A French Fair as Workers Paradise, Feting Cuisine, Music and Communism

Christine Marlier was angry when President Emmanuel Macron called a snap election this summer.She’s even angrier now that he appointed a right-wing prime minister, despite the fact that a leftist bloc won the most seats in Parliament.But Ms.

Marlier left that anger behind at home in the far northeast of France when she boarded a bus for a four-hour ride to a nearly 100-year-old festival on the outskirts of Paris that celebrates left-wing politics in general, and French Communism in particular.The Fête de l’Humanité — festival of humanity — is an unlikely mixture of Burning Man, Woodstock and a political convention.“We are never angry here,” said Ms.Marlier, 51, in between doing 1 euro shots of alcohol with her husband, both their faces decorated by sparkles.They were standing in the middle of a dirt lane, between large white booths set up by Communist Party associations from around the country, offering the food specialties of their regions — including raw oysters and steamed lobsters, giant pans of tartiflette, and axoa, a minced veal dish from the Basque region....