Paris, students riots and police

By now you will have realised that this blog is a little out of synch with real time. There are a number of reasons but primarily it is because we were without an internet connection for several days - it will get better.
So, to continue on from where we left off on the 1st of May.
After returning from our walk to Notre Dame cathedral we rearrange the studio to make it more livable for us - eg there is one bed downstairs and one on the mezzanine (not a good set up) so we lower the mezzanine bed down to the studio floor and set up the mezzanine space as a work area where we can work with the laptop.
Afterward we go exploring to find somewhere to stock up with essential (thanks to Fiona Lee's helpful instructions this is a simple exercise) but unfortunately all the shops are closed because of the holiday so we return empty handed.
Some previous tenant has left some Lavazza Espresso ground coffee so we settle for a black coffee and some biscuits left over from the flight.
It is such a beautiful evening that we decide to head out again to explore even though it is now 7pm. Heading down Rue de l'hotel de ville we turn into the street at the rear of the Hotel de Ville (City hall - very impressive) and notice four gendarmes in full riot gear on the other side of the road. A little further along we see a group of students gathered around a doorway with a few regular police keeping a careful watch. Suddenly there is a lot of shouting and the some of the students start running away from the building - others appear to have broken into the building - as if by magic the street is suddenly filled with riot police (shields and all) running towards the original group as well as chasing after the running students. Sirens are blasting, police vans fill the street and we are standing in the middle of this melee - without a camera!
We race back to the studio to collect our cameras and on our way back spot a group of plain clothes police leading hand cuffed students back toward the street where it all started. We hang around for a while and get few shots for atmosphere but it appears to have quietened down so after about half an hour we head off. As we cross Rue de Rivoli we notice large crowds of students heading back the way we had come but think it is best to stay away from any further confrontation (enough excitement for one night).
On our way home we find a small corner store which has hardly any room to move but where we can purchase the essentials - including a nice bottle of Burgundy to celebrate our arrival in France.