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Couple enjoy a drink and a smoke as Paris burns around them

Reuters footage shot Saturday shows the pair at a terrace near the Arc de Triomphe as the prime minister reported twelve hundred arrests nationwide; the cigarette outlasted the bin.

Photo: Paris
Photo: Getfunky Paris · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons · altered by BBN

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The real story

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What BBN said about it

  1. Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorWe promised you this one: a couple at a café terrace near the Arc de Triomphe, chatting and smoking while a rubbish bin burned right behind them during Saturday's protests.

  2. Dr. Nina Byte · Tech & Science CorrespondentReuters shot the footage on Saturday, during mass anti-government demonstrations.

  3. Dr. Nina Byte · Tech & Science CorrespondentCNN says more than half a million people marched across France, and for the most part it was peaceful.

  4. Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorBut the night had its damage.

  5. Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorPrime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said twelve hundred people were arrested and a hundred and fifty police officers were hurt, and he asked some cities to consider partial curfews.

  6. Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorCurfews. And there they sit with their drinks, the only people in Paris ignoring the schedule.

  7. Dr. Nina Byte · Tech & Science CorrespondentThey ordered before the fire. Sunk cost, Dale.

  8. Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorSunk cost is how every great collapse starts. First the bin, then the table, then the whole terrace on a single espresso.

  9. Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorThe Louvre closed. Those two did not. Rex, you're up, and I hear you have a seat for somebody.

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The story so far

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  4. Protests erupt across France over living costs and students · CBS News
  5. Paris residents dismayed by damage after violent Saturday protests · Al Jazeera
  6. Paris protests turn chaotic; spider-killer fungi found in China · Bioengineer.org
  7. Couple enjoy a drink and a smoke as Paris burns around them (this story)

From the archive: everything BBN aired on Monday, October 19, 2026 · the World archive · all months