spécialité du français (speciality of the French)

The strikers were out in force today. Another greve (strike) which could be the start of many to come this summer. The trains to Paris were running at only half capacity. The buses to and from school were NOT running at all. It's a difficult place to get around when you rely on public transport. I ventured out with three girlfriends. We had planned this excursion weeks ago so we were not going to let the greve get us down. Our train to Paris was 25 minutes late...that was the only glitch in our entire day. Lucky us!

At our first subway stop we encountered some strikers. It wasn't exactly the most riotous or forceful demonstration. We stopped to ask the policemen why they had such fancy shin guard protectors. They were quite chatty. One of them waved his hand toward the crowd and said, "La greve est une spécialité du français!" (the strike is a specialty of the French). Let's hope this little "spécialité" doesn't get too out of hand.