This was the scene that greeted me on my arrival in Paris on Jan. 9, 2019.  The protest was civil, and as I noticed during the subsequent week, usually only got going during the late afternoon.  Very civilized, I thought.

 

Such a discouraging sight, all the metro gates closed.

 

It took a lot of this stuff to make it through the strikes, and I mean as a tourist, not a striker!

 

Well, some more than others!

 

 

And then suddenely, out of no where, with no advance notice, I found an open subway station.

 

You better believe I jumped on this train…I didn’t even really care where it was going to!

 

 

I think the graffiti on the monument in the Place de la République tells the strikers point-of-view: retraité de macron, or, in English, Retire Macron.