Paris museums close, shops build barricades ahead of more protests

Major museums in Paris closed and authorities deployed a sizable police force for a round of new protests Saturday across France, hoping to prevent a repeat of last week’s violent unrest that shocked the country.

France’s Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said as many as 70,000 officers will be deployed nationwide, along with helicopters, armored vehicles and water cannons.

A massive turnout is expected again after more than half a million took to the streets last week.

Major museums including the Louvre, Orsay Museum, Picasso Museum and Grand Palais – where a Cézanne exhibit is on display – are closed Saturday. Art Basel, one of the world’s most prestigious contemporary art fairs, opened to the public Friday, but only for the day, with the threat of unrest prompting organizers to cancel the weekend program.

Parisian shopkeepers have been barricading their stores all week. Near Place de la République in Paris, one of last weekend’s hot spots, a bank branch and other businesses were boarded up with wooden panels to deter potential looters.

Some 3,000 shops across France were damaged or looted last weekend. The demonstrations first erupted last month when high school students in southeast of Paris protested for better conditions, but quickly spread across the country as people took to the streets to demand relief from rising living costs.

Protest marches are scheduled in Paris and Marseille, but some other rallies, including in Lyon, Nice and Montpellier, have been banned by local authorities. Cities outside Paris were hit hard by the unrest. In Limoges, a suspected arson nearly destroyed the 19th-century city hall.

About 50 organizations have called for a protest against the far right on the sidelines of the two-day congress of Marine Le Pen’s nationalist, anti-immigration party ahead of next spring’s presidential election. About 50 organizations have called for a protest against the far right on the sidelines of the two-day congress of Marine Le Pen’s nationalist, anti-immigration party ahead of next spring’s presidential election. Organizers include labor unions, left-wing parties and student groups.