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‘Siege of Paris’ – Which roads are French farmers blockading on Monday?

With threats to target airports, food markets and to 'besiege Paris', the French farmers' protest is not over - here's a look at the location of the latest actions.

Published: 28 January 2024 15:56 CET
Updated: 29 January 2024 09:12 CET

'Siege of Paris' - Which roads are French farmers blockading on Monday?

Farmers use tractors to blockade the A16 highway, near Beauvais, on Sunday. Photo by JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP

Despite concessions offered by French prime minister Gabriel Attal in a speech to farmers on Friday, the campaign of roadblocks has not ended, in fact some farming unions are ramping up the rhetoric.

The largest farming union, the FNSEA, has announced that it intends to continue the campaign in the hope that the government will go further towards meeting their demands – its leader Arnaud Rousseau called on members to remain “calm but determined”.

The union says it hopes to continue actions at least until Thursday, the date of a key European Council meeting in which Emmanuel Macron will be participating.

Smaller and more radical unions such as the Coordination Rurale and the Jeune Agriculteurs say they will continue the blockades “indefinitely”.

Interior minister Gérald Darmanin will hold an emergency meeting on Monday morning to decide whether to continue with the ‘light touch’ policing that has been deployed around blockades so far.

Authorities are advising people to postpone or cancel all non-essential road travel.

The below list is based on pre-announced demonstrations and could change throughout the day – if you have a journey planned, listen to local radio or follow local authorities on social media for the latest information.

A1, A4, A5, A6, A12, A13 and A15

Around 1,000 tractors are expected to take part in a blockade of the seven autoroutes that form the major access points to Paris, with the aim of cutting off access to and from the capital.

The say the blockades will be set up around 30-40km outside the capital.

The blockade is scheduled to begin at 2pm on Monday and continue “for the duration”, some roads including the A4, A5 and A6 have been wholly or partially blocked over the weekend.

The roadblock locations mean that road access to Paris Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports will be affected for people travelling from outside Paris, although its is not expected that there will be any disruption to public transport services from inside the city.

Unions also say they plan to blockade Rungis, the huge produce market outside Paris that provides much of the city’s fresh fruit, vegetables and meat.

Lyon

Meanwhile farmers in the south-east say they intend to mount a similar operation to blockade Lyon, also starting at 2pm on Monday. So far no details have been released on which roads will be blocked, but it’s likely that most major routes into the city could be affected.

On Sunday blockades continued on the A7, A43, A48, A480, A49 and A71.

Toulouse

In several cities around France taxi drivers have joined the protests in recent days, using the high-profile activity to draw attention to their ongoing protests about fuel prices and changes to the rules on patient transport journeys.

In Toulouse taxi drivers gathered at the airport from 6am and are staging rolling roadblocks on the entrance routes.

Marseille

Taxis have blocked the A50 into Marseille with a rolling roadblock from 7.30am.

#lundinoir sur les routes de Provence. Opération escargot des taxis. l'A50 est bloquée en direction de Marseille. Vidéo 500 mètres après la Valentine. Ecoutez @bleuprovence pour vos conditions de circulation. 🚗🚗 pic.twitter.com/eUyQIOKThw

— France Bleu Provence (@bleuprovence) January 29, 2024

Bordeaux

Taxi drivers are also staging protests in Bordeaux, with plans for rolling roadblocks around the city’s ringroad.

RN113 Nimes-Montpellier

Taxi drivers plan to stage a rolling roadblock on the RN113, starting at Nimes and heading to Montpellier.

Lille

Taxis in Lille intend to block main routes into the city, with local authorities saying they expect severe disruption from 6am.

Toulon

Taxis plan rolling roadblocks from 6am on Monday on both the A50 and the A57 near Toulon.

A16/Calais

The A16 in Pas-de-Calais remains blocked on Sunday and farmers say blockades will be maintained into Monday. The road forms the main route to and from Calais from both Belgium and southern France. The port of Calais itself is no longer blockaded and port authorities say that traffic is flowing freely.

A13/Normandy

A rolling roadblock on the A13 in the direction of Paris began on Monday morning, while taxis says they intend to join the roadblocks.

A7 Avignon

The A7 is blocked between Avignon and Chanas and also between Chanas and Orange.

A11 Chartres

The A11 is blocked in the direction of Paris at Chartes.

The A9 near Nîmes has been blocked since Thursday and farmers say they intend to continue their action, a visit over the weekend from the agriculture minister not having persuaded them to stop.

The road, one of the major routes into France from Spain, has been blocked with tons of fruit, vegetables and wine that have been removed from Spanish-registered lorries – cheaper foreign imports of food and drink is a major complaint among farmers.

A10 and A11

Farmers have declared an ‘open péage‘ and the Allaires, Chartres-nord and Thivars toll booths in Eure-et-Loire.

Ski resorts

Farmers have begun blocking the RN21 and the RD935 with the intention of blocking access to ski resorts in the Pyrenees.

N24

Farmers intend to begin a blockade on the N24 in Brittany from Sunday night near Ploërmel.

Reopening

However, as many farmers head towards Paris the blockades in some areas have been lifted and roads reopened including the A10 in Charente-Maritime, the A54 in Bouches-du-Rhône (near Marseille), the A51 between Grenoble and Marseille and the A6 in north-east France.

More to follow

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Azerbaijan vehemently rejects the accusation it bears responsibility for the riots that have led to the deaths of five people and rattled the Paris government.

But it is just the latest in a litany of tensions between Paris and Baku and not the first time France has accused Azerbaijan of being behind an alleged disinformation campaign.

The riots in New Caledonia, a French territory lying between Australia and Fiji, were sparked by moves to agree a new voting law that supporters of independence from France say discriminates against the indigenous Kanak population.

Paris points to the sudden emergence of Azerbaijani flags alongside Kanak symbols in the protests, while a group linked to the Baku authorities is openly backing separatists while condemning Paris.

“This isn’t a fantasy. It’s a reality,” interior minister Gérald Darmanin told television channel France 2 when asked if Azerbaijan, China and Russia were interfering in New Caledonia.

“I regret that some of the Caledonian pro-independence leaders have made a deal with Azerbaijan. It’s indisputable,” he alleged.

But he added: “Even if there are attempts at interference… France is sovereign on its own territory, and so much the better”.

“We completely reject the baseless accusations,” Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry spokesman Ayhan Hajizadeh said.

“We refute any connection between the leaders of the struggle for freedom in Caledonia and Azerbaijan.”

In images widely shared on social media, a reportage broadcast Wednesday on the French channel TF1 showed some pro-independence supporters wearing T-shirts adorned with the Azerbaijani flag.

Tensions between Paris and Baku have grown in the wake of the 2020 war and 2023 lightning offensive that Azerbaijan waged to regain control of its breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region from ethnic Armenian separatists.

France is a traditional ally of Christian Armenia, Azerbaijan’s neighbour and historic rival, and is also home to a large Armenian diaspora.

Darmanin said Azerbaijan – led since 2003 by President Ilham Aliyev, who succeeded his father Heydar – was a “dictatorship”.

On Wednesday, the Paris government also banned social network TikTok from operating in New Caledonia.

Tiktok, whose parent company is Chinese, has been widely used by protesters. Critics fear it is being employed to spread disinformation coming from foreign countries.

Azerbaijan invited separatists from the French territories of Martinique, French Guiana, New Caledonia and French Polynesia to Baku for a conference in July 2023.

The meeting saw the creation of the “Baku Initiative Group”, whose stated aim is to support “French liberation and anti-colonialist movements”.

The group published a statement this week condemning the French parliament’s proposed change to New Caledonia’s constitution, which would allow outsiders who moved to the territory at least 10 years ago the right to vote in its elections.

Pro-independence forces say that would dilute the vote of Kanaks, who make up about 40 percent of the population.

“We stand in solidarity with our Kanak friends and support their fair struggle,” the Baku Initiative Group said.

Raphael Glucksmann, the lawmaker heading the list for the French Socialists in June’s European Parliament elections, told Public Senat television that Azerbaijan had made “attempts to interfere… for months”.

He said the underlying problem behind the unrest was a domestic dispute over election reform, not agitation fomented by “foreign actors”.

But he accused Azerbaijan of “seizing on internal problems.”

A French government source, who asked not to be named, said pro-Azerbaijani social media accounts had on Wednesday posted an edited montage purporting to show two white police officers with rifles aimed at dead Kanaks.

“It’s a pretty massive campaign, with around 4,000 posts generated by (these) accounts,” the source told AFP.

“They are reusing techniques already used during a previous smear campaign called Olympia.”

In November, France had already accused actors linked to Azerbaijan of carrying out a disinformation campaign aimed at damaging its reputation over its ability to host the Olympic Games in Paris. Baku also rejected these accusations.