Yesterday there was a strike in Chambery of all the social service. Bus drivers, trian engineers, postal workers and some teachers, as well as other, were all stiking, as they have the right to. Stikes in France are fantastique. I have never seen any stirke like it. It was like the biggest parade I've ever seen. At least a thousand people took to the streets with their banners, umbrellas and voices and all marched to the nearest Castle, down town. There was vans with huge speakers blasting latin music and a little farther down the line another blasting pop. There was a marching band chanting their strike slogan in french as loud as they could. There was fireworks, hence the smoke in the picture. It was just so exciting. And to top it all of, I only had to go to 3 of my usual 8 hours of courses!!