Grimaud began his career in civil service with the French colonial administration of Morocco in Rabat.
[1] Grimaud also worked as a local governor and aide to then-French Interior Minister François Mitterrand.
Starting in May 1968, mass social events occurred in France, involving students and workers.
Protests initially began at the University of Nanterre, located west of Paris, when students demanded that men and women be allowed to visit each other's dormrooms.
[1] Student protesters seized and occupied buildings on Paris's Left Bank and Sorbonne University.