> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.ilesanglo-normandes.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Islanders caught up in French government's crackdown of school protests in Paris. - URL: https://www.ilesanglo-normandes.com/islanders-exposed-to-fires-chemical-gas-and-trapped-during-government-crackdown-of-school-protests-in-paris/ - Published: 2026-10-21T11:03:27.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-21T21:54:52.000Z - Description: Islanders visiting the French capital were exposed to "crazy" and "aggressive" scenes by riot police and to the dangerous chemical weapon 'tear gas.' Visitors were unaware, meanwhile, that more of France's schoolchildren were injured during government repression over the weekend. - Author: îles - Tags: Gen Z student protests Guernsey residents spending the weekend of 16th Oct. in Paris found themselves gassed and facing riot police in the French government's continued clampdown on schoolchildren-led education protests. On Saturday, one islander was trapped for two hours, while a couple could hear grenades from their hotel as groups of protestors approached the presidential residence, the *Elysée*, on Saturday night. Since France's sixth-formers started blocking their schools, hundred have been injured and at least six mutilated by their own government's police forces. Schoolchildren are protesting for climate adaptation for school buildings, classrooms fit to learn in, for more teachers and the abolition of a discriminatory higher education selection process. They have been joined by university students, unions, firefighters, farmers and the [Yellow Vests](https://www.ilesanglo-normandes.com/to-harm-children-is-to-harm-all-of-us-frances-gilets-jaunes-join-the-gilets-jeunes-in-national-day-of-protest/), in a wider movement of working people protesting the cost of living. The government has now imposed a curfew while a parliamentary inquiry seeks to investigate the failure to prevent widespread looting and arson in towns and cities across France on 17th and 18th Oct. The police "could have done more" observed Guernsey residents Andy and Alison Taylor. Here, islanders share what they witnessed on the streets of the French capital last weekend. --- ## "The police did almost nothing, just let \[looting\] go on and then they were tear gassing people." *Alison and Andy Taylor, Guernsey residents originally from Glasgow, were on a weekend mini-break staying in a hotel near the Elysée Palace, president Macron's home, which protestors came close to on Saturday evening.* Andy: "We had just come out of *Galeries Lafayette* and then crowds were just running towards us. We’d walked past a restaurant, the *Grand Café des Capucines,* and the guys were shutting the door but they said: ‘Come in, come in’ just to get out the way. So we ended up eating there." Alison: "Then, after dinner, as we were walking back to the hotel, we managed to walk down a street that had been tear gassed. We walked into it by mistake. We took a few steps and thought, 'well that looks really hazy' and suddenly you could feel it in your throat. That’s when we thought we’d turn around. But at that point even just a few breaths, even really far from it, it was still awful. You could hear it being fired." ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/d1/c7/d1c79ccb-3da4-4ed2-8fda-9b60db236f61/content/images/2026/10/20261018_192306-1.jpg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/d1/c7/d1c79ccb-3da4-4ed2-8fda-9b60db236f61/content/images/2026/10/20261018_000648.jpg) Scenes in Paris over the weekend of 17th and 18th Oct. ## "France is the only country in Europe that allows munitions to be thrown in case of riots. Andy: "The vast majority of people were protesting peacefully, it was only when it got into the evening, it started to turn quite ugly. France is the only country in Europe that allows munitions to be thrown in case of riots." "The hotel we were in, on *rue d’Anjou* was behind the *Elysée Palace*, we could hear stun guns, we could hear it kicking off, the riot police were outside our hotel. We went back to the hotel and watched it on the TV and we could see it on the TV and then hear it out the windows at the same time." Alison: "We love Paris, we go as much as we can. It would never put us off going, but you could see it was hijacked to be honest -I don’t think it was students. We saw students with their cardboard banners and words painted on. They were not the people looting, and behaving like that." Andy: "The police did almost nothing, just let it go on and then they were tear gassing people. Alison: We felt they could have done more without using the tear gas. They could have done more." ## "There were a lot of people running around getting hit by the riot police, it was scary." *Guernsey-born Imogen Leale and Evan Le Poidevin were visiting Paris for the first time. They got caught up in the unrest around the central Châtelet area on Sunday evening. It has since emerged a protestor died in the area that night, after being knocked over during a crowd charge by riot police, witnesses told Le Parisien.* Evan: "We were out for dinner, things were all calm, and then when we tried to go back to our hotel, there were a lot of people running around getting hit by the riot police." "It was scary because it came out of nowhere, instantly started getting rowdy. The riot police seemed pretty aggressive, but both sides were really. There was a fire right in front of *Châtelet* train station so we had to Uber back instead." Imogen: "It was quite stressful. We had to walk to the Uber pick-up, as all the roads were closed around us. When we were walking around, I was thinking ‘all the locals know what’s going on, but we don’t' and that made it more scary. It would have been nice even for \[States of Guernsey\] reassurance that it was safe to go, because the news obviously highlights everything. Our family at home have been messaging us a lot going: ‘are you okay?’" Evan: "During the week, we kept seeing the news, it’s always so much worse when you see it on the news. It definitely hasn’t given Paris a good light. It’s majority students, kids are getting harmed." ## "I was caught in the middle with the police coming from the front with tear gas. Obviously you struggle to breathe." *Wynand Pretorius was in Paris to run the half-marathon in the eastern woodland area, the Bois de Vincennes on Sunday 18th Oct. He found himself trapped for two hours between riot police firing tear gas at protestors and fires in the street near Bastille on Saturday evening.* "I was trapped on Saturday. I was in a shopping mall about a kilometre from *Bastille*. I came out of one store and suddenly I just saw the rioters and thought ‘oh no, here we go.' Everywhere there were just fires, there was nowhere to go. I was caught at one stage in the middle with the police coming from the front with tear gas. Obviously you struggle to breathe. My eyes weren’t too bad because I had contacts so that saved me a bit." ### "Every time I tried to move away, you'd get trapped again." "I hid for about two hours. They basically took over every street around, close to *République* on one side, between there and *Bastille*, so every time I tried to move away, you'd get trapped again. So I just hid a bit and eventually it all moved away. It was strange." "When you see protests, if they're peaceful, it’s fine. As soon as it becomes violent, they were burning anything they could see, electric bikes, broken glass windows, anything. I’m not sure everyone was there for the same purpose." ### "I'll make sure I check before going next time." "I knew about it but I did not realise that it would be all over Paris. I'll make sure I check before going next time, especially if my son and my wife were with me. I think they would have found it scary. It definitely got the adrenalin going." ## "We could see the black smoke of the fires on the skyline from the Eiffel tower." *Vanessa Robert and a friend were on a trip to Disneyland and Paris and managed to avoid direct exposure to tear gas or to riot police.* "On Saturday night, we went to see the Eiffel tower, and we could see the black smoke of the fires on the skyline. Prior to that we were at Disneyland, having a great time and worried we’d see any trouble in Paris. We were staying in the 15e arrondissement. Sunday, we went to *Galeries Lafayette* \[which was looted on Saturday\] and the *Opéra* area and didn’t see anything. So we were very lucky, we heard a lot of sirens, but that was it." --- ### Visiting Paris? "The French government has announced that local curfews may be introduced at short notice." *"Islanders travelling to France are encouraged to consult the latest* [*UK Government travel advice for France*](https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/france?ref=ilesanglo-normandes.com)*. And to check local media for information about affected areas and follow the instructions of local authorities," Guernsey's airline, Aurigny, said.* With the French government escalating repression by introducing night-time curfews in certain areas and calling in armed forces to police the next planned protest in central Paris on Sat 24th Oct, Sam Talbot, Aurigny's Head of Marketing, PR and Communications, said travellers should consult FCDO and local authorities advice. "The UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) has issued travel advice to note that, in response to the developing nature of the events, 'the French government has announced that local curfews may be introduced at short notice. Travellers are advised to check local media for information about affected areas and follow the instructions of local authorities." Guernsey's airline follows official UK travel advice and is not issuing specific warnings for islanders travelling to Paris. Even those with babies and young children, pregnant women or the elderly, who are especially vulnerable to the dangerous impacts of tear gas being fired in huge quantities on Paris protestors. Airlines and travellers rely on information from relevant authorities to inform travel decisions and conditions at destinations. In this regard, if the FCDO advised "against all but essential travel to Paris or France", airlines, including Aurigny, would typically review and issue their own guidance for customers, Talbot said. "To be clear, the FCDO has issued no such advisories in this instance." Aurigny specified the FCDO had not issued specific travel advice in relation to these events last week, nor was advice shared with Aurigny by its partners, Talbot said. "When events concern wider issues beyond the air travel experience in a given airport catchment, as with other airlines, we would typically share any official communications from the local airport in this regard." Aurigny said it "will continue to monitor updates from the relevant authorities and its partners for any new advice as the situation develops." --- ["The real violence is batons on children's skulls, grenades in mouths, hands blown off, eyes taken out."Amid accusations police failed to prevent looting and arson across France on 17th Oct., the National Assembly has launched an inquiry. President Macron had no words for schoolchildren injured during his government's crackdown, now escalated into curfews plus the army at protests this weekend.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/d1/c7/d1c79ccb-3da4-4ed2-8fda-9b60db236f61/content/images/icon/ILES-ANGLO-NORMANDES-UPDATED-4-927448a9-4dae-4930-9d3b-8631c9f527cc.png)îles anglo-normandesîles![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/d1/c7/d1c79ccb-3da4-4ed2-8fda-9b60db236f61/content/images/thumbnail/20261018_192306-2-d6d2fc9c-8511-4cda-be27-d0be2fed8621.jpg)](https://www.ilesanglo-normandes.com/behind-the-headline-of-france-in-flames-french-government-crackdown-on-freedom-continues-with-curfew-imposed-more-schoolchildren-mutilated-while-police-let-france-be-looted-witnesses-sa/) [World Organisation Against Torture: French government's violent repression of schoolchildren violates international lawFrench police acting "only to violently suppress this democratic protest, even to the point of mutilating and disfiguring children." League of Human Rights decries French government's criminalisation of children by labelling movement 'urban violence.'"![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/d1/c7/d1c79ccb-3da4-4ed2-8fda-9b60db236f61/content/images/icon/ILES-ANGLO-NORMANDES-UPDATED-4-a948b0da-8289-4382-8641-38f9930fda21.png)îles anglo-normandesîles![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/d1/c7/d1c79ccb-3da4-4ed2-8fda-9b60db236f61/content/images/thumbnail/Screenshot-2026-10-16-at-23-09-29-OMCT-Communiqu--s-de-presse-fc51c389-1003-4584-87cf-38d177e1cc9f.png)](https://www.ilesanglo-normandes.com/world-organisation-against-torture-french-governments-violent-repression-of-schoolchildren-violates-international-law/)