Heading back to our hotel late this afternoon, Brian Brooks and I literally stumbled across a loud, large demonstration making its way to the Bastille monument around the corner. According to an International Herald Tribune report tonight, a few thousand French firefighters demonstrated for higher wages and better benefits.

The flames seen in the photos here are not actually blazing fires, but flares and the cans of orange smoke. We saw the demonstrators igniting firecrackers, shooting flares into the air and turning on fire hydrants.
[photo © eugene hernandez]