May 1968 Riots by Karen Donner

Every once in a while I receive emails from blog readers, usually from the U.S., who share their experience of living in Paris for a period of time.

Karen Donner is a high school French teacher from the U.S. and recently sent a colorful story about being a university student during the May 1968 riots. Karen is proud to have her story told in a French history text book and now jokingly tell her students she’s old enough to be in a history book.

I posted another story in 2008 by an American student who also witnessed the May 1968 riots. Click here to read her story.

May 1968 Riots by Karen Donner

For my third year of university studies, majoring in French (and later having earned my MA) I studied in Paris. About 40 students from all over the U.S., under the auspices of The University of Alma, Michigan, flew by prop jet from JFK to Reykjavik, Iceland - for fueling - to Luxembourg from whence we were transported into Paris - and this was end of August 1967!  Hence the impact of this story.  Fast forward to the fact that we were there during the May, 1968 riots, which were wisely staged during the annual "grêves" (strikes) of most of the government businesses/agencies, such as the railroad, the Metro, and the trucking industry.  The graduating university students nationwide were protesting the system by which their final exams were graded as passed or not passed. Tests were sent to professors in different regions of the country so they would not know the students. The government considered how many jobs of what kind would be available for that graduating class. The number of students considered to have "passed" was entirely according to that statistic.  Thus, even a grade of what we would call 85%, for example, might be called "not passing".  The students unfortunate enough to be below the "acceptable" % that year had to attend university another year and try again.

We American students heard that the American Media was hearing that the rioting students were tearing up the cobblestones on the St. Michel and turning over "many" cars and setting them on fire.  Of course the Guard, who was called in, had to use tear gas to disperse the agitated students.  We heard the klaxon of the emergency and police vehicles.  A few of the students of our group decided to approach the St. Michel from back streets (many of us were housed in two Pensions next to the Jardins de Luxembourg). They saw only one car overturned, no fires and only a few cobblestones picked up (which had been thrown into one store window). I called my parents to let them know that we were safe and the disorder was mostly noise.  Someone through a tear gas canister up onto the balcony of a larger bedroom where a bunch of us were gathered to wait out the sirens and excitement. I ran to the open window and kicked off the smoking canister and closed the porte-fenêtres. However, just enough gas had escaped to enter the room.  We couldn't  believe how much that small amount made our eyes burn.  The part of this moment in history which adversely affected us was that the transportation strikes made it complicated for us to return to the U.S. "on time".  My sadness was much more intense as my "French Family" was unable to obtain enough gasoline to pick me up to have a "last" visit with them and I was unable to get any mass transit to get to them. (They still live in Meudon and we still see each other).

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Comments

[Taste of France]

So interesting! I have some friends who were teenagers in Paris at the time and who still recount the events as if it were yesterday.
Thank you for sharing these!