There’s something splendid about this. Brent Whelan, an American in Paris, runs, as you do, into yet another demonstration. There was the…
sound truck and chants, flags and banderoles, a regular labor action. But I missed the front of the cortège where the leafleters and signs were, so I couldn’t tell what it was about. So I asked a guy on the corner, who told me, “It’s the archaeologists.” And that’s just who it was: several hundred archaeologists marching down the street, shouting and chanting, demanding that the government withdraw plans to disperse the headquarters of its national archaeological service from Paris.
Only, I think, in Paris. And long may this remain the case. There’s a serious point here too, however: everyone wants to sty in the capital. The scariest moment in any teacher or university lecturer’s career, for instance, comes when they discover where the state has assigned them.
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