In fact, the day culminated in pitched battle between protesters and riot police. “I think it is going to be more festive, there are families,” he said. At this year’s May 1 demonstrations he was expecting a peaceful atmosphere. Joancalves has been selling merguez for 15 years and has been at every protest this season.

As French newspaper Le Monde put it, the wafts of sausage are “the madeleine de Proust of the workers’ movement.”Īt one food stall, shrouded in its own aroma, vendor David Joancalves was pushing the meat around in his fryer, waiting for orders – giving customers half a baguette to hold the meat and inviting them to “help yourself to sauces” – a row of condiments in various shades of red and orange. “A social movement can tip into an uprising or a revolution.”įrench novelist Marcel Proust once wrote reverentially of how the scent of freshly baked madeleine cakes could trigger a remembrance of things past. “They brought with them their usual leisurely habits and that’s interesting because that is also what makes a massive social movement,” Reungoat told CNN. The sausage’s role in helping fuel this year’s sometimes violent protests was observed by academic Emmanuelle Reungoat.Ī maitresse de conférence – or associate professor – of political sciences at the university of Montpelier, Reungoat spent time meeting with demonstrators and observed that many first-timers joined in because it was an opportunity to hang out with friends and enjoy a barbecue.

Such was the meaty role played by merguez in keeping the gilet jaune movement nourished that they were labeled a “revolutionary tool” by François Ruffin, a French politician seen as a contender to lead the far left at the country’s next election. When yellow vest-wearing “gilet jaune” protesters brought parts of France to halt in 2018 to demand political and economic change, the grills were fired up once again and out came the sausages. Ibrahim Lamhin, a grill man for labor union Force Ouvrière, cooking sausages at a protest in the center of Paris.

Down and out in paris