Protesters clashed with the police in cities across France again on Saturday evening, extending a cycle of social unrest that has gripped the country since last month. But unlike a week ago, the mass demonstrations did not devolve into a spectacle of arson, looting and other violence.
That alone qualified as a modest victory for the French authorities, who have been on the defensive since Oct. 17, when chaotic scenes unfolded in Paris, Marseille and other cities, as marauding bands smashed windows, pillaged stores and set fire to vehicles and public buildings.
For most of the day, these rallies, organized by a French labor union, were peaceful, despite their size. France’s interior ministry estimated that 410,000 people had joined marches across the country. The C.G.T., the union, claimed a turnout of 800,000 people.
As night fell and the police began dispersing the demonstrators, clashes broke out in some cities. Protesters hurled fireworks and police fired volleys of tear gas or torrents from water-cannon trucks. In Paris, officials blamed the skirmishes on a renegade group of roughly 500 rioters.
Still, the lack of widespread property destruction was a relief for the government, which conceded there had been a serious lapse in security last weekend. This weekend, authorities vowed to deploy 70,000 police officers and gendarmes, reinforced by military troops, armored vehicles, drones and helicopters.
By Saturday evening, France’s interior minister, Laurent Nuñez, said the police had made 1,000 arrests, compared with 385 at the same time Oct. 17. While he said there were incidents of looting and vandalism, they “occurred in a very limited number of cities — nothing like what happened last week.”
Mr. Nuñez attributed the reduction to a wave of spot checks of people trying to enter protest areas. Police seized illegal weapons, including fireworks launchers and, in one case, a samurai-style sword. “What has changed is the anticipation based on what happened on the 17th,” Mr. Nuñez said.
Local authorities sharply restricted the number of rallies and, in Paris, shifted the route of the march from the Place de la Bastille, a site for uprisings dating to the French Revolution, to the city’s southwest periphery. That last-minute change drew criticism from organizers, who said it sowed confusion, and opposition leaders, who said it undermined the right of free assembly.
“They want to make us invisible on the edge of Paris,” said Meylan Eponoh, 19, a student who had come in from the eastern suburbs to protest against the underfunding of schools in France’s working-class areas.
“That’s what they do to the poor,” Mr. Eponoh added. “Push them to the side, so the rich in the center of power aren’t bothered.”
Vincent Charache, 35, a municipal worker, said, “It’s a strategy to divide and discourage people.” He traveled two hours by train to protest against the rising divisions between France’s rich and poor.
Some people in Paris said they had joined the marches on Saturday because of the government’s restrictions, calling them a threat to democracy.
The huge turnout across France, on a day when the weather in much of the country was dreary and wet, attested to the depth of grievances in the country. A movement that sprang up in September in high schools, where students are unhappy with the education system, has mushroomed into a nationwide expression of dissatisfaction over a host of issues, from high fuel prices to a slow-growing economy.
The unrest comes at the start of a tense political season in France, with candidates vying to succeed President Emmanuel Macron after he steps down next May. It has played to the advantage of France’s far-right party, the National Rally, whose candidate, Marine Le Pen, currently leads in the polls.
Ms. Le Pen is expected to formally launch her presidential campaign on Sunday in Orléans, south of Paris, where on Saturday, her party held the first day of a two-day congress. The demonstration there was peaceful, even festive, despite fears beforehand that the party’s supporters would clash with the marchers, some of whom had turned out to protest against it.
“What is currently being championed by university and high school students resonates perfectly with what is unfolding in Orléans,” said Bally Bagayoko, the mayor of St.-Denis Pierrefitte-sur-Seine, a suburb north of Paris, who joined the protest in Orléans. A member of France’s main far-left party, France Unbowed, Mr. Bagayoko has become a central figure in the student protests.
“These movements have clearly grasped that we are caught in a dynamic that, if left unchecked, threatens to upend France and, regrettably, risks plunging the nation back into the dark chapters of its past, namely racism and fascism,” he said.
In Paris, fears of violence prompted many of the city’s cultural institutions, including the Louvre, Grand Palais, Orsay, Orangerie and Picasso museums, to close. Along the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, the city’s grandest boulevard, shops and boutiques were boarded up against looters. Security guards were posted at most businesses’ entrances.
For locals, a locked-down Paris was a headache. But it was a heartache for first-time visitors from Louisiana, who traveled to the city for an N.F.L. game between the New Orleans Saints and Pittsburgh Steelers. They found museums shuttered and the Arc de Triomphe ringed by police vans.
“Just about everything is closed,” said Terri Wallis, 65, a school principal from Baton Rouge, who was visiting with three generations of her family. “You know, we’re not wealthy people. This is a once-in-a-lifetime trip to come and see the Mona Lisa. So, this is a little disappointing.”
In Marseille, clashes broke out between protesters and police near Porte d’Aix, an arch where a demonstration was supposed to conclude. Young men, many with their faces covered and some wearing gas or ski masks, dragged large sheets of metal into the street as barricades, while others threw rocks and bottles at riot police or set off fireworks in their direction.
The police fired tear gas and at one point pushed forward with shields and batons, driving back the protesters.
“The people criticize us when things get broken,” said Eva Ikhlef, 19, a student who was marching in the protest earlier in the day. “But it is only when things get broken that we get the attention of the authorities.”
Violence took place in the southern city of Nice as well. At about 4 p.m., the authorities said, about 100 far-right activists wearing masks, poured into the center of the city. They brawled with people marching in the protest, leaving three people injured. Police arrested 11 of the far-right activists.
This kind of attack, Mr. Nuñez said to reporters, was “a first” in the current cycle of unrest in France.
Reporting was contributed by Ben Hubbard in Marseille and Giulia Imbert in Paris
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