In other words, the French temperamentally liked the idea of protest, not least as a way of snubbing Mr Sarkozy.
He told them his goal was to avenge Palestinian children and protest the French army's presence in Afghanistan, these people say he told police who were trying to secure his surrender.
So rocked were the French by the canicule that the plan passed with little protest.
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On Friday, thousands of Libyans took to the streets of Bamako to show their support for Libya's long-time leader - marching in protest to the French and US embassies against their involvement in the military campaign against Col Gaddafi.
He pointed out the grounds of the French Parliament, which he said had been the site of a recent protest against raising the retirement age, a protest that he found baffling.
Several hundred mostly Kurdish demonstrators gathered for a rain-soaked but peaceful protest in front of the French Consulate in Istanbul on Friday.
They belong to the Society of St Pius X, founded by a French archbishop, Marcel Lefebvre, in 1970 as a protest against the Second Vatican Council's reforms on religious freedom and pluralism.
Meanwhile in France, referees from the third division were brought in to officiate the day's Ligue 1 games after a row between the French football federation and the usual referees, who had wanted to delay the kick-offs in protest at recent criticism from players, coaches and pundits.
The French are civilized except perhaps when they burn cars in protest.
Poles like to imitate the French in many things, not least in their passion for protest in the streets.
French workers were resorting to industrial action in protest at the plans of President Sarkozy to increase the retirement age to 62. (Lucky, in the UK, the new coalition government is moving the retirement age from 65 to 66).
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They refused to take part in protest at Anelka's expulsion, in a situation that has escalated to such an extent the French government have felt the necessity to intervene.
But chiefly, perhaps, because the vociferous German Greens have been a political force in Germany for the past couple of decades, whereas the still-fragmented French ones are relative newcomers in France a country with little tradition of pacifism, nuclear protest or respect for the environment.
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