During the period of the Black Death in the 1340s and 50s, bourgeois revolts, peasants' protests and aristo vendettas competed with the plague to turn Paris into a thoroughly revolting place. In 1648, La Fronde, a curious grouping of peasants and aristocrats forced the royal family to flee the city and proved that, in Paris at least, rebellion is class-blind. When the Bastille was stormed, in a display of spectacular inefficiency the revolutionaries found that they had rescued a total of seven prisoners. Another bloody stand against the powers that be, the semaine sanglante occurred during the 1871 Paris Commune. Twentieth-century Parisian revolts on the other hand, seem just as likely to involve those from the 16th as the 20th arrondissements and tend to be bloody annoying rather than simply bloody.
First demo ranks a lot higher than first date as a rite of passage.
Simply pick up the Le Parisien newspaper and scan the back-page demo map for the day's hot spot. Alternatively, get on the bus and wait until it grinds to an inevitable halt. All rights reserved.