Bonnets Rouges
The bonnets rouges ("red caps") movement began in October 2013 in Brittany. It was a protest movement, largely targeting a new tax on truck transport (billed as an "écotaxe" by the government). This tax was to be enforced in part by gantries set up on highways to detect vehicles carrying heavy loads and the presence of the required billing apparatuses. Through a combination of demonstrations and violent actions, including the destruction of many of these tax gantries, the movement forced the French government to rescind the tax.
For the seventeenth century French revolt, see Revolt of the papier timbré.The protesters considered the tax harmful to Breton agriculture, which was already having a difficult time competing with its counterparts in Europe. They wore red caps, in reference to the seventeenth century revolt of the papier timbré which was particularly active in Brittany, though the Phrygian cap as a protest symbol goes back much further.