France pension protest held on outskirts of Cannes Film Festival

By JAKE COYLE
AP Film Writer

CANNES, France (AP) — Though protests over pension reforms have roiled France in recent months, demonstrations have been kept largely at bay at one of the country’s glitziest events, the Cannes Film Festival. On Sunday, dozens of protesters gathered in Cannes to oppose the raising of the reforms pushed through parliament by President Emmanuel Macron’s government. But they did so far removed from the central hub of the festival, the Palais des Festivals, or Cannes’ seaside boulevard, the Croisette. Instead, they gathered on the edge of the city, on the Boulevard Carnot. The ban has kept Cannes’ famous red carpet clear of demonstrations and prevented one of the most divisive issues in France from disturbing the highly orchestrated flow of the festival.