Paris was awful ! Be aware of war like situations !
We have recently visited Paris 30.05.-01.06.
It was awful !
What really annoyed me is that there were absolutely no warnings or notes concerning the oncoming soccer game on the evening of May 31st and the most possible outcome of this ! The screens in the metro just said the station Charles de Gaule Etoile will be closed on May31st by police inquiry. No further information were delivered ! How can we know whats going on ? It turned out to be a total mess in which France and the City of Paris revealed their true faces !
They showed zero interest to ensure tourists stay unharmed !
We, a family, were in the city on this cosy night and got into situations which were very much close to a civil war instead a so called "City of Love", or whatever. The police turned out to be at least as dangerous and cirminal as the "mob" they fought ! They came after everybody who then fled and fired tear gas in any kind of direction. We had to run and were lucky enough to duck away into a small side street as on the main streets it looked and felt like war. Nothing else than that !
And after a brief research it turned out, that comparable situations have occured multiple times in the past. So you, as Parisians, should have known what will certainly happen that night ! How can you not notify your guests to save them ?! How less can you care ?! All relevant, multiple metro stations were closed. Even those which were never announced closed. The metro just passed them and made it impossible to get anywhere ! Streets were blocked. Not by the "mob", but by the so called police ! When asking they yell at you in french and you dont get what they talk about. Zero information which way to take to get behind the road blocks !!
Can you just imagine what a horific walk we had to do to do bypass all this sh*t and detour as far as possible and walk back to the hotel (in La Defense) from the city center ?! Concerning to our iphone apps it was around 12-15 KM that we had to walk. It took us around 5 - 6 hours to walk back to the hotel where we arrived at around 3:30 in the morning. It was more an escape run, than a walk always looking around if police or crowd nears if this would mean fightings...
Nobody of the City of Paris ever cared, even Paris is one of the most frequently visited city on earth. They showed zero respect to guests and tourists but showed their ugly grimaces, that they truly give a sh*t about safety of univolved. We had to experience it ourself seeing the police throwing and firing tear gas grenades blindly in the direction of the "mob", which is most probably illegal in any civilized country as all uninvolved get involved at this certain time !
Even kids. Whats that ?!?
That is, to be honest, absolutely inacceptable, unbearable without any chance of negotiating !!
You truly had the undeniable task to warn every single guest to get back to the hotel on time, or advise the people what to do in case they get trapped in this war like situation which the city of Paris delivered ! You could have informed all hotels, all airbnbs and whatever to care. There is plenty of options nowadays. You can use technology to spy us. Why not also to care about us ?!
Obviously for the Ville de Paris the safety and wellbeing of their guests is totally secondary. Protecting luxury shops seems much more a priority.
In general all hospitality, all accomodations should be forced by law to establish such a communication with their guests as Paris seems to be anything but a safe place. The RATP could have warned people on their app at the counters any many more measures which could easily have been taken !
Could have saved many people, tourists, that we have encountered during our run, who where in comparable trouble and on the run to get whereever, away from this war !