FRANCE: Police estimated their number at 300,000. The unions insisted there were at least twice that many. From where I stood on the Quai d'Austerlitz, the demonstrators stretched as far as the eye could see, coming over the Seine in a human wave, advancing up the boulevard de l'Hôpital towards the Place de l'Italie.
It was the biggest protest march in France since hundreds of thousands opposed the presidential candidacy of Mr Jean-Marie Le Pen one year ago.
The rival demonstrations were only a few metro stops apart, but it didn't take a degree in political science to figure out that Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin was losing the numbers battle in the streets of Paris.
In eastern Paris, starting at the Place de la Nation, the march by opponents of Mr Raffarin's draft law on pension reform, which will be presented to the cabinet on Wednesday, started painting banners and making sandwiches at 9 a.m. So many protestors - mostly teachers and railway workers - came from all over France that the cortege had to be split into separate routes, crossing three different bridges over the Seine. It was scheduled to end at 10 p.m. last night.
A few miles away, at the Place de l'Hôtel de Ville, perhaps 1,000 people turned out in support of Mr Raffarin's plan to make all Frenchmen work 40 years (from 2008) before enjoying full retirement benefits, and 42 years from 2020. At present, government employees work 37.5 years.
The centre-right UDF would like Mr Raffarin to submit the issue to a referendum, based on the premise that teachers' and transport unions are holding the country hostage, and that the "silent majority" recognise the need for reform.
But the poor attendance at the "counter demonstration" will not encourage Mr Raffarin to hold a referendum.
The communist trade union leader, Mr Bernard Thibault, warned yesterday that the show of force in Paris and other French cities was but a taste of things to come. Air traffic controllers and postal and telecommunications workers will strike tomorrow, and the SNCF railway and RATP Parisian transport workers have called open-ended strikes from 8 p.m. on June 2nd.
Mr Raffarin is beginning to sound like a sacrificial lamb.
"I feel I must assume responsibility for the future of France," he said on returning from Canada yesterday. "My generation cannot wash its hands and leave to the following generations the challenges that we must surmount."
Not many French people, it seems, are masochistic enough to want to work longer. Nor is President Jacques Chirac masochistic enough to get involved. He has so far resisted appeals to take a stand on the strikes and demonstrations.
Mr Jean Collon (51), is a primary school teacher from Parthenay, a town 400 km from Paris which is twinned with Tipperary. Why could other EU countries manage labour crises without enduring crippling strikes? I asked him. "The others have a tradition of social negotiations," he replied.
"Unfortunately, in France, it's always a power struggle. We won't accept that one class - big business - seizes all the wealth of the country. The next few weeks will be hard. Chirac is going to have an unpleasant Bastille Day; he'll have to give in."
Distrust of government intentions underlies the protest movement, which is led by France's 800,000 teachers. One of their main grievances - the "decentralisation" of 100,000 non-teaching jobs such as school nurses and canteen workers - does not concern them directly, but the teachers claim they'll be next in line if the reform takes place.
Under the Raffarin plan, metro and railway workers are to keep their "special regime" of full retirement after 37.5 years - yet they already paralysed France during the second week in May and are about to do so again.
"They know that if a large body like the teachers go through the mill, they'll be next," Mr Collon explained.
The government claims demography leaves it no alternative, if France's pension system is to be salvaged. The socialists were in power from 1997 until 2002 but preferred to postpone the issue until after last year's presidential election.
But experts consulted by the former Prime Minister, Mr Lionel Jospin, told him he would have to do exactly what Mr Raffarin is attempting. The socialists and greens are demanding the reform be abandoned.
Mr Collon, the primary school teacher, had an easy answer to the dilemma: maintain the present system by increasing the percentage of Gross Domestic Product devoted to retirement from 12 per cent at present to 16 per cent in 2040.
The placards around him suggested other solutions: "Work more, earn less, and if possible, die soon!" said one.
"Take the money from the army!" suggested another.
At the pro-Raffarin counter demonstration, Ms Pascale Vivienne (51), a self-employed investment consultant, handed me a flier that says: "The unions are irresponsible: we must not let them impose their law!"
Ms Vivienne scoffed at Mr Collon's suggestion. "It's easy to play with figures," she said. "The socialists were in power for five years, and their answer to everything is raising taxes. French people have to work harder. We must stop being a nation that lives on government hand-outs. Managing the economy should be like managing a private business."