I know media can skew things, but...

My son and I have a planned tour of the Loire in August followed by a few days in Paris before heading home. For those in France now, what is the general mood 'on the ground'? The protests seem extreme at the moment and I am guessing they are very localized; however, if we stumble into one that is too localized.

Thoughts?

Hi Brent -

My take (from very far away from Paris) is that you'll be fine. 

The problems are mostly in the suburbs of the big cities.  The Loire valley is not the kind of place that would be impacted by the protests.   Even in Paris, there have been no protests in the city center (that I'm aware of).  And by August, my guess is that this will be long forgotten and we'll be in the throes of some new protest or strike.  It's always something...

Other more experienced French residents, please feel free to weigh in and correct me.

That was my take too, and I almost posted something about it earlier.  We were in France during the yellow vest demonstrations a couple of years go, and the most we saw was a couple of protests on highways - one just outside Narbonne, if I remember right.  They were making. Lot of noise and flagging down cars, but rhey just smiled and waved at us.  If it were me based on what I’ve seen, I’d go.

Just don't be like Bernard Hinault and ride into them with your bicycle. It won't end well.

Hey, thanks for this!  Somehow I’ve never heard this story before.  What a great photo!

Hi Brent,

I know prob too late to contribute but I will echo others in saying not to give it a second thought. I have toured in France for each of the last 3 years and it has been excellent with the exception of extreme heat last year that was a bit too much for me.

As for the protests. They happened while I was there earlier this year in June and if we hadn't seen it on the news we wouldn't have known it was happening. That said, even if we did stumble into a protest, I believe they have no interest in passing cyclists, nor would the police confuse you for a protestor.

A couple of years ago there were some protests near the ferry-port, something to do with Brexit and Fishermen's rights or something, and a group of fishermen had blocked the road near the ferry terminal and had set fire to some tyres to keep them warm probably! Apart from the traffic disruption it had no impact to us, and we just rode on past it. 

Hi Brent

You'll have no trouble at all.

The country is not in flames and never was. There were protests in some cities and in individual parts of those cities. They made the news. There were protests out here in the country, too, but no more than a few dozen people carrying banners and shouting slogans. There have probably been noisier demonstrations for better bike paths and against clear dog shit on the pavement.

Even were you in Paris or Lyon or Toulouse, you could have been  a couple of streets from the noisiest of protests and not known they were happening. Paris, after all, isn't just half a dozen streets with the Eiffel Tower in the middle.

And even if there were a protest, you'd know about it long before you got to there. And they're not after you, anyway, are they?

French protests are Latin in style. Tempers flare and much noise is made, and then the country passes on to something else. Things are calm again now.

Bon voyage!

léo

We made a very brief (non-cycle tour) visit to France a couple of months ago. 

Beautiful as always, though the mood in Paris was tense with constant sirens and police vans rushing to and fro. We witnessed several very rough arrests. Two of them at railway stations and one on that very famous avenue where the TdF finishes.

Our train from Paris to Zurich was delayed for about 40 minutes because of a ‘police action’ on the platform.  A small squad of impressively armed paramilitary cops belted down the platform for reasons we couldn’t see.

Thanks all for the thoughts and suggestions. I am sure all would have gone well, but we have decided to move France to another year, and likely in either the spring or fall. Another concern we had was summer heat inland. We have chosen a coastal route, hopefully with cooling sea breezes.