Is it the summer weather?
On foot, by bike, on a scooter, at the wheel of their car too, it's crazy the number of night owls who wander around Paris at the strokes of 11:30 p.m. or midnight, ostensibly braving the 11 p.m. curfew!
As it is no longer time to do pedagogy, the police verbalize the offenders who receive a fine of 135 €.
This Thursday evening, a dozen police officers, led by Commissioner Jean-Sébastien Rosadoni, patrolled the Île de la Cité (Ist).
Yet crowded at 10:45 p.m., Place Dauphine finds itself strangely deserted and calm at 11 p.m. The restaurateurs nimbly tidied up the terraces and the customers flew away like a cloud of sparrows. Quai des Orfèvres, on the banks of the Seine, on the other hand, young people, boys and girls, are still numerous sitting on the cobblestones drinking wine or beer in a friendly atmosphere, regardless of the time.
Seeing the constabulary arrive, they flee but some, not nimble enough, get caught… Like this 26-year-old consultant who gets away with a fine of € 135.
“I recognize the offense, I do not dispute, it is normal.
I've broken the curfew several times, but it's the first time I've had a PV, ”admits this Parisian from the 9th arrondissement.
Bottle of beer in hand, Gaëtan, a 26-year-old engineer who was also verbalized, said nothing else: "I did not make the effort to look at the time, I take responsibility for my actions".
“I am not a delinquent!
"
Even caught in the act at 11:30 p.m., others cry out for the injustice of these random checks. Thus Sheherazade, 26, is indignant by pointing fingers at people on the opposite platform: “It's unfair because they over there, you don't verbalize them. It's annoying! In addition, we were on the way back, we were going to take the metro ”. Inflexible, Jean-Sébastien Rosadoni will repeat it several times in the evening: “The curfew is 11 pm at your home”.
At 11:45 p.m., at the corner of the Saint-Michel bridge and the new market quay, the situation is more tense in the face of four or five slightly tipsy men who refuse to present their identity papers. Realizing that they risk being taken to the station for verification, they end up complying. To the most recalcitrant who exclaims: “I am not a delinquent! », Commissioner Rosadoni replies:« You are an offender ». Very lively, the thirty-something replies: “But you were never young? "The commissioner will have the last word:" I am 28 years old! "Short of argument," the offender "will end up showing his ID on his cell phone.
