2023-10-16 05:53:00
Friday at the end of school, it will be the start of the All Saints holidays for Walloon students, but also for all French schoolchildren. The opportunity for the latter to take a break following a week which promises to be heavy, just a few days following the terrorist assassination of Dominique Bernard, a teacher who worked in Arras in the north of France.
This weekend did not even leave time for contemplation, between a bomb threat pushing the authorities to close the Louvre museum and the announcement by Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne of the passage of the entire territory at the “attack emergency level”. Such events never come at a good time, obviously, but it comes at an even worse time as the school holidays approach and the Rugby World Cup is in full swing across Quiévrain.
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Hundreds of Belgians will certainly think twice before crossing the border to spend a few days of vacation or attend a meeting. This is the case of Rémy, this Montois who has already attended three matches in Lille, at the start of the competition. “There were already a lot of CRS to ensure the safety of supporters. It must be said that the atmosphere is so good-natured in relation to football that everything went very well,” he smiles.
He is supposed to return to Paris to attend the small final on October 27, but will keep an eye on the situation in France. “A priori, I plan to go, but maybe it’s not “serious”. I will monitor the situation closely but as I said, security was already tight.”
The authorities have already strengthened the system surrounding the matches, and supporters are invited to arrive earlier at the stadium gates.
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For tourists, there are those who have simply decided to avoid big cities. “We go to the Bordeaux region several times a year, and we have gotten into the habit of spending one or two nights in Paris on All Saints’ Day,” explains Christian. This year, we are going to change our plans and avoid Paris because we are not at all reassured spending time there given everything that is happening. I don’t want to see more soldiers than Parisians in the streets.”
On the TUI side, we still want to calm things down. “The majority of tourists are leaving by plane for their next vacation, but France remains a big destination. We have not yet had any request for cancellation or change, explains Florence Bruyère, spokesperson for the tour operator. Generally, the desire to leave is stronger, and we rely on the travel advice from Foreign Affairs anyway.”
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We therefore asked the ministry if an update to this travel notice might be expected. This Sunday, there were no negative opinions on the page dedicated to France on the official foreign affairs website. Travel is therefore still taking place normally, even if Belgians will, in certain cases, be subject to this state of emergency. “Belgians on site must be very vigilant, avoid large gatherings and concentrations of people and scrupulously follow the directives of the French authorities,” we simply read.
For now, those who wish to cancel a stay in France will have to rely on the goodwill of their tour operator or the hotel in which they have booked a stay.
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