Saturday Afternoon Strike

This afternoon, I went into the city center in Lille to meet up with my tandem partner, Lucie, for coffee in one of the cafés off the Grand Place. We meet every week to practice our English and French together; she’s a native French speaker and a student at Lille 3. When I got to the metro station nearest to the Grand Place, I could hear a lot of noise and what sounded like engines running. Usually Lille is pretty busy on Saturday but still fairly quiet. I had never heard anything like this before. I walked towards the Grand Place and saw that the whole square was filled with motorcyclists on bikes! I had no idea what was going on because they didn’t seem to be doing anything, just revving their engines and standing around. I walked up on the Théâtre du Nord steps to take a couple pictures of the whole square from above.

I met Lucie shortly after this and she asked if I knew what was going on. I figured that she might know but her best guess was that this had something to do with a large motorcycle race that in a town near Lille each year. We stopped one of the bikers and asked to be sure. He said that everyone there was demonstrating to gain better protection on the roads and highways, rather than for the race. So I can now say that I have seen my first French strike! I was amazed at how many people had assembled and the size of the demonstration which filled the Grand Place and spread down a couple of the surrounding streets. I didn’t know that there were so many bikers in France! Lucie and I walked around the Grand Place to see a bit more of the strike before heading down one of the streets off the Grand Place which was a little quieter to have our coffee and chat. Below are some of the photos of the strike.

A banner that was hanging on the balcony of the Théâtre du Nord, this made me think that all of the bikers were gathered for some kind of convention or something rather than a strike

Lucie talking with one of the bikers and asking him the reason that everyone is assembled