The events of May–June 68 took place more than 40 years ago, and any reader inclined to have a look at the mass of historical material and personal testimonies relating to these events will soon encounter references to the Latin Quarter, the Boulevard Saint-Michel, the Sorbonne, Nanterre… so many features in the complex geography of Paris. The sort of characters that people these places will tend to be young, beautiful and insolent. Most will be under 30, at university and happily in possession of the much-valued baccalauréat qualification. Some of them will be members of the Communist Student Union (UEC), which would become the spearhead of the rebellion that resulted in barricades sprouting up across the student quarter.