Familiar images of teargas drift across Paris squares at the moment. https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2026/oct/24/france. And baton-carrying police charge terrified teenagers once again. This is not new. It is a legacy dating back to the 1789 revolution and protesters here know that “the street” can force governments to back down.This happened in the spring of 1968 when I was living there. The following post is a fictionalised short story focusing on my first naive encounter with French culture and with street rebellion.