Inside France’s Night of Terror

“You bourgeois bitch, we’re going to rape you!” That is what young French protesters shouted at Raphaëlle, a young Parisian mother, after she tried to stop them from looting the small shop below her apartment on Saturday.

As she spoke with me on Monday, her voice trembled. I saw her relive the civil war–like scenes that all of France has just watched unfold.

The demonstration began at 2 p.m. on Saturday, when protesters gathered to chant against the uncertain future of high school students, rising fuel prices, and falling purchasing power. By late afternoon, they had been eclipsed by hordes of rioters: thousands of mostly young people, dressed in black, faces masked, storming into shops across the country to loot and steal whatever they could, from Sephora’s Huda Beauty palettes to brand-new Foot Locker sneakers.

As the sun went down, a parallel riot emerged in Limoges, a city in west-central France known for its porcelain. There, around 6 p.m., they set the city hall ablaze.