crowds paris freedom convoy eiffel tower
© Alain Jocard/AFP via Getty Images.Crowds gather near the Eiffel Tower in Paris to support the Freedom Convoy on February 10, 2022
Update (11:35 ET): Chaos ensues in Paris Saturday as hundreds, if not thousands of demonstrators blocked streets in the capital city.

NYTimes said, "thousands of cars, camper vans and trucks" have entered the metro area, which was part of a convoy to protest President Emmanuel Macron's medical tyranny of lockdowns and forced vaccines mandates.

This weekend, protests are banned in the city as more than 7,000 police officers were deployed to counter the "Freedom Convoy."
Officers had set up checkpoints at several of the main entrances to Paris on the road that surrounds the city, known as the Boulevard Périphérique. That prevented many demonstrators from entering.

But small clusters of protesters who managed to get past the checkpoints gathered at several places in the city, honking their cars and waving French flags. Some joined up with the anti-vaccine-pass marches that had been held on most weekends in Paris but had waned in recent months.

The different convoys, which had started out in cities like Nice, Brest, Lille and elsewhere, appear to be only loosely coordinated on social media and on instant messaging platforms. — NY Times
Demonstrators in central Paris have so far been peaceful. People waved French and Canadian flags and chanted: "QR code, never again!" "Freedom!" "No to the vaccine pass!"

Scenes on the ground show one convoy stopped before the Arc de Triomphe as freedom-loving folks waved French flags.


Police began tear-gassing demonstrators.





Police used cranes to remove vehicles blocking streets.
paris freedom convoy tow trucks
© Twitter
Authorities were very well prepared to handle demonstrators.
paris freedom convoy police armored trucks
© Twitter
Police used armored vehicle carriers to prevent some convoys from entering downtown.



Thousands of demonstrators were seen on the streets of central Paris protesting against medical tyranny by the government.


Roads are being blocked in Paris.


A lot of other demonstrators walked the streets.


According to TomTom traffic data, major delays are seen in and around Paris.
paris blocked roads freedom convoy
© TomTomThe French Freedom Convoy has slowed or closed traffic to major areas of Paris
The success of Canada's Freedom Convoy in recent weeks has spread like wildfire worldwide as people band together and use their vehicles to block highways, city streets, and border-crossings, as they create leverage against overreaching governments who may have to appease the people and be forced to drop vaccine mandates.

Watch Live: Convoys Worldwide


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French protesters are expected to descend on Paris in a Canada-inspired "Freedom Convoy" sometime on Friday as they voice strong opposition to President Emmanuel Macron's medical tyranny of lockdowns and forced vaccines mandates.

According to the Guardian, authorities in and around France's capital have placed more than 7,000 officers on alert and at critical points of the city to deter convoys of trucks, cars, and vans.
"The stated objective of these demonstrations is to 'block the capital' by preventing road traffic from circulating in order to further their demands ... from Friday, before moving on to Brussels on Monday," Paris' police authority said.

"Because of the risk to public order, these protests will be banned from 11 to 14 February," police said, adding that anyone blocking public roads will face severe fines and jail time.
The Guardian reports convoys of trucks, vans, cars, and even motorcycles left Nice in the south-east, Bayonne in the south-west, Strasbourg in the north-east, and Cherbourg in the north-west, among other cities as they all head to Paris.

Video published on Twitter shows police in the French capital preparing for convoy by ensuring protesters didn't paralyze the metro area.



More footage shows police erecting metal barriers around the metro area.


"We've been going around in circles for three years," demonstrator Jean-Marie Azais, who was heading to Paris. "We saw the Canadians and said to ourselves, 'It's awesome what they're doing.' In eight days, boom, something was sparked."