Should I go to a wedding in France next week?

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Due to attend a wedding of a close friend about 40 miles north of Paris next week. Have booked (non-refundable) Eurostar and hotel rooms. Was planning to get a train between Gare du Nord and the small town where the wedding is.

I see rioters with automatic weapons and fireworks not just in Paris/Marseille, but even in small towns. They seem to be destroying anything vaguely linked to the French state includnig pharmacies, libraries etc as well as the usual burning of cars. Macron still hasn't declared a state of emergency.

Foreign office advice is ambiguous but doesn't advise against all or non-essential travel, so don't think travel insurance would pay out if I cancel.

I'd go. Rioting and striking are French hobbies. They all know what they're doing. You'll be fine.

I’d wait and see. The footage looks absolutely horrific so I wouldn’t go if it was today, but things can change quickly. Feel so sorry for your friends.

It wouldn't even occur to me not to go. There is no reason for the wedding to be cancelled. My French friends are barely talking about it. It came up for 5 minutes yesterday lunchtime and was barely even mentioned last night at our table for 12.

UK media loves to show the worst parts of France. Yes there are riots, yes there are problems. But it is a very big country and the problems are limited to a few areas.

Bottom line is that if the FCO advise against travelling there or if a state of emergency is declared, don't go. Any travel insurance would also be invalid.

I love 40 miles from London. Were there to be riots in London we'd be blissfully unaware and completely unaffected.

The Gare du Nord will be heavily secured and ask you'll be doing is changing trains. You'll be fine.

Getting off Eurostar and back on another train at Gare du Nord? I'd definitely still go.

I know there’s been rioting before in France ( and I know the Uk has had problems in the pas too), but these look more extreme than anything I’ve seen previously.

Admittedly, just been watching videos on Twitter.

It will settle down by next weekend. There is zero chance I would cancel travelling.

That's like saying...there's riots in London, should I travel to Reading???

I would go. In fact I am travelling to France today.

A lot of the trouble is in localised areas and Paris is a big city.

Travelling in daylight hours is low risk. Just be vigilant as you would always be. Especially around Gard Du Nord as it is a bit rough. But it is well staffed with taxis.

You are arriving into GdN and then connecting train also from GdN? Security will be strong inside. If the town where the wedding is to be held does not have a large immigrant population and has been quiet thus far, you should be fine. I would go.

Your friends are part of the problem if they think themselves above discussing racism and the killing of a child by the police. Truly disgusting.

Please use the words “french nationals” instead of “immigrant”. The boy that was murdered by the police was a french national. The people rioting will mainly be French nationals.

How is it discusting to be amongst friends catching up on our lives and discussing our upcoming holidays? We were not discussing current affairs and the riots do not affect our lives. That is the point I was trying to make.

Should we limit all discussion to important matters? Even when they don't touch our day to day lives?

We were in Kenya during the riots a decade or so ago. In Nairobi as well. We had sky news and it looked like the whole place was burning down. In fact it was very localised and we were in no danger at all. It didn't really impact our activties at all (although we of course avoided where the demonstrations were taking place).

So yes, I would go.

Point taken, it was a clumsy way of making the distinction for the TOM and DOM nationals who are often poorly treated and discriminated against.

It was the way that you mention that you only mentioned this at your lunch and barely at your dinner table for twelve. It sounds like let them eat cake. You’re feasting whilst the country riots due to a child being murdered by the police.

All the ‘child’ had to do was to pull over and stop the car as instructed. Instead he chose to jump a red light and refused to get out once he was caught.

All the police had to do was react proportionally and follow official procedures. They failed to do that.

I've traveled to Paris and through Paris 3x in the last week. Literally seen nothing.

Uber guy last night said it's only in the banlieue.

You'll be fine.

We've just come back from a wedding in France. We were near Marseilles and we hadn't got a clue anything was going on - we were on a bit of a news blackout. I would go.

I was in Paris Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
we walked around the main touristy bits and apart from lots of sirens and police vans the only time we saw anything was when we got off the metro at Arc de Triumph where there were lots of armed police and shops being boarded up. We didn’t stay long and there was some rioting there a couple of hours later but at no point did we feel unsafe or see any things on fire etc.