Avenue MacMahon in Paris is one of 12 main thoroughfares that lead to Charles de Gaulle’s roundabout, known as the “Etoile” or Stern, which is the most chaotic traffic junction in Europe
he avenue is named after Patrice de MacMahon, descendant of a noble Clare family who ended up in France through Cromwell’s raids and rose into society through successful military service with the Wild Geese and clever marriage alliances.
Marshal MacMahon himself has strong royalist and conservative leanings. But a series of accidents made him the first President of modern France in 1873, and his tenure banished the idea of restoring a monarch.
It seems appropriate that the avenue named after MacMahon flows into a focal point named after the legendary General de Gaulle, who also had strong ancestral ties to Ireland.
The marshal’s fame is a fraction of the general’s – but both left their mark on France and the country’s highest political office.
Avenue MacMahon was thus quite an appropriate place for a visiting Irishman to learn about the mood on the streets as the French nation was invited to choose their choice between incumbent President Macron and three-times unsuccessful challenger Marine Le Pen.
The young Franco-African waiter in a café found it difficult to contain his indifference.
“I vote for neither. I believe that neither Macron nor Le Pen have any relevance to my life. I voted for Mélenchon for the first time – he’s a good man. But now I’m not voting,” he replied to my impudent question.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon was the surprise package and his 7.7 million votes represented 22 percent, just 400,000 votes short of reaching the second round ahead of Le Pen. The big mystery was what would happen to those Mélenchon votes and what the possible implications of abstaining would be.
On the other side of the café sat a man who forestalled any question. He called into his cell phone in heavily accented English and intoned, “If this woman wins, it means civil war in this country.”
But this area wasn’t too posh for people to admit their support for the far-right Marine Le Pen. “Yes, I have already voted for her by mail. She’s going to shake things up and make some changes,” a tall, well-dressed young man volunteered before the question was even finished. Three versions on the potential factors given out in minutes.
Otherwise, Paris was quiet as people awaited the result of an unusually reliable exit poll at 7pm Irish time. Only the police were busy securing the big city rallies of both candidates.
Details of Macron’s rally in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower were revealed, as were the tightest security arrangements imaginable. The same goes for Le Pen’s defiant gathering in the nearby Bois de Boulogne woods.