On the Left Bank, it’s 1968 all over again

IT WAS the latest and most dramatic sign of the anger and radicalism that is edging back towards the centre stage of French public life.

One million workers took to the streets of Paris last Thursday and one-quarter of France's five million public sector workers laid down their tools.

So on this "day of mobilisation", I decided to stay in my pyjamas all day: staying home was the safest bet.

My son kept me company. His school was closed. So was my bank, my tax office (whom I needed to reach), my local doctor and many journalists who work for France Television.

Around lunchtime I got a strange message: "Left Bank Neighbourhood Dinner". It was from a friend who explained it was for anyone who could get to her flat by walking. She was not able to get to the shops, so what would be served would be what was in the larder. And the wine cellar, of course.

I put on my heavy boots and set to walking around the Luxembourg Gardens, avoiding packs of youths who had taken the day off from school to party. When I arrived at the dinner, everyone was deep in the champagne and saucisse and bravely saying that France was not yet in recession. No one mentioned the two million ­unemployed.

I am afraid that the shadow of Black Thursday hung over our dinner slightly. Even though strikes ended less violently than expected, all of us are fearing Greek-style riots the next time. Most people here are in a dark mood, and feel our President is doing little to lift it.

"It will be 1968 again," said a literary colleague who was at the barricades all those years ago. "I just sense from the tone in the cafés, everyone is mad as hell."

It's true. I walked to Café Flore on Black Thursday for a work meeting — where else to meet when offices are closed? The mood was grave. People were drinking water rather than wine and a French starlet looked red-eyed and tearful.

"Jesus," a French fashion friend said, greeting me near the door. "Hard times or what?"

Sarkozy does not seem to pour balm on the wound, either. Ordinary people feel they are suffering for something the rich did. In the past I have been stunned by the schadenfreude about how France was the only country in the Eurozone to escape the recession.

Now that is gone. Next week will provide the proof — the school holidays, when nearly everyone usually goes skiing. This year I did an informal poll. Let's put it this way — I have lots of playdates for my son lined up in Paris.