Crazy video shows French restaurant customers wining and dining as city burns around them

Footage has gone viral of the French people’s “laissez faire” reaction to the wild, nationwide protests against pension reforms.

The French are taking a very laissez faire approach to the nationwide protests against pension reform.

It seems the French are taking a very ‘laissez faire’ approach to the nationwide fierce protests against President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reforms, continuing to wine and dine as their cities burn around them.

At least that is exactly the attitude some French people seem to be taking in videos that have gone viral on social media.

In the video, posted to TikTok, people can be seen in an outdoor seating area at the Place de la Victoire in Bordeaux drinking wine and relaxing as a bonfire burns in the street behind them.

It is understood the video was captured in Bordeaux after rioters set fire to the roads on Thursday, March 23, in the most violent day of the protests against pension reform.

While some in the video can be seen watching or hurrying away, the couple in the foreground pay the burning pyre little mind and, instead, focus on their wine and conversation.

Another woman pulls up a chair to sit at a table just a little closer to the fire, before sitting and continuing to look at her phone. Her male companion, however, keeps an eye on the burning spectacle nearby.

Yet, despite the fire throwing sporadic sparks and explosions, the patrons seem mostly unfazed.

And this is not an isolated incident, with another video also going viral recently of a busy Paris restaurant continuing business as usual as fires burn bright orange in the city streets outside.

It seems the French are now impervious to multiple spot fires outside of restaurants as protesting against the Macron regime has become a permanent fixture ever since yellow vests kicked it off.

“Vive la France” 🇫🇷 #DontSweatTheSmallStuffpic.twitter.com/Oyw3eO6QFQ

— Paul Kikos 🌐 (@PKikos) March 21, 2023

Burning roads and bonfires of rubbish have become commonplace across France in the days following President Macron’s push to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64.

Since January, hundreds of thousands of French people have peacefully marched against the reform, but a wave of strikes – including by rubbish collectors in Paris which left the streets littered and stinking – escalated last week when the government used executive powers to force the bill through parliament.

The French government resorted to Article 49.3 of the constitution to rush the draft legislation through parliament without a vote from elected members, after realising it may not have the votes to pass.

Fires have become commonplace in French streets as protesters continue to rally against pension reforms. Picture: Anna Kurth/AFP

This triggered two votes of no-confidence in the Macron government – one of which he only survived by nine votes – and sparked white-hot outrage that led to these latest fiery scenes.

The protests against the pension reform have become the biggest domestic crisis of President Macron’s second mandate, with police and protesters clashing regularly in Paris and other cities since the reform was forced through, AFP reports.

French officials said Thursday was the most violent day of the protests since they first began, with more than 450 people arrested.

France’s Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said the violent scenes had left an officer and demonstrator critically injured, and at least 29 others suffering lighter injuries.

Other officials and protest organisers estimate hundreds have been injured in the protests,The New York Post reports.

Some 1.089 million protesters have joined demonstrations against pension reform, with 119,000 marching in Paris alone. Picture: Jean-Francois Monier/AFP

French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne told AFP she would meet opposition leaders next month and was open to talks with unions, promising to not make further use of Article 49.3 outside of budget matters.

“We have to find the right path,” she said, according to AFP.

“We need to calm down.”

However, she said the pensions reform would go ahead, subject to approval by the Constitutional Council, which will rule on the constitutionality of the legislation.

Opposition parties are reportedly hoping the Council will rule against the government because of the way it was forced through the parliament without a vote.

French President Emmanuel Macron has condemned the violence in response to his controversial bill. Picture: Ludovic Marin/AFP

Ms Borne has reportedly used Article 49.3 to pass legislation 11 times since becoming prime minister, but promised to not use any more for non-financial matters.

“I have two objectives,” she told the AFP.

“To bring calm to the country in the face of these tensions, and to step up providing answers to the expectations of the French people.”

President Macron is due to meet Ms Borne and other senior members of the government on Monday, local time.

Ms Borne said she would meet parliamentary groups and political parties, including the opposition, to open dialogue and to quell tensions.

– with AFP