In Macron's France, streets and fields seethe with protest

Protesters march, with the Pantheon monument in background, during a demonstration in Paris, on March 7, 2023. [AP Photo]

A big day has come for French high school student Elisa Fares. At age 17, she is taking part in her first protest.

In a country that taught the world about people power with its revolution of 1789 and a country again seething with anger against its leaders graduating from bystander to demonstrator is a generations-old rite of passage. Fares looks both excited and nervous as she prepares to march down Paris streets where people for centuries have similarly defied authority and declared: "Non!"