

The irony is that the new rules being imposed would mean most people would get their pensions at 64 – still two years earlier than me.

The Conservative government in the UK (which has just been re-elected by some margin,) is proposing that people may have to work until 70 to receive a full pension. So far, I have not heard of anyone taking to the streets about that. Indeed, the people most likely to protest in the next few months will be the Scottish and Northern Irish, both of whom are being taken out of the EU against their will – because they are in a union which does not respect their opinions. And that worries me. I am worried for my friends in the UK and for the future of the country. PM Johnson was someone who purchased water cannons to use against protestors in London when he was mayor. Something that couldn’t go ahead because water cannons are not allowed to be used in the UK. He could allow them now. Having seen at first hand violence being perpetrated by the state here in France, I also worry that the legitimate right of protest can’t be fulfilled because people will be too scared to rise up. My other concern is what the protests might turn into. I can still remember the “troubles” in Northern Ireland, which always seemed to me to be a condescending word when what was really happening was an armed struggle against the state. People died on both the island of Ireland and in the UK. My mother is buried in the same cemetery as the victims of the Warrington bombing of 1993 – some of whom were children. When I pass their graves, it serves as a reminder of how close to home such things can come.

Police Vans lined up in Nantes, France

In some ways – nowhere is safe. If I had been asked before this trip, where did I think I would get my first “taste” of teargas, it wouldn’t be France. Freak accidents can occur anywhere as this link shows – a woman being killed by a beach umbrella being blown in the wind. https://tinyurl.com/t2h4zwg

I made the decision to travel and I still think it was the right one, despite the current challenges. I do need to be more aware of advice and to remember to take it. But I can’t allow myself to be put off by fear, otherwise I wouldn’t go anywhere. I did go and see the elephant, though.

It seems that elephants, like civil unrest, are always there to be visited if we want to. I now know I don’t want to go through tear gas again, to get to one!

Worth it in the end ...

If you have enjoyed this post and would like to see more then why not buy me a coffee or three. https://www.buymeacoffee.com/newlifesteev You can also sign up for a subscription to a monthly email with latest news. See my front page and scroll down.

Italy / Travel

Thoughts from a Barber’s waiting room.

Bulgaria / Romania / Travel

Rookie full time travel mistake – the wrong train from Romania.

Latest posts

Thoughts from a Barber’s waiting room.

16th May 2023

Rookie full time travel mistake – the wrong train from Romania.

18th October 2024

I don’t need to do the tourist stuff – being a full-time traveller in small town Romania.

5th October 2024

Not like the video – the Chișinău to Bucharest train.

8th September 2024

Surprising lakes and Mall Dova in Chișinău

26th August 2024

Recent Posts

Rookie full time travel mistake – the wrong train from Romania. 18th October 2024
I don’t need to do the tourist stuff – being a full-time traveller in small town Romania. 5th October 2024
Not like the video – the Chișinău to Bucharest train. 8th September 2024
Surprising lakes and Mall Dova in Chișinău 26th August 2024
Tea, trains and torrential rain, my time in Chișinău, Moldova. 9th August 2024

Recent Comments

Jo on Rookie full time travel mistake – the wrong train from Romania.
Steev on Surprising lakes and Mall Dova in Chișinău
Renee on Surprising lakes and Mall Dova in Chișinău
Steev on Tea, trains and torrential rain, my time in Chișinău, Moldova.
Barbara on Tea, trains and torrential rain, my time in Chișinău, Moldova.

Archives

Categories

Lifestyle
News
- Featured
Recovery
Reviews
Travel
- Albania
- Austria
- Belgium
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Bulgaria
- Croatia
- France
- Germany
- Greece
- Ireland
- Italy
- Kosovo
- Moldova
- Montenegro
- North Macedonia
- Portugal
- Romania
- Slovenia
- Spain
- United KIngdom
Uncategorized

Meta

Log in
Entries feed
Comments feed
WordPress.org

Previous posts

Previous posts

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Privacy Policy

http://buymeacoffee.com/newlifesteev

Proudly powered by WordPress | Theme : New Blog a free WordPress theme : by : Postmagthemes

Loading Comments...

Write a Comment...

Email (Required)

Name (Required)

Website