The 1960's was a tumultuous time of revolt and unrest throughout the globe and France was no different. This walking tour is going to focus on the May 1968 student uprising within Paris. The theme of this walking tour is going to be "Uprising". The goal of this tour is to give a geographical and historical recount of the student led movement and protest within Paris during May 1968. Through the use of the points of interest, this tour is going to successfully direct its participants through the actual movement of the student protests during May 1968 and highlight the important social and political monuments of their uprising. The theme of this tour is "Uprising" because there is still debate among historians as to whether or not the events in Paris May 1968 earn the title of revolution or uprising.

On this tour, we will visit the following sites:

The tour will start at the University of Sorbonne where, on May 3rd, 1968 students marched on the Sorbonne, the campus widely labeled as the heart of the University of Paris, to rebel against the closure of the Nanterre campus where the "Uprising" began. [1]

Making their way through the Lating Quarter, the tour participants will visit the Place de L'Odeon where On May 15, 1968, the student movement was joined by a broader social mobilization, which took the form of strikes and especially occupations in the workplace which was directed by Jean-Louis Barrault. In the back of Place de L'Odeon is a statue of the French revolutionary George Danton. Danton is, arguably, the main force in establishing the First French Republic in 1792 and a major inspiration for the students of Sorbonne.[3]

Continuing from the Place de L'Odeon to the north-west is the Bourse (Paris Stock Exchange) and the next point of interest. Here, we see some of the most intense fighting of the uprising leaving one policeman killed. Not only this, but the Bourse was symbolic to the protestors as a communist flag was raised over the building and almost set ablaze as police forced the protestors back.[4]

The next point of interest will be La Petite Suisse café that was built in 1792 which was a very popular café for student revolutionaries of the Left to gather and plan for the Student Protest at Sorbonne.[5] Not only does this café represent an important structure of the "Uprising" but also capitulates the importance of French cafes in Paris for the planning and executing of protests.

The last point of interest is going to be the intersection of Gay-Lussac Street and Boulevard Saint Michel where the most violent of the protest and conflict with the police occurred between student protesters.The conflict also involved a lot of working class students as well, where the most prominent images of the protest with burning cars were and where the police launched a scorched earth tactic. [6]

[1] Bernard E. Brown, The Events of May. Protest in Paris: anatomy of a revolt (Morristown, NJ: General Learning P, 1974), 2-33.

[2] Daniel Singer, Prelude to Revolution: France in May 1968 (New York, NY: Hill and Wang, 1970), 121.

[3] George Lakey, Powerful Peacemaking: a strategy for a living revolution. 2nd ed. (Philadelphia, PA: New Society, 1987), 30-37.

[5] Hussey Lidner, Paris-Amsterdam underground: essays on cultural resistance, subversion, and diversion (Amsterdam University Press, 2014), 154.

[6] Daniel Singer, Prelude to Revolution: France in May 1968 (South End Press, 2002), 137.

The goal of this tour is to reveal the intricacies of distinguishing this great political movement as a "revolution" or an "uprising" while engaging on the actual movement that the Paris students and workers took from la Sorbonne to the intersection of Boulevard Saint-Michel and Rue Gay-Lussac Street.

Bibliography

Brown, Bernard E. The Events of May. Protest in Paris: anatomy of a revolt. Morristown, NJ: General Learning P, 1974.

Lakey, George. Powerful Peacemaking: a strategy for a living revolution. 2nd ed. Philadelphia, PA: New Society, 1987.

Lidner, Hussey. Paris-Amsterdam underground: essays on cultural resistance, subversion, and diversion. Amsterdam University Press, 2014.

Singer, Daneil. Prelude to Revolution: France in May 1968. South End Press, 2002.

Staff, History.com . Protests mount in France. History.com. A&E Television Networks: 2010. www.history.com/this-day-in-history/protests-mount-in-france.