The Foreign Office has issued a travel warning for France amid the country’s worst civil unrest in years, with partial curfews now imposed in cities including Paris, Nice and Lyon after rioters clashed with police, torched cars and looted thousands of businesses.
Students clash with the police at the Republic Place,(Image: Veronique de Viguerie, Getty Images)
The Foreign Office has warned British travellers heading to France that local curfews could be introduced at short notice following some of the country’s worst civil unrest in years.
Rioters clashed with police, set cars alight and stormed public buildings, while a historic city hall was engulfed in flames. Around 2,400 people were detained over the weekend, and authorities said thousands of businesses had been damaged or looted.
The violence overshadowed peaceful demonstrations over rising living costs and poor school conditions, during which hundreds of thousands of people marched without incident.
By Monday evening, several French cities had introduced partial curfews after Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu gave some local mayors the power to impose restrictions.
In advice issued last night, the Foreign Office told British travellers: “In response to recent events, the French government has announced that local curfews may be introduced at short notice. To find out if you are in an affected area, check local media. Follow the instructions of local authorities.”
Have you had your travel disrupted by the protests? Email webtravel@reachplc.com
The reported restrictions were:
- Paris: Movement in parts of the capital was banned from 11pm local time on Monday until 6am on Tuesday.
- Nice: A curfew for young people ran from 9pm to 6am local time (8pm to 5am BST) each night until next Sunday.
- Lyon: A curfew ran from 9pm local time on Monday until 6am on Tuesday (8pm to 5am BST).
- Coulaines: Young people were banned from being out after 11pm local time (10pm BST).
- Lille, Douai, Wattignies and Denain: Partial curfews were reported from 8pm to 6am local time (7pm to 5am BST).
President Emmanuel Macron condemned “unrestrained violence” by “insurrectionist elements from radical far-left groups, joined by numerous criminals.” Further demonstrations could follow, with high school and university student organisations calling for protests on Thursday and Saturday.
The National High School Student Coordination group urged young people to “take to the streets” and backed continued blockades and demonstrations.
Activists seeking to revive the 2018 yellow vest movement against perceived social injustices also announced nationwide protests for Saturday under the slogan “Macron must go.”
Sebastian Roché, a research professor at the Sciences Po Grenoble political institute who specialises in policing, said the damage was comparable to the yellow vest protests at their height.
“In terms of destruction and damage, it is probably close to the first two weekends of December 2018,” Roché said.
The yellow vest movement began in opposition to fuel tax rises and led to repeated demonstrations against Macron’s government. Some descended into violence, with cars burned, shops ransacked and the Arc de Triomphe vandalised during clashes in Paris.
France also experienced days of nationwide disorder in June 2023 after police killed a 17-year-old outside Paris. Rioters looted shops and set public buildings alight, with thousands detained and hundreds injured.
In 2005, three weeks of rioting prompted the government to declare a state of emergency.
Roché, who has spent more than 30 years studying policing and violence, said injuries caused by police weapons distinguished the latest unrest from previous episodes.
“We have a toll that has not been seen in the past 40 years,” he said.
He said six people, including minors, had lost hands or eyes during three weeks of protests. Officers have faced intense scrutiny over their use of grenades and other riot-control weapons during recent demonstrations.
Authorities have repeatedly blamed some of the violence on groups of “far-left radicals,” followed by criminals exploiting the unrest to loot. Lecornu described “disorder organized in an unprecedented way.”
But Roché questioned whether the far-left fringe was large or well coordinated enough to be solely responsible for violence on this scale.
He said French intelligence services estimated the movement at around 3,000 people across various factions, which lacked formal structures.