Paris (France) (AFP) - AFP has deployed reporters, photographers and video journalists in cities across France to document nationwide cost-of-living protests on Saturday.

Here is a round-up of what they are witnessing as security forces seek to prevent a repeat of violence and looting that erupted on the sidelines of similar demonstrations last weekend.

- ‘Disappointed’ -

The only authorised march in Paris began at Porte d’Italie at 2:00 pm (1200 GMT), with hundreds of people walking in a festive, calm atmosphere beneath cool, overcast skies.

Some carried placards with slogans such as “Macron in the corner” – referring to the French president – and “We expected nothing, yet we’re still disappointed”.

“We’re all here because we want to protest peacefully but people also need to understand that the anger is real. We’ve been walked all over for 10 years,” one protester in a Doctor Who hat who gave their name only as Aurore told AFP.

Ynyane, 19, was dressed as Dragon Ball anime hero Son Goku, a costume he chose “to give people hope”. “Taxes are a bit too high and I have to support people who are struggling,” he added.

- ‘I’m also afraid’ -

High school students who gathered in Toulouse on Saturday spoke of their fears attending a demonstration, after weeks which have seen teenagers among those wounded and maimed in clashes between police and protesters.

Given the clashes last week and “the repression we faced – which was horrific – I think some people might not be keen on coming today”, 17-year-old Ella, a student at the Lycee Marcelin Berthelot in Toulouse, told AFP.

“I’m also afraid of what might happen to me at a protest these days. But the truth is, we can’t give up. Even with this fear, we’re not giving up.”

- ‘Distressing’ -

At Porte de Vincennes, where the Paris march is to finish, few businesses had been barricaded, although many had their shutters down.

“It’s distressing. I don’t know where we’re heading,” said Dominique, an employee at a car rental company who preferred not to give her full name. “My grievance is with the rioters – those who come specifically to smash things and to steal.”

- Lille -

In northern Lille, hundreds of protesters marched under a light drizzle – and the watchful eyes of a significant but discreet police deployment.

Mother-of-three Delphine, who said her children had “delegated” their right to protest to her, was at the front of the march, a long black raincoat draped over her shoulders. “Neither the president nor the weather will stop me from demonstrating,” she told AFP.

- Police are ‘faster’ -

A 21-year-old student protester in Lyon, where demonstrators were tear-gassed on Saturday, said police were “highly mobile”.

“We keep moving around but since the police have vehicles, they’re faster. They manage to break up the groups before they can even really form,” he said.

“We end up exchanging information like criminals. We’re in small groups – sometimes just pairs – trying to share updates and find other people, but it’s extremely difficult.”

- ‘Still open’ -

Near Paris’s Bastille square, a clothing store removed all its merchandise ahead of the demonstrations, while a nearby restaurant was boarded up despite signs insisting it was “still open”. Many retailers in the capital had wooden boards covering windows.

A heavy police presence could be seen at Bastille, along with many journalists, but few protesters. Police used a megaphone to tell the crowd that the planned demonstration had been banned from the area, ordering protesters to go to the alternate route near Porte d’Italie “immediately”.

- Not ‘just one grievance’ -

“I don’t think the French people have just one grievance,” said Aliyah, 22, sitting with her mother Ludovine at a cafe terrace near the Old Port in Marseille as they waited for demonstrations. She said people’s primary concern was rising costs.

“The people are growing poorer, the people are unhappy, so they take to the streets to protest,” she said, adding that bans on the demonstrations in some cities “only makes us more determined to show up”.

- ‘Curiosity’ -

Shops and restaurants were open mid-morning in Grenoble – although a curfew was in place in parts of the city and several shopping centres from 6:00 pm.

Francois-Xavier Chambron, who works at a bar on the city’s Grenette Square, said they planned to stay open at least for lunch, noting that they already had reservations and that people would be around “out of sheer curiosity”.

Demonstrators were gathering for an authorised protest shortly before 2:00 pm in the city, one carrying a sign reading: “And so freedom is extinguished under the rain of tear gas”.

- ‘Hotter than fascists’ -

Thousands of people yelling anti-fascist slogans marched in the city of Orleans against a congress by the far-right National Rally (RN) party of Marine Le Pen.

The protest criticised both leading presidential candidate Le Pen and centrist President Emmanuel Macron. “Macron resign. Le Pen in prison,” the crowd yelled, carrying placards that read “The Youth say ‘screw you’ to the National Rally” and “Hotter than fascists”.

- Tear gas in Lyon -

Police fired tear gas to disperse about 150 protesters in the southeastern city of Lyon, in an area banned to all demonstrations, an AFP journalist saw.

Police fired several tear gas grenades to clear a group gathered near a university building and the city police station. Police moved in as protesters tried to block a road.

Earlier a police helicopter could be seen flying over the city, with security forces patrolling and armoured vehicles and riot police vans parked nearby. Shops were boarded up, with private security guards in front of some.

Calls to defy the bans on protests in the city centre had circulated on social media.

- ‘Improvise’ -

Shopkeepers in boarded-up parts of Paris said they were unsure what to expect.

“It feels like we’re all just going to have to improvise a bit,” Armelle Gueganton, a bookseller in the 12th arrondissement, told AFP.

She worried about the route that authorities had ordered for the main Paris rally, pointing out that parts of it were “extremely narrow” and that it passed by a petrol station.

“I have to wonder if they even have Google Maps at the prefecture when they authorise routes like this.”

- ‘Break things’ -

Shops were also boarded up in the southwestern city of Bordeaux.

“Boarding up five storefronts like ours … costs us nearly 5,000 euros ($5,600),” Margaux Rey, manager of the Altermundi shop, told AFPTV.

“There is a high demand for securing shops ahead of the upcoming demonstrations,” confirmed Joseph Fernandez, a tradesman who was “scrambling” to meet the requests – although, he added, if individuals “want to break things, they will”.

- On patrol -

Numerous riot police vans could be seen in Marseille, along with armoured vehicles and water cannon.

Philippe Mamelli, 64, said he was “patrolling” the southern port city’s thoroughfares armed with a truncheon at his waist and pepper spray in his pocket before heading to a demonstration later.

He said he was part of a group called “Citizen Revolution” which sought to support the student protesters, adding that “rioters are undermining” the student demands.

- Not ‘at ease’ -

Employees of barricaded shops in Rennes said they were worried about Saturday’s events despite a ban on protests.

“Sometimes a ban makes things worse. Protesting is a right – it’s like with children, when you forbid something, it becomes even more tempting,” one employee told AFP.

burs-st/gil