Hello, I'm Ed Butler. Welcome to Business Daily from the BBC World Service. Today, what it's like to do business in a city at a standstill.

We lost like 50% of our business. Really, I think if it lasts like more than a month, we will be in danger.

Yes, from Hong Kong to Paris. Protest is becoming the norm for millions of the world

citizens these days, knocking billions of company earnings. But is there an upside? I think it's human

and society adapt itself to the difficulties. And we can see Paris changing. We can see Paris

evolving to the strike and doing things differently.

That's all to come in Business Daily from the BBC.

The sound of noisy protests there on the streets of Paris this month.

For the last 47 days, a variety of the country's biggest unions have been calling on the government,

led by Emmanuel Macron, to abandon wide-ranging pension reforms.

Even in a country known for its union militancy,

these have been some of the most disruptive French protests seen in decades, as our own Will Bain has been finding out in the capital city.

So it's lunchtime now here in central Paris. We are just a stone's throw away from the Palides,

in Valid. I can see its gold roof, in fact, at the end of the road.

The music, as you can hear, is blaring behind us.

There's hot dogs, beer for sale, people blowing whistles and selling whistles.

And all around us, there's the colours of all the different flags and banners of the trade unions.

And people are here protesting on their lunch break today. Well, for a variety

of reasons, almost as varied as the different employment sectors these trade unions represent.

Today, people are here because people will be retired, not from 62 years old or from 64.

For example, my pension would be reduced like 30%.

I will lose 600 euros.

...