On our last hike the conversation drifted, as it does, to the news out of France. Somewhere between a creek crossing and a snack break, someone said, “Well, it’s mostly peaceful.” Everybody laughed, because we’ve all heard that phrase before. We watched coverage during the unrest in the U.S. where the reporter said “mostly peaceful” while a building burned behind them. It’s become a bit of a joke, and a useful reminder: “mostly” does a lot of work in that sentence.
This isn’t a political post. It’s a preparedness post, and France just handed us a case study.
What Happened
On Saturday, October 17, hundreds of thousands of people marched in scores of French cities over the cost of living, fuel prices, and declining public services. Students joined in, too. Reports put turnout somewhere between 550,000 (the government’s number) and 800,000 (the organizers’ number). Those figures are preliminary and, as usual, the two sides don’t agree.
Most of those people marched peacefully. Then smaller groups of masked rioters showed up. They looted shops and supermarkets, burned police cars, and fought with police. In Limoges, the 143-year-old city hall was set on fire and largely destroyed. Early reports counted well over a thousand arrests and many police officers injured, and the numbers are still moving. Businesses reported losses in the hundreds of millions of euros.
Both things are true at once: a big peaceful crowd, and a violent minority who did most of the damage. If you only prepare for the first one, you’re not prepared.
Why It’s Happening (The Short Version)
France is a republic with a strong president and a prime minister who has to hold together a government in a divided parliament. Right now that government is a minority one. It’s trying to pass a budget with roughly €54 billion in savings, because public debt is around 119 percent of GDP and borrowing costs are at multi-decade highs. Cutting spending is unpopular. Not cutting it is unsustainable. Meanwhile prices are high, wages feel flat, and an election is coming in the spring, so everybody is shouting at everybody.
You don’t have to agree with either side to see the pattern: a government that’s out of money, citizens who are squeezed, and a political system too gridlocked to fix it quickly. That recipe has produced unrest in France before (the 2018 yellow vest protests, the 2023 riots), and in plenty of other places. Nobody is immune, including us.
Lesson One: Riots and Looting Are Something to Plan For
Unrest tends to be fast, local, and uneven. One neighborhood is fine while the next one is on fire. A few practical habits:
- Avoid the crowd. If there’s a large protest in your town, the best move is to be somewhere else. Curious onlookers are the ones who get hurt.
- Know two ways out of your home, your workplace, and your town. Roads close fast.
- Stay low-profile. Don’t film, argue, or play hero. Your goal is to be not there. Stay in groups and stay safe.
- Think about your store. Shops get looted first, and what’s on their shelves is what you’d be shopping for. That leads to the next point.
Lesson Two: Have Your Own Supplies (Fuel Included)
Fuel prices helped start this. And in any unrest, the first things to disappear are fuel, food, cash, and medicine. If you’ve read our posts on food preservation and first aid, you know where this is going:
- Keep your gas tank above half. Always. It’s the cheapest preparedness habit there is, and it will annoy absolutely no one.
- Store some fuel safely in approved containers, away from the house, and rotate it with a stabilizer. Check local fire codes first.
- Stock a few weeks of food, water, and medicine you actually use, and keep a small cash reserve in small bills. Card readers go down when the power or network does.
- Heating and light. It’s October in North Idaho. Winter isn’t a surprise, so don’t act surprised.
Lesson Three: Unrest Breaks Communications
When things get ugly, cell towers get overloaded, networks get shut off or damaged, and rumors fill the gap. That’s the time you find out whether you actually have a plan or just a phone. Our communications plan post covers this in detail, but the short version is PACE: a primary, alternate, contingency, and emergency way to reach your people. Write it down, test it, and practice it before you need it. Radios don’t work if they’re in a drawer with dead batteries.
Also, be careful with what you trust. Early reports in a crisis are often wrong. The first number you hear is rarely the last one (France is already a good example), so check more than one source before you act or share.
Lesson Four: Don’t Be the Squeezed One
Here’s the unglamorous part. Much of what’s happening in France comes down to debt: a government spending more than it takes in, and families stretched thin. Governments can borrow for a long time. Households can’t.
If we want to be ready for hard times, we can’t be living on the edge ourselves:
- Live within your means. Prepping with a credit card is just a more expensive way to be unprepared.
- Pay down high-interest debt before buying the fancy gear. A debt-free person can ride out a lost paycheck. A leveraged one can’t.
- Build a cash cushion before a gear cabinet. Three to six months of expenses is a common goal.
- Skills over stuff. Cooking, repair, first aid, and radio work don’t have a monthly payment.
A joke we’ve made around the group: the best-equipped prepper in the world, buried in debt, is just a well-organized person with a repo notice coming. The goal is freedom, not a nicely labeled mess.
The Takeaway
None of us can fix France’s budget. But we can do something about our own gas tank, pantry, radio plan, and balance sheet. And we can do it together: it’s a lot easier to weather a rough stretch with neighbors, friends, and a group you already trust. That’s the whole point of community.
So the next time you hear “mostly peaceful,” do the sensible thing. Be glad for the peaceful majority, be ready for the rest, and make sure the gas tank is full.
If you’d like to prepare with a group, see our How to Join page and come out on the next hike. Bring a snack. And your opinions.
Disclaimer
- This post is general information and commentary, not legal, financial, or professional advice. It is not a statement of political endorsement for any party or government.
- Don’t be stupid, and it’s best to not be around stupid people. 🙂
