Demonstrations took place in cities across France on Tuesday in the latest round of protests aimed at keeping up the pressure on French government, a day before the PM sets out the eagerly-awaited details of the pensions overhaul.

In Paris 6,000 extra officers were called up and shops, bars and restaurants along the march route were ordered to close but the demonstration took place in a calm atmosphere.

Police feared a repeat of the violent scenes at a march on Thursday, December 5th – the first day of mass transport strikes that are currently bringing France to a virtual standstill.

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On Tuesday, 339,000 people took part in a second day of demonstrations over the government's plans to merge the country's 42 separate pension schemes into  one, according to interior ministry estimates. 

While significant, the numbers, which unions claimed were far greater, were markedly down on the first day of the strike on December 5.

On Tuesday the number of demonstrators in Paris was down to around 30,000 although unions claimed there were 180,000 on the streets of the capital.

Some 800,000 striking workers marched peacefully on Thursday December 5th to show their opposition to the French government's plans to reform the country's pension system. But a small group of rioters – many of whom arrived with their faces covered and wearing gas masks – smashed windows and set a vehicle on fire on the march route.

Tuesday's Paris demonstration began at the Invalides (Place Vauban) in the 7th arrondissement and made its way through southern Paris to Denfert-Rochereau in the 14th.

For some shops the closure order represented a further blow after lost sales due to six days of strike action.

Dewis, the owner a small lunch shop called Salad & Cake said he planned to stay open despite the police warning, as he worried about the financial impact the strike had on him and his employees.

“Our income is slashed by roughly 25 percent every day there’s a strike,” he told The Local.

Still, he was fiercely critical of the government's proposed pension reform.

“It’s a scam,” he said. “The proposed points-based system is just a manner of taking our money.”

Although as a private business owner he doesn’t benefit from any of the French special regimes, he said he didn’t buy the government's argument that the reform was a way of doing away with outdated, luxurious schemes.

“Why doesn’t the government scrap their own special pension regimes?”

Organised by the unions, the marches across France are intended as a display of strength against the government, which is on Wednesday set to unveil more details of its plans to reform the French pension system.

Unions claim the government's reform will simply mean many workers having to work longer and ending up with lower pensions. The official retirement age in France is 62.

Not everybody can strike, they’re scared of losing their jobs, so we're striking for them striking for ourselves, and for France. And of course for our children.”

Among the workers marching transport workers, who are on indefinite strikes, as well as teachers and other employees who have staged another one-day strike on Tuesday.