“If women only wear them for their religion, okay,” said Mr. Gerard, “but I think it’s generally a provocation.”
Maryvonne Duché, another staunch supporter of Mrs. Le Pen, sat at a nearby table. She started as a sales associate at age 14, before spending 34 years on the production line at a nearby Philips electronics factory, which closed 12 years ago.
“Apart from two pregnancies, I worked non-stop from age 14 to 60, and now I have a pension of $1,160 a month,” she said — or about $1,250. “It’s pathetic, with almost half in rent, but Macron doesn’t care.”
And Mrs. Le Pen? “I don’t love her, but I will vote for her to get rid of Macron.”
Mr Macron’s view of this city was of almost universal contempt: a man with no respect for the French, removed from reality, so cerebral that he has no idea of ’real life’, insensitive to the everyday problems of many people , from a class that has “never changed a child’s diaper,” in the words of Mr. Gerard.
Ms. Le Pen, on the other hand, is seen as someone who will protect people from the disruptive onslaught of the modern world.
What you need to know about the French presidential election
France, like other Western societies, including the United States, is fractured, with a liberal, global and metropolitan elite saying goodbye to what the French call “the periphery” – devastated urban and remote rural areas that feel left behind and often invisible. .