After the Musee d'Orsay, we headed back to the hotel and as we were walking we heard sirens, certainly not an uncommon noise, and then we saw a police van speed around the corner, then another and another and another...we must have seen at least 15 or 16. Of course we were curious so we had to follow them and see what was up. Just around the corner we saw all the police vans parked, plus a 4 or 5 police buses. I've never seen a police BUS before, it was like they were trucking them in by the busload. Apparently the vans are for the people that get arrested, and the buses did indeed bring in the cavalry, so to speak. Anyhow, there was some sort of protest going on in front of the national Assembly building. The signs and the shouting were (obviously) all in french, but from what we could figure out, it was something to do with disturbing archeological sites. We watched for a while, and as the news crews arrived we decided to move along. Even though there were some police in full riot gear, with shields and facemasks, it seemed to be reasonably peaceful. The protesters were hauled off to the sides of the roads and unceremoniously dumped there, and they would instantly jump up and run back to the middle of the street. Buses and traffic were held up and honking and hollering, but we were told that these protests are quite common. It was interesting to see, especially since there was no violence.
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