- This is not wise.
Céline, 48, points towards the Bastille, about a hundred meters away.
Across the square, with the famous monument to the French Revolution, a police voice echoes: "The demonstration has been banned. Anyone who remains with placards will be fined".
It's not an empty threat.
DN sees a person on a fine of 135 euros (about 1,500 kroner).
- I wanted to go by and demonstrate before I went to work. But now it doesn't work. I actually think it's violent – it's institutional violence, says Céline, who works as an actor by day.
On the park bench next to it is her placard with the text: "Upset and indignant - we will not give up until they have listened".
But on this day, Céline will not be able to demonstrate. President Emmanuel Macron declared on Thursday that only demonstrations by "legitimate actors" would be approved, following last Saturday's riots.
The police have subsequently denied permission for the vast majority of demonstrations that the student movement and the Yellow Vests protest movement wanted to organize.
France needs calm, the president believes - after the dramatic scenes that unfolded a week ago. Then black-clad, masked people clashed with the police on the outskirts of the demonstrations. Around 3,000 business premises were vandalized in the worst riots in many years.
Which groups were behind the vandalism and looting is still somewhat unclear, but the police suspect that violent far-left activists together with criminal groups were driving, and that many opportunistic young people from vulnerable areas participated after being reached by calls via social media.
- Looting is not okay. But it's like the government just wants to escalate the conflict, says Céline's friend Alice, who is a university teacher.
The two friends belong to a clear majority of French people who support the demands of the student movement: a more equal school, smaller classes, more teachers, better premises and that the admissions system to the university should be reformed.
But at the same time, a clear majority also turns against the violence.
This Saturday, 70,000 police had been mobilized to avoid a repeat. Military men guarded important buildings in the big cities.
- The violence that those in the "black bloc" perpetrate is wrong. But if the government doesn't listen to us and only sends the police against us, then eventually you reach a point... well, then maybe it can be justified, says 16-year-old Luca.
He and his friend Suleyman have gone into the Bastille from a suburb north of Paris. They have just been stopped by the police.
- They visited us. Well, they were looking for weapons. I was afraid that they would take my swimming goggles, which I use to cope with the tear gas. But I got to keep them, says Luca.
- Now we go to Porte d'Italie. Apparently that's where the demonstration will go.
He is right. The night before the demonstration, the police changed the demonstration route to reduce the risk of vandalism in Paris. The organizers protested angrily at the late notice, but finally agreed to go near the ring road on the southern outskirts of the city.
In the end, 110,000 people showed up there, according to the police.
- They try to scare us, but our constitution gives us the right to demonstrate. So no, we will not be intimidated, said 24-year-old student Logan Souc.
The radical left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who supports the student movement, joined the march. "Magnificent discipline in the largest demonstration since the beginning of the movement," read his proud judgment on social media.
But an hour or so later, at around 5.30pm on Saturday, chaotic scenes erupted in the rain at the Porte de Vincennes, where the authorized demonstration ended.
Tear gas was fired by police and a water cannon sprayed water at protesters. Some activists threw objects at the police.
Similar scenes unfolded in Marseille, Lyon and several other cities.
Those kinds of clashes are not entirely unusual at the end of demonstrations in France. At the time of writing at 6pm, there still appeared to be relatively limited unrest – at least compared to last week.
