PARIS--It's lunchtime and Parisians are queuing for baguettes at a bakery on the Rue Montmartre, a sight long typical of life in the French capital.
But three cyclists clad in neon-blue outfits chat outside and regularly check the smartphones strapped to their wrists, waiting for orders to whisk meals from nearby restaurants and bistros to other Parisians in their homes or offices. They're among an army of riders working for the British-based Deliveroo firm who have rapidly become a familiar sight pedalling up and down the city's boulevards.
These recent scenes in the Montorgueil district of Paris offer two opposing visions for large parts of France's services economy; each is championed by one of the candidates likely to contest the run-off vote for the French presidency next month. Far-right contender Marine Le Pen wants to protect the likes of the traditional French baker or driver of metered taxis in towns and cities across the country from unfair competition.
Her centrist rival Emmanuel Macron sees the "gig economy" of firms such as Deliveroo and the U.S. app-based cab service Uber as a model for creating jobs particularly in the "banlieues" - deprived suburban housing estates where unemployment is almost three times the national rate.
Still, concern is growing about a new class of working poor with no social protection, and California-based Uber faced days of sometimes violent protests by its French drivers in December after raising fees it charges them to use the platform. So, with the rapid emergence of new forms of employment creating such frictions, the next president will have to decide whether to say "stop" or "more" to the gig economy.
On the Rue Montmartre, the Deliveroo riders leant towards the view of Macron - a former banker who tried to push through liberal reforms as economy minister from 2014-16 - even though they work as self-employed contractors without protections such as accident insurance that salaried staff automatically enjoy. One was 21-year-old Nicolas Usunier, who dropped out of college in his first year and looked in vain for a job at bakeries and supermarkets. By contrast, becoming a Deliveroo rider was quick and easy, he told Reuters.
"I was struggling. Then I saw a guy doing that; two weeks later I was on my bike going around Paris," he said. "I know some would like a real contract, but I like the flexibility."
Waiting for an order at the bakery in central Paris, an-hour's commute from his home, Usunier says he has not seriously considered getting insurance. "I will think about it the day I have an accident," he laughed.
France is famous for strong rights enjoyed by those people who have traditional employment contracts. Their working week is set at just 35 hours and firing them is difficult. Critics say this makes employers reluctant to hire and the price is chronic unemployment which, at almost 10 percent is roughly double the rate in Germany or Britain.
Approaching a quarter of young workers have no job. France is also struggling to integrate generations of immigrants, failing to create anything like enough jobs for those stuck on the cities' peripheries.
But contrary to France's image of a country set in its ways, the gig economy - where people offer their labour without the security of a traditional employment contract, often in industries where smartphone apps connect customers to businesses - is changing the landscape. France now has 1.1 million registered self-contracting workers, although only 643,800 were active as of the middle of last year. That compares with a labour force of about 29 million, including just under 3.5 million unemployed.
However, one in four jobs created in the first half of 2016 in the Paris region was due alone to cab services operated by Uber and its rivals, according to a study by the Boston Consulting Group commissioned by the U.S. company. The figure for what is known as the VTC sector - "transport vehicle with driver" - was lower elsewhere as Uber is less active in provincial cities, but still significant at 15 percent of new net jobs in the whole of France.
Ironically, Uber and its competitors possibly have more growth potential in France than in generally less regulated economies such as Britain and the United States. Last year, there were just 5.6 VTC and traditional taxi drivers per 1,000 residents of greater Paris compared with 12 in London and 17 in New York, making it hard to find a cab at times. Outside the capital, getting French taxi firms to answer the phone late at night, let alone send a car, can be an even more frustrating experience.
Boston Consulting said almost 60,000 extra jobs could be created in Paris alone by 2022 if it came close to matching the London or New York levels.
In the meal delivery sector, growth has been exponential. Deliveroo's sales rose 650 percent in France in 2016, more than in other European markets, country manager Hugues Decosse said.
Decosse declined to give precise figures and with the gig economy new to France - Uber launched in Paris in 2012 and Deliveroo in 2015 - official data on the sector is scarce.
