John Lichfield

And we'll look at the fine tradition of Halloween in France and some of the spooky and not-so-spooky things you can do this year.

I'm Ben McPartland and I'll be joined by the locals' own team of sorcerers, Emma Pearson, Emma Albright and John Lichfield.

Okay, before we go on, I must apologize for this podcast coming out a day later than usual.

We had a few technical problems we had to overcome in recent days.

So next week's going to be busy for them.

I was talking to one student who's at the Sorbonne in Paris, and she said they've been told that probably they won't be going back till Christmas or expect the worst anyway.

Right, let's get the latest on all this from our French politics expert, John Lichfield, who joins us on the line from Normandy.

John, has the French government done enough to calm the students' anger?

We'll give you a taste of the best ones.

I'm Ben McPartland, and I'll be joined by the team at The Local France, Emma Pearson, Emma Albright, and French politics expert John Lichfield.

Right, it's fair to say a lot has happened since you last tuned in.

We've had almost 2,400 people arrested, almost 2,000 shops looted, nearly 1,000 police officers injured and damage estimated to run into millions of euros.

The French Prime Minister has asked regional governments in France to put in place partial curfews in an effort to contain violent protests.

We're joined by veteran correspondent based in Paris, John Lichfield.

John, how are things today in Paris? A little quieter than over the weekend?

Yeah, certainly quieter than Saturday, which was a calamitous day.

No, the French don't say Ikea, LinkedIn or Uggs.

I'm Ben McPartland and joining me for this episode will be the usual suspects from the local France, Emma Pearson, Emma Albright and politics expert John Lichfield.

Right, let's start off this week where we ended last week.

Lise protests.

But that's been called off because the union said they had productive talks about pay and working conditions.

Fantastic.

Okay, let's bring in John Lichfield, who joins us on the line from Normandy.

John, we'll start with the Lise protests.

This wasn't meant to be a special episode, but this student uprising has caught us by surprise, so we need to break down what's going on, what's caused it, and find out where it's all heading.

To do that, I'll call on the team at The Local France, Emma Pearson, Emma Albright, our French politics expert, Jon Lichfield, as well as French education expert and author Peter Gumbel.

I'm Ben McPartland, your host.

[twinkling] Right, let's start at the beginning, Emma Pearson, how did all this flare up?

And certainly there were lots of anti Rassemblement National banners and chanting on the Tuesday march.

Hmm, okay.

Let's bring in our politics expert, John Lichfield now, who joins us on the line from Normandy.

John, how did we get to the point where hundreds of lycees have closed? We didn't really see this coming.