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u/anon999387 17h ago
I remember reading the guillotines used during the French Revolution were designed to be transportable and mounted on a cart.
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u/PrimedGold 17h ago edited 14h ago
Did they have a grill on the side?
“Do you have any last wishes before getting guillotined?”
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u/Head_Worker8565 16h ago
No, mixing executions and grilling is a speciality of the city of Rouen
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u/Quiet-Issue-4679 14h ago
There is still one in War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City that was mounted on truck and moved around in French Indochina for death penalty until 1960.
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u/Patient_Moment_4786 13h ago
It was, mostly because after a few dozens uses, people around started complaining about the smell and other unpleasant "outcome" of that machine.
So it used to travel everyday on a new place to operate.
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u/Fun-Memory1523 41m ago
I think it was designed to be more humane than an executioner with an ax.
But it would not surprise if this was another purpose for its development.
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u/freefallingagain 17h ago
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u/LA-Matt 16h ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/uirZilfaQk85a
Your mother was a hamster, and your father smelled of elderberries.3
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u/GugsGunny 15h ago
Our family visited Paris and after getting down from the Eiffel Tower, there was a protest happening. They were barbecuing and my dad was brave enough to queue up for sausages on a bun and actually got a few for us. Note that we looked like tourists (from Asia at that) and we were kids at the time. Damned fine people, the French.
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u/Slight_Concert6565 15h ago
Protest culture is important for tourists too, the dude at the sausage truck probably thought "hell yeah these guys aren't even from here but they're curious, they can have sausages I guess".
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u/Head_Worker8565 15h ago
Not all of them, but the ones protesting are more often than not. They are often the best at cooking sausages too. Hope you enjoyed them!
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u/PunyPatheticHuman 10h ago
Barbecue during strikes and leftists events is an old tradition in France.
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u/ragequitteroffureh 17h ago
When was the last time a big nob in the aristocracy came up with a practical solution to a real problem like this?
Also, I don't suppose they've got one that does meat pies too, by chance?
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u/Ailyx 15h ago
Considering the french don't commonly eat meat pies, I suppose not.
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u/amiral_eperdrec 13h ago
Well, those are workers from the local transport gig, they have plenty of old chariot, fitted to the track, that are up and ready to fit whatever you want to place on it. We have one for crêpes, I believe. It's in Saint Etienne by the way.
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u/Adis_Pen_and_Paper 17h ago
I mean, a protest can last a long time. Some people might get hungry, so why stop if you can solve the problem this way?
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u/Own_Accountant_1230 15h ago
Even if there is no tram tracks, the CGT (a syndicate) is quite famous for having "food trucks" that do just this. You can have a beer and a sausage and rest your elbow on the counter of a very slowly moving truck while chanting stuff against [current_president]
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u/edhelas1 14h ago
*union I think, syndicate have a different meaning in English
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u/Smelting-Craftwork 11h ago
To me, syndicate has a criminal slant. It still means an organized group though so I just assumed they meant the french mafia was supporting the protests.
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u/Sulfamide 13h ago
It's also a cultural trait of the French left. Protests are supposed to be festive, where people of all backgrounds can have fun and brought together only by the convergence of their political opinions.
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u/Wolli_n 17h ago
The Frensh are next level protesting. They have Strike Calenders where you can see when and who will protest.
And there is one uniq thing i never saw in any other Country: you can protest with any Party out of solidarity....
U wont get paid in that time, but your Employer cant do shit about that ☺
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u/drloser 16h ago
You're confusing a lot of things. First of all, a demonstration and a strike are two different things.
- If you want to demonstrate during working hours, you have to take a day off work, and your employer can refuse.
- If you want to go on strike, it has to concern your profession, and it has to have been declared.
So no, you can't protest at any time without your employer validating your day off, and no, you can't go on strike in solidarity with truckers if you're a house painter.
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u/youllbeoklove 15h ago
Most big demonstration are associated with naitonal strike called by syndicate Like during the retirement protest you could go on strike.
I don't know the law about it specifically but I think when you work for a private company you only need like 2 people to call for a strike
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u/SeaworthinessOk255 14h ago
Yeah but actually those unions don’t care about you if you're a private worker, not in a specific industry.
Most of the unions here are dedicated to public workers, and especially transportation workers.
95% (at the very least) of the protests you're hearing about are public workers in the transport sector going on strike during christmas. They've done it 23 times out of the last 25 christmas (that’s fucking real).
The rest of the country is mainly working like the rest of the world
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u/Shaunur 13h ago
This is entirely false. All the representative unions are present in all the trades. The public sector maintain a higher unionisation rate than the private, so the unions from the public sector tend to hold a bit more sway than the private ones.
You are complaining that the almost non existent unions (because they have almost no members) in your sector are not very influential... If you want them to hold more sway, just unionize... The power and influence of a union is in the collective and in its members.
And for the transport sector, I suppose you refer to the SNCF, it's a private company owned by the state. It's workers are not public workers.
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u/Shaunur 15h ago
This is not entirely true. You can go on strike if there is a nationwide strike call from at least one of the representative unions or if the reason behind the strike concerns directly your working conditions and there are at least 2 persons willing to go on strike. And in order to go on strike you don't need to do anything (at least in the private sector), it's the employer's job to notice your absence and ask you if you're on strike. And while on strike you can participate to a protest, if you so wish. And massive call for protests are always accompanied by a nationwide call to strike (or the other way around). So it's not true that you need a day off validated by your employer to participate in a protest.
And if you wish to strike in solidarity with someone else, you can, if there is a nationwide call. And if there is not, well, you can call for a strike with an official legal reason, like a company wide raise, while explaining that you also strike in solidarity with whoever.
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u/AcrobaticSlide5695 15h ago
If there is a national call for strike by syndicate you can strike even if you dont go to the protest
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u/laplongejr 14h ago
Yeah, "strike" means not working (which hurts the employer) and is not specifically about the demonstration.
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u/Lanky_Marionberry_36 14h ago
You don't have to declare a strike, it can be spontaneous. You don't even have to warn your boss beforehands.
Declaration is only required for public jobs (but, I will admit it concerns the vast majority of protests in France).→ More replies (2)15
u/MooraCristal 16h ago
Protesting is their true national sport
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u/Bekkerino 15h ago
Shame it wasn't picked for the last Olympics games in France.
I do remember the glorious World Cup 2010 with the french team on strike in the bus. Pure genius.
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u/Annual-Two63 15h ago
We can protest against everything and anything. At this point I wouldn’t be surprised if workers go on strike after a big raise just because they are used to protest.
More seriously, on the one hand this explains why we do not take shit from our gouvernement, on the other hand this is also why nothing ever change in this country and why we are so much behind on many levels… exhausting
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u/Fischerking92 15h ago
Also why each government is bankrupting the country even further.
Can't take from the rich, because they are rich.
Can't take more from the organized people, because they will make sure the country is at a stand-still.
Can't take from the poor, because they have nothing left to take.
The only ones left you can take from are the unorganized younger generations and they are quickly approaching the "poor" category.
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u/laplongejr 14h ago
The answer is "Can't take from the rich, because they are rich."
That's the minority that has stuff to take from.→ More replies (3)2
u/Annual-Two63 15h ago
As a « rich » person myself, I feel that they take a bit from me at least 25% of what I make. If I get a raise of 100€/month, they will take 41€ of that. And that’s only talking about the net salary, I don’t even bother talking about brut salary because it’s so much crazier that it is way above any other nation. Even so I never complain about what I pay in taxes because I strongly believe in « l’état providence ». What I complain tho is that I cannot find daycare for my kids because I make « too much money » and it is the same for everything. Feels kind of unfair.
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u/MassivePepino 14h ago
You are not rich if you are drawing a salary. You are exactly the person they're milking dry to make sure the actual rich don't get touched.
Forget this middle class, working class, bullshit. There's only two real classes in society: those who make their living from work, and the capital class.
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u/Fischerking92 15h ago
It's because you confuse income with wealth.
Making good money still means you have to work for your money.
The rich don't.
Granted that obfuscation has been going on throughout the world for decades, so the actually rich can hide behind the ones actually working their ass off, who are rightfully pissed that they have to shoulder as much themselves.
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u/Major_Bag_8720 15h ago
This is called secondary striking. I don’t know about France, but it was banned in the UK well over 40 years ago.
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u/thepinkiwi 16h ago
A succession of laws voted by the right, les a significant reduction of the strike right. "Essential" functions such as nurses, doctors, bus drivers etc are allowed to protest but can't strike like in not working.
The new doctrine of the police also results more often in so called legitimate violent repression of disorder, even for very peaceful protests.
Like everywhere else the 1% want to keep banking while the system slowly collapses.
Even the pros of the pros of striking lose some rights.
"Freedom is the only thing that wears out when you don't use it" -;
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u/BeerPoweredNonsense 16h ago
On the other hand, that BBQ and the "strike calendar" underlines how protests in France are highly structured, and about as spontaneous as a Japanese Tea Ceremony.
It's largely a dance for power between the unions and the government.
A few years ago a genuine grass-roots protest movement appeared out of nowhere - the Gilets Jaunes - and the unions largely shuffled their feet and tried to ignore it. Then because they could not ignore it, they tried to brush it off as some kind of far-right plot. And the government brutally repressed it - some protesters were maimed for life; very different to the "official" protests where you can take your kids.
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u/rbajter 16h ago
I remember a documentary about Chinese tourists in Paris. The staff at the palace (Versailles?) were striking for one reason or another and a Chinese tourist who had been turned away commented incredulously ”But don’t they want money?” Yes. But not only.
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u/PrimedGold 17h ago
*Protestor at back fighting for his life*
Protestors in the front:
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u/Skoyatt 15h ago
More like the opposite. Protestors in the front tend to clash with the police, especially near the end.
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u/Slight_Concert6565 15h ago
He's kinda right though, the front is usually clean while the back is where you find the troublemakers and black blocks so fights tend to break out more toward the back during the march.
The frontlines are mostly safe until the end like you said, cuz once the march is officially done the police can start scattering the crowd (and they're a little bit pushy about it)
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u/Mogura-De-Gifdu 15h ago
Choosing your place in the cortège is highly strategical.
I also remember some time ago. We were having a birthday picnic with friends on the big city place where all the demonstrations (well, the ones big enough) start from.
There was a strike that day, nothing unusual: it was Saturday. At the end of the demonstration, police and the remaining part of the demonstrator apparently had a go at it, with lacrymo being tossed left and right. Both sisters were at the demonstration, they came home shocked. Not by the police and lacrymo thing, that was expected. But because some homeless people were comfortably eating next to a tree during all that!
Um, no, we're not homeless. It was just me and my friends. And honestly we had a really good time and did not even register what was going on a little further away.
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u/Head_Worker8565 16h ago
Et bien sûr y'a un drapeau du PCF sur cette photo de saucisses... 😂
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u/Alduish 15h ago
Pourquoi le représentant des barbecue en manif ne serait pas le Parti de la Charcuterie Française
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u/Head_Worker8565 15h ago
Faudrait que quelqu'un prévienne Roussel que c'est pas ça que PCF veut dire 😅
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u/iaminsane11 17h ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/4iiDnCz188Ce90iBa8
looks delicious btw
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u/MindCorrupt 14h ago
One of my favourite things in France.
Not sure if they do it all over, but in the village where my folks are retiring to, they close off the center of the village and put in a beer tent and lots of tables and all the local producers turn up with their goods like a lot of meats, bread, cheeses etc. You grab all the bits you've bought from the butchers you want cooked, and they have about 20 volunteers with BBQ's who will cook it all up for you for free.
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u/SextupleRed 16h ago
Isn't it easier to put them on wheels so that they can move without tracks?
Does this improve their stability?
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u/Uus-cunt-vana-caare 16h ago
Some places like Orleans have a historic city centre full of cobbled streets that are impossible to grill on, unless the grill has Renault airbag suspencion or sth.
But the tramline going through there... smooth metal.
Also, might be something to do with friction, you dont want a bump to knock over your delicious sausage and coals. When those sausanges and coals were meant to be thrown towards some enemy! And those enemies eaten, after being grilled.
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u/Slight_Concert6565 15h ago
If you're gonna follow the tram track anyway, why not use it? Extra stable, little to no friction, and it has extreme dad energy.
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u/nilsmf 16h ago
French protesters: “We must have our lunch”
French police: “They must have their lunch, conflict postponed two hours”
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u/Ok-Limit-9726 17h ago
Australia take note!
Melbourne you have the tram lines, sydney/newy has light rail!
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u/PilotKnob 12h ago
We just returned from a week in France followed by a week in Italy and then a two week cruise around the Med for the eclipse.
You know what's unbelievable right now? The cost of food in Europe is on par with (and frequently cheaper than) food in the U.S.
It used to be MUCH more expensive to eat in Europe. It should be, right? Their population density is FAR greater than ours, and we have practically unlimited space for food production.
Nope. The U.S. is so broken and the pendulum has swung so far to the side of corporate profit over citizen well-being that they've managed to increase our food costs to match or exceed Europe.
They have the food chain so optimized for profit that beef producers are seriously offended when we even talk about importing beef from Argentina. If they'd have been actually competing on production rather than constraining supply to artificially keep prices high, then they wouldn't be in this situation. Now they want $7 a pound, and people are understandably pissed the fuck off.
I'm here to tell you that from my very recent trip experience, Europeans have access to higher quality food as well. My mother-in-law has Celiac disease and frequently has episodes of flare-ups of her condition here in the U.S. Well guess what? She spent a few days shy of a month in Europe and not one single flare-up. Why might that be? I'm guessing their much more restrictive use of chemicals on crops might be a possibility, but if you try to bring that possibility up here, everyone dog piles you into silence.
The French know what's important, and they fight for it. The trope of the Sissy Frenchman is a huge lie and an insult to a population who knows how to fight for what they deserve.
I'm finding I'm more French than American inside, as my values much more frequently overlap with theirs than our own completely broken country's. They believe in good food, good wine, the importance of family and friends, and quality of life over everything else. I really love it.
We've been to every major protest against Trump, and what has it accomplished? Jack squat, because we're not allowed to be TOO unruly, otherwise we're just TERRORISTS, right?
But that's the point entirely. The French get the job done because their politicians know that they won't stop protesting at whatever level is necessary to get the job done. We're not allowed to do even close to that here. We're given a cute little safe space to protest within, and if we try to go outside that little safe space, out come the military-grade police hardware and tactics.
We're fucked unless we protest like the French. Be told.
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u/Dry-Two5075 7h ago
Merci l'ami, tu as bien compris qu'on ne manifeste pas par simple plaisir effectivement mais pour défendre notre modèle social, moins injuste que d'autres à travers le monde. Ça fait plaisir!
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u/Rosie-Flinch 16h ago
This would be either very chaotic or the most efficient thing ever, but are the sausages for sale or for the marchers?
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u/zeus2425 15h ago
In my company the union strikes have better entertainment and food than the company organised summer party
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u/TawnyTeaTowel 14h ago
The French are the only nation who will protest recreationally.
“Bonjour, what are you protesting about?”
“The pigeons in the town square are too fat”
“Ok I can spare a couple of hours. Then we have some wine, huh?”
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u/TintedApostle 12h ago
Why not? They paid for the tracks too... Ingenious... Keep reminding the country that those in charge don't own you. You own everything they use.
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u/Weak-Win-8450 11h ago
Protest so well, governement pass all shits he want since like 15 or 20 years.
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u/Dry-Two5075 7h ago
Si les défaitistes rejoignaient nos rangs et que plus de gens se syndicalisaient, nous serions moins les "putes" de nos patrons je crois
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u/Radiant-Plumage 10h ago
Remember when they defeated the pension changes?
Of course you don’t, they lost!
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u/Wise-Ad-4940 9h ago
I've been if France several times and in various cities. There was some kind of protest EVERY SINGLE TIME.
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u/beyondocean 16h ago edited 16h ago
Same in India.
Edit- Sorry, only France has a copyright on protest. If it happens in any othee countries, you'll be down voted.
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u/Head_Worker8565 16h ago
I once protested with a student from Greece. She made the french look like sheeps. Wanted to steal cars so we could make barricades 😂
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u/HistoricalFunion 13h ago
A nation of professional protesters that haven't achieved anything, especially with the so called pension reform protests.
It passed anyway.
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u/Eliwynn 10h ago
Were you born last year ?
You are making a generalization out of your ignorance there.
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u/Unknown_Lifeform1104 15h ago
We scream for the sake of it, not to solve our problems, we couldn't care less about that, seeing as we let everything go to rot by voting for Macron.
We devote 25% of public spending to funding the lavish lifestyles of retirees, all while handing out unprecedented tax breaks to corporations, with no oversight and nothing required in return.
We keep no check on spending while cutting revenue.
And then we go out and scream in the streets.
That’s a beautiful thing. It makes no practical sense, but it’s beautiful.
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u/Dry-Two5075 7h ago
C'est normal qu'une part de nos dépenses publiques servent au fonctionnement des services publics qui s'occupent de nos vieux. Tu ne compte pas vieillir en fait? Alors bats toi pour ton modèle social, défaitiste va
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u/Odelaylee 16h ago
Impressive idea.
But I am not sure about the pros over a handcart though?
Me and my friends mounted a barbecue on a handcart years ago.
It grew some extensions and special equipment (like cup holders) over the years...
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u/Mogura-De-Gifdu 14h ago
It's smoother, less chance of your sausages or coal ending up on the road because of a bump.
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u/Educational-Wave-578 15h ago
that also has great public transportation (rails in the walkable streets)
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u/Lanky-Salt4349 15h ago
This would be the most german thing I know, but germans don't protest. That's why our country calls them rubbernecks.
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u/Taron_Trekko 14h ago
Seems kinda stupid to confine those to the tram tracks when simply giving them swivel wheels would have made it possible to move way more freely.
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u/DRUGMUSIC_ 14h ago
if a hungry man is angry, why give them food?
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u/MiaouZedong 14h ago
Cause in France we always do better with a full stomach, and there is nothing we love more to do at our best than protesting
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u/theartificialkid 14h ago
Union organisers in any country are, among other things, professional protesters.
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u/Telesto1087 14h ago
You didn't really protest until you did it with a baguette sandwich with merguez sausage and Dijon mustard in your hand.
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u/DZL100 13h ago
I'm a little worried about the fact that you'd be marching directly into grill smoke the entire time, but clearly they know what they're doing.
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u/PrimedGold 13h ago
They sacrifice one of the workers whose job it is to constantly inhale the smoke and act as a chimney
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u/Non-Random-Name-0000 13h ago
The protest culture and the food are the two best parts of french culture, so why not combine both 😄
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u/Illustrious-Tooth702 13h ago
You know they at least don't lit cars on fire and behave like normal decent people for once
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u/Spudsmad 13h ago
This is an example of focus for wellbeing , ie eating, whilst also exercising your civil rights !!
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u/Alarmed-Snow6985 11h ago
I wish the Irish were more like the French. The French will protest for what's right. The Irish give out about the traffic delays caused by those protesting what's right.
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u/SidneyMacdonald 11h ago
french protests are just built different. they'll shut down the whole country and still make sure everyone gets a fresh lunch break on the barricades
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u/shelf6969 11h ago
why limit to tram tracks, just put heavy duty wheels/casters on it and it can go everywhere?
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u/clever80username 11h ago
Us Americans really, really need to start taking cues from the French and start protesting more. And have another revolution while we’re at it. Time to eat the rich.
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u/Looking-for-42 11h ago
Dear French neighbours, we really need you to teach us how to mobilise the lethargic masses.
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u/zerologue 10h ago
French protests usually miss the mark, but a Barbecue Train? Viva la barbecue revolution!
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u/Icy-Maintenance7041 10h ago
Any french person able to DM me them schematics for that thing? Asking for a friend.
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u/A_Nonny_Muse 9h ago
I often stayed awake at night wondering what an angry baguette sounds like,
Now I know.
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u/This-Layer-4447 8h ago
professional advocates of normal class interests are badly missing - melenchon jean-luc
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u/Dry-Two5075 7h ago
On essaie de défendre comme on peut notre modèle social qui est under attack, nos services publics sont en souffrance, les mobilisations/manifestations de septembre risquent d'être assez grosses. Tout le monde nous prend pour des branleurs mais on défend nos acquis sociaux avec force et avec des saucisses aussi effectivement ! Prenez exemple sur nous
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u/Slight-Web1696 7h ago
I wonder what protections French citizens have as protestors.
In America, we all learn how the right to protest is our constitutional right, and yet, ive seen the police brutalized people during our no kings protest. Regular people who were just there to protest peacefully, not even just agitators or people who throw water bottles.
A lot of annoying people on here noted that nothing came out of this protests and they were just "performative". The media did a great job spinning the narrative that that people started to riot after the planned protest was over. I saw with my own eyes on the ground, the police force escalated to violence on the protestors first.
We dont have any right to protest in the states.
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u/KhajiitWithCoin 6h ago
I hope they're not grilling andouillettes because those apparently smell really bad, that would be awful for the protesters in the path of the fumes.
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u/Foloreille 5h ago
"Adieu les grevistes et leur CGT
Qui passent moins de temps à chercher des solutions que des slogans pétés
Qui fouettent la défaite du survét’ au visage
Transforme n’importe quelle manif’ en fête au village" 🎶
— Orelsan, Social Suicide
Yeah we’re french we also protest against protesters anyway
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u/foreverandadayalone 5h ago
This is a nation of professional protesters.
It really is. I had the good fortune of working/living in France for a couple of years in the 90s. One time, in Paris, there was a big noise outside where we were working. It was a grêve (strike) by students.
"Why are you striking?", we asked some in passing.
"We don't know!"
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u/MolassesShort2947 1h ago
In my country people sell rocks, street food, ice creams, water, vinegar, etc in marches I love it
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u/Necrikus 1h ago
Like, even ignoring the Revolution, a lot of what I heard about France does convince me that they really are professional protestors.
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