AP PHOTOS: Marseille carnival melds resistance with revelry
On a sunny afternoon in the center of Marseille in southern France, traffic was stopped as the sound of drumming and a swarm of rollicking beasts filled the streets.
The city's unofficial yet infamous Carnaval de la Plaine had arrived — right on the precipice of a week filled with violent protests and discontent over French President Emmanuel Macron's move to force through an unpopular bill raising the retirement age from 62 to 64.
Organized by neighborhood residents, the independent carnival is rooted in the local community’s activism against gentrification and all forms of oppression. Residents of this ancient and diverse Mediterranean city take to the streets in the most wacky and elaborate costumes they can come up with, and exercise free rein to throw flour at anyone not in the know — or brave enough to show up in normal clothes.
Most editions in recent memory end with riot police dispersing the feisty crowd with tear gas, making police intervention almost part of the...