Paris, July 2018, early evening. A young university student called Mary Lager is walking home past an outdoor cafe. A man on the pavement cat calls her and makes

sexually suggestive noises at her. Shut up, she matters. He hears this, gets angry, grabs an ashtray from one of the tables and throws

it at Marie, narrowly missing her.

All of that happened very, very fast in a few seconds, so they didn't have time to understand anything.

Marie takes up the story.

After that, I yelled at him and I insulted him because I was so mad.

And I kept yelling at him and I keep insulting him like I think of all of my friends who went through the same things or even worse to all the other women and it made me so mad.

He made him very mad and he started working back to my direction and at this

moment I knew that he was going to punch me so I just stood still and looked at

him coming. I didn't show any emotion and just wanted to keep my dignity.

I knew it was either he stops and walks away or either I looked down or apologize or go, but I was not going

to back down, so I just took still and he came to me and until the last

moment I wasn't sure he was going to punch me but he did.

The assault became notorious, but not because it is a rare event. Sexual harassment is very common in France.

I'm Ellen Dauphar, and a not-me-too, I'm Ellen Dauphar and a Not Me Too, I'm French here on the BBC World Service.

I'm returning to my home country, France, to reveal that behind the romantic cliche, the reality for French women is very different

from what you might imagine.

I'll also be asking why France's own version of the anti-harassment Me Too movement has been

surprisingly controversial and divisive. What does that tell us about gender

relations in France. But first, back to Marie Laguer and the assault,

but first, back to Marie Laguer and the assault.

It was caught on the cafe CCTV camera.

...