In an interview with The North Star, Félix recounts that the first two protests he attended were massive and relatively calm. According to him, about 10,000 people had gathered in Bordeaux at the time. “Toward the end, some people set trash cans on fire […] but I’ve been told that’s relatively normal at the end of a protest.”
The October 17 demonstration, which Léa also joined, was more turbulent, however. The couple had joined an initial gathering at Place de la Victoire that marched toward a larger rally taking place at Place de la Bourse.
However, the heavy use of tear gas dispersed the second rally before it had even officially begun. “We hadn’t even reached Place de la Bourse yet, and there were really a lot of people there. The estimates put the number at at least 50,000 people. But the police were already firing tear gas before the protest had even started,” Félix recounts.
“We tried to head into the small side streets nearby, but the police were blocking many of the exits. They told us, ‘You have to go out that way,’ and pointed us in a direction where there was the most tear gas.”
Most of the time, people protest peacefully. However, when the police intervene, the situation become quickly chaotic. That’s often when things start to go wrong.
