Police and protesters clash across France

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Police made nearly 1,000 arrests, the government said.

The Paris march began peacefully, a week after widespread rioting and looting during protests across the country. 

But near the demonstration’s endpoint in eastern Paris, police launched tear gas and jets of water cannon to disperse protesters.

The CGT union federation, which helped to organise the protests, estimated that around 800,000 people took to the streets. The French Interior Ministry put the turnout at just over 400,000.

Around 250,000 protesters were in Paris, the CGT estimated, where authorities confined the march to the south-eastern edge of the capital.

There were 289 other protests around the country.

Police used tear gas in Lyon, Clermont-Ferrand, Strasbourg and Bordeaux and water cannon in Nice and Nantes, French media reported. 

In Nice, far-right activists fought with protesters in the city centre and 11 people were arrested, regional authorities said.

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said police made nearly 1,000 arrests but added that the number is expected to increase significantly as more are counted.

Mr Nunez said beefed-up policing helped prevent a repeat of widespread looting and damage to shops the previous weekend.

In Paris, Benedicte Pittion, a teacher, marched with her teenage daughter, Garance, a secondary school student, in their first protest together.

“The young people who have been demonstrating have not been heard, and as a parent and as a teacher, I stand with them,” Ms Pittion said.

Garance said she’d been “really scared” after seeing the previous weekend’s violence, but felt that staying away would hand the government a victory.

Soumaya Abed, a nurse wearing a red CGT union vest, complained that authorities in Paris wanted to stifle protesters by making them march on the capital’s outskirts, keeping them away from the centre where the Louvre and other major museums had closed.

”But it won’t stop the movement. It won’t stop students from demanding better conditions in schools,” she said.

Authorities had banned rallies in cities including Lyon, Nice and Montpellier.

Trade unions slammed the bans, calling them violations of freedom of expression, which is protected by the constitution.

French Communist Party leader Fabien Roussel hailed the “human tide against the high cost of living,” and called for maximum support for the November 5 general strike.

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