[HIGHLIGHTS] The battle against the pension reform is invited to the Cannes Film Festival

Cannes has been beset by protests against the French government's pension reform. The city authorities have banned demonstrations in a large perimeter around the Palais des Festivals and the Croisette.

The CGT union organized a small gathering of hotel workers on private land, just outside the porch of Cannes' best-known palace. Without the Carlton's 680 employees and thousands of other employees in the crucial Riviera hospitality sector, "absolutely nothing would happen in Cannes," says a CGT member.