“When I got back, they’d taken everything.”
That’s what one shopkeeper in Paris told me as she cleared debris from her store after major cost-of-living protests turned violent across parts of France.
Chaotic scenes unfolded on Saturday as rioters clashed with police and set vehicles and trash bins alight before masked marchers began to ransack businesses, including in the trendy Marais shopping district.
After hundreds of arrests and a tense, momentary calm on Sunday morning, more violence broke out Sunday evening as black-clad rioters dragged debris into streets and set it aflame.
Employees at a boutique fashion brand working in the area as the riots unfolded told me the situation felt “dystopian,” and that at one point tear gas began seeping into the store. That apparently was not enough to put some shoppers off, however, as some continued to browse, they said.
They added that there was a heavy police presence on the street throughout Saturday, and that although they had hired extra security, they eventually decided to close early as the violence intensified.
Cycling through the city on Sunday, I followed what felt like a path of destruction that steadily ramped up as I neared the Place de République, where the city’s 3rd, 10th, and 11th arrondissements meet — the scene of some of Saturday’s most serious violence.
I stopped at several stores along the way to photograph the damage and speak with shop workers about their experiences.
A store owner at a gold-buying shop whose front window had been smashed told me she was forced to close up early on Saturday.
“I got a call. It was my neighbor, who was working next door at the restaurant. He’d made a video showing a group of young people,” she said, adding that they forced the door open and “smashed everything up.”
“They stole things,” she said. “When I got back, they’d taken everything.”
Later, I stopped outside a ransacked Nicolas wine store, one of the country’s most prominent wine retail brands. The storefront was agape, the entrance and both display windows smashed, revealing shelves picked clean. Empty Champagne boxes and glass littered the floor.
Among the other businesses targeted by looters and damaged in the violence across Paris on Saturday were major supermarket chains, tech stores, bars, and vape shops.
Alexandre Bompard, the CEO of the Carrefour Group, one of France’s biggest supermarket chains, said the cost of repairs to damaged stores would run well over $11 million. He said the destruction would lead to “considerable human and economic consequences,” as franchise partners would be forced to reduce the hours of dozens of employees.
On the other side of Paris, the situation was calmer on Saturday. Outside my apartment in Montmartre, for example, life ticked along as usual, terraces full of weekend revelers and a Saturday buzz in the air.
A bartender at a popular Irish pub along the boulevard — a few doors down from the Moulin Rouge — said it had been a particularly busy evening and that she had seen no trouble, adding that people were on the whole “very polite.”
By Sunday morning, however, many other Parisians were greeted by smashed storefronts and ATMs, broken glass, litter-filled streets, and burned-out cars as they emerged into a chilly, blue-skied morning.
And there were signs the city had begun to recover. Workers were already making repairs to an employment agency that had been broken into, and volunteers swept the streets.
As Paris tries to get back on its feet, Mayor Emmanuel Grégoire said that local businesses would receive government help. He said he had requested the creation of an “emergency task force to support shopkeepers” with insurance and administrative procedures.
“You bring Paris to life every day. Today, it’s Paris’s turn to stand by your side,” he said.
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