Paving Stones - Joe

Finding their way blocked during one march, the students began digging up the streets which were paved with cobblestones. These they used to throw and to build barricades. In one photograph, they have formed a line much like a bucket brigade for a fire, but instead of water they are passing stones along.

The use of these stones to erect barricades tapped into the iconography and memory of the French revolution. The barricades were ineffective from a functional standpoint – they didn’t keep anyone out (and some were only thigh high) – but enormously effective from a symbolic one.

The “pavé” became an icon – the symbol of what has come to be called in France “les evenements.” One poster showed a stone and said “For those under 21, this is your ballot.” A photographer explained, “The camera is my ‘pavé’.” A famous slogan of the time said, “Sous les pavés, la plage.” This has been translated in different ways, although mainly “under the pavement, the beach,” but its basic metaphorical content suggest a more natural, even utopian, world underneath the concrete of modern industrial life.

Student protests happened all over the world in 1968, and the students often learned by watching one another. In Tokyo, later in the year, the students tried to break up the street and emulate “mai 68,” but the street was asphalt and didn’t break easily into chunks. By the early 1970s, much of the Latin Quarter too had been paved over.

You can occasionally buy “genuine” mai 68 pavés on eBay which say things like “this went through the windshield of my father’s car.” And, in 2008, to celebrate the 40^th anniversary, a famous chocolatier made a special edition “pavé” made of chocolate, praline, and nougat priced at 60 euros.