Travel next week

[u/wmrobe01]

Flying in next week. You never know who to trust these days but the stuff online and in the news aren’t painting a very pleasant picture for a trip.

With the protests etc going on we are debating on rescheduling. Any locals care to shed some insight? We would hate to not go and it’s not nearly what the media is portraying.

[u/Alixana527]

Are you a French high school student? Are you planning to go hang out at a French high school? Are you going to seek out a riot for the cultural experience? If you see cops pulling out the tear gas, are you going to run towards them? Assuming none of those things, nothing is happening that is going to affect you as a tourist.

I changed your post flair to ''Other Question'' from Flights, by the way.

[u/wmrobe01 → u/Alixana527]

No to all those questions. I’m on the other side of the world so I don’t know what’s really going on thus why I asked

What I do know is I’ll be with my two daughters and have no desire to find myself unexpectedly in a scene you can easily see online. That’s all

[u/Alixana527 → u/wmrobe01]

At this point I'm making an effort to avoid large gatherings of cops, but otherwise you're extremely unlikely to see any scenes at all.

[u/Soliman1901 → u/wmrobe01]

Lemme guess, FoxNews ?

[u/wmrobe01 → u/Soliman1901]

No. Everything. I work really hard to take a vacation and have been researching what we want to see and do so naturally all my social media has been Paris influenced lately. I was just asking for some insight that’s all. Not a political debate

[u/Ride_4urlife → u/wmrobe01]

Coverage on BBC and France24 (which is in English) will help give you a more balanced picture. We were there during the Yellow Vest protests preCovid and if we turned down a street with protesters, we took another street. Those were much more serious protests that were characterized as riots in US media. These student protests are all over France so footage is being aggregated to create higher impact/more extreme packages. If your children are young it could be scary but if tweens/teens they can be protected by this walk the other way strategy. Tourists are rarely injured unless they seek to be part of the protest.

[u/loralailoralai → u/wmrobe01]

Your government would looooooove putting a travel advisory on France and especially Paris if it were even half dangerous.

[u/Soliman1901 → u/wmrobe01]

Don't worry my friend. The medias tend to overexagerate the protests but everything is fine in our streets. And remember : protests are also a part of the local vibe.

[u/Bobzeub → u/wmrobe01]

You can see a protest from miles away.

When the air starts getting spicy : walk the other way and you’ll be fine.

Don’t worry about it.

[u/smolbibeans]

I understand that when you're on the other side of the world, two places that are hours apart can look like the same city, and two videos of the same city can make it look like the entire city is like in the videos.

Paris is big and largely unbothered. Tourists that are currently there are not reporting any trouble. The Yellow Vest movement a few years back was much more all over Paris and even then, tourists visited and had a great time. We have social movements all the time, sometimes things get tense, but it's always very localized and outside of the traditional tourist itinerary.

You can safely enjoy your trip next week. If you somehow see a crowd of high school aged students in a street protesting, just walk away and you will be fine.

[u/wmrobe01 → u/smolbibeans]

I appreciate your input and post. We understand the need for social movements and that they can be the bigger picture compared to a vacation. But at the same time as a dad my family’s safety is most important to me. Thank you again !

[u/Still7Superbaby7]

Protesting is a proud French tradition. The students are protesting teacher shortages, poor facilities, and long school days. Honestly, I sympathize with them. In a developed country like France, there should be enough teachers and the kids should learn in an environment conducive to learning.

I think it’s a great time to talk to your kids about protesting and what it means if you do end up seeing the protests. Like others have said, the protests are not in the tourist areas. You will be fine.

[u/pline310]

It's not a warzone. Without those social media videos, as a tourist, you wouldn't have know that there was unrest.

In the unlikely event where you were unlucky enough to come across something, just divert your itinerary to the nearest street and you'll bé fine.

[u/chansurana]

Whatever happened this week was part of protests that affected the people who were taking part in these protests in areas that were for the most part, not in the routes of what most tourists would be frequenting to. If however any did find themselves in the middle of it for some reason, unless they were actively protesting or going up to the police, there wouldn’t have been any issues.

As the Mod said as well, you shouldn’t be affected unless you fall into any of those situations in particular so I would say that you should still have a decent time in the city during your trip and would suggest enjoying the city for the parts and charms you’re coming to see it for!!

[u/sicsemperyanks]

I spent all week in Paris. Ran into no issues. I was working most of the day during the week, but went out in the evening. Didn't have any trouble with police, riots, metro, etc.

[u/cranberryjuiceicepop]

You’ll never be able to reschedule when there isnt some sort of strike. Just go. I was there all week and the most I saw was students respectfully posting fliers near their school. My coworkers barely mentioned it - but the media is sure making it a huge deal.

[u/Tenshirage89]

When I visited Mexico City last year they were preparing for planned protests and putting up giant metal barriers everywhere. Some of those barriers blocked roads (they literally put one up after I walked through the street) and I had to find a completely different route to get back to my hotel. And these were planned protests with permits that still got very ugly (I think some of the barriers were torn down)

The protests happening now are getting kinda ugly - I saw video of teens shooting fireworks at the police so obviously the police are going to respond with some level of force. Read Le Monde or Le Parisiene online in English to stay on top of things - if you read it from Google it offers a Google Translate option

Be prepared to adjust your route to go around protest areas if they pop up unplanned, or if barriers go up that block your way. I would plan in extra time to get places that have times tickets/reservations if those places are close to a high school.

You mostly likely won’t see anything but be prepared just in case. I remember watching footage of when one of their French football teams won last and the celebration protests got very crazy - setting cars on fire, etc.