President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday steered clear from close contact with the public as he made a new foray into provincial France in the wake of his signing of a hugely unpopular pension reform, reports FRANCE 24.
A visit Macron made to eastern France last Wednesday was marked by acrimonious face-to-face confrontations between the head of state and some inhabitants unhappy over the raise in the retirement age to 64 from 62 and his style of governance.
Just over one year since he won his second mandate in office, his trip to the Loire region of central France saw no similar walkabout to meet area residents, an AFP correspondent said.
Hundreds of people had turned up banging saucepans - a traditional symbol of political protest in France - but Macron was instead whisked into the health centre in the town of Vendôme that he was visiting.
"It's to wake up our president, so that he stops making fun of us," said Bruno Vivien, a retired metallurgy worker who made his protest heard with a bugle.
They made their dissatisfaction known by banging pots and booing within audible distance of the president, who at the end of his visit was flown back to Paris by helicopter.
The local authority had banned any protest around the area where Macron was visiting but a court in the nearby city of Orleans overturned this ruling after complaints from rights groups.