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There are whistle-blowers, bag pipists, horn-blowers and the pounding rhythms from the speaker systems. Stretching down the boulevard are the large balloons of unions like the CFE, CGC and the CFDT.

The atmosphere is good-humoured, almost carnival. But this is a very serious day for the French unions.

They have to build on the turnout they got last June. They said they got a million protesters on the streets then. And numbers matter. A million people or less today and observers say the government would claim the momentum had drained from the protest.

The crowds are dense, but they are mainly members of unions so far. Amongst the people I have spoken to there are doubts as to whether they can defeat President Sarkozy on this. One union official told me "if the people don't back us we'll lose".

So in a very real sense a key struggle is taking place on these noisy streets that will decide whether the French president can implement one of his key reforms. It will also play a large part in determining his political future.

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