They are "zen".
Most have no plans to “barricade their shop”.
Are not "afraid of spillovers and breakage".
“Nothing will happen!
This Wednesday, a few hours before New Year's Eve, under a bright and crystalline December sun, the traders of the Champs-Elysées (Paris, 8th) said they were reassured by the curfew and the police system.
At the exit of the Champs-Elysées-Clemenceau metro station, a line of police cars and men on duty from the DOPC (Directorate of Public Order and Traffic) were already occupying the land.
At the corner of avenue Montaigne (8th), at Gucci, "we will close earlier, at 6 pm, because of New Year's Eve".
But the luxury brand, sacked several times during the demonstrations of yellow vests, will not barricade its windows: “It is not planned.
"
Closures at 8 p.m.
At Claudie Pierlot, "we will close an hour earlier": "We think that nothing will happen.
"At n ° 33, Franck, the kioskier, whose business was completely burnt down during a past demonstration, is" not worried ".
Opposite, his colleague, Jean-Pierre, who suffered the same fate, predicted "that there will be no one on the Fields except a lot of police officers".
At Christian Dior, the vigil "crosses his fingers".
At the English Pharmacy, at the corner of rue la Boétie, spared by two years of demonstrations, “we will close at 8 pm, like every day.
And we will lower the Iron Curtain.
"Next, at Monoprix-Elysées," the director announced a closure at 8 pm, worries an employee.
But with public transport stopped at 8 p.m., we wonder how we will be able to get home.
Are we gonna pay us a taxi?
"
"The Champs-Elysées will not catch fire"
A little further, seated on a bench, Meîssa, 26, and her little sister Dina, 22, came for "a meeting together at the hairdresser for Christmas Eve" which they will spend "in a small committee" at the Plessis. -Robinson (Hauts-de-Seine), are without concern: “The Champs-Elysées will not be set ablaze simply because there will be no transport!
At worst, there will be a few Parisians who have come on foot who will hang out.
"
Jeanne de Hauteserre, the mayor (LR) of the 8th, is also reassured.
“People are going to be reasonable and stay at home!
It's curfew.
"And to warn:" The traders of the Champs-Elysées have been very hard hit by these two years of breakage, looting and demonstrations infiltrated by black blocks.
"And the elected to recall:" In August, on the sidelines of the Champions League match, cars were burned in the district, shops ransacked!
The mayor is also said to be "reassured by the police system", although the district is not cordoned off and the streets closed: "General information will have scrutinized social networks.
"
Edouard Lefebvre, general delegate of the Champs-Elysées committee, the essential association of merchants of the beautiful avenue who are "in search of normality" after the demonstrations, confinement and closures, is more measured: "We plead for a New Year's Eve from peaceful 31.
But we are careful despite the curfew.
We know that there can be surges.
"And to warn:" Some traders have planned to barricade themselves with window protectors.
"