Saturday 24 October: Marseille halts metro, tram and buses, and the curfew now covers adults too. What the rules say about work when there is no transport

⚠️ Update, 23 October: this decision has been REVERSED. The Bouches-du-Rhône prefecture dropped the plan to halt the metro, tram and buses: on Saturday transport is running, with service managed as the day unfolds. The ban on demonstrations and the curfew in part of the centre remain. What changed is in the new post: Marseille, Saturday 24 October: transport will run after all. The text below is left as written on 22 October.

What has been announced

On Thursday 22 October the prefect of the Bouches-du-Rhône, Jacques Witkowski, set out measures for the coming weekend. France 3 Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur reported them, citing a prefecture press release. The prefecture's own site, bouches-du-rhone.gouv.fr, was down for maintenance while this post was being prepared, so we have not seen the text of the decision itself.

Protests. On Saturday 24 October every protest in the department is banned — declared or not, whatever the cause. The prefect gave security as the reason, along with the need to keep police forces available.

Transport. From 05:00 on Saturday to 05:00 on Sunday, metro, tram and bus services will not run anywhere in the Marseille urban area. The shutdown also covers lines out to the retail zones on the outskirts — Plan-de-Campagne, Vitrolles, Aubagne, Miramas — and the intercity routes Aix-en-Provence–Marseille, Aix–Salon-de-Provence and Marseille–Salon, in both directions.

Curfew. On the nights of Saturday into Sunday and Sunday into Monday, from 23:00 to 05:00, the curfew no longer applies only to minors: it applies to everyone. The zones are the existing parts of Marseille, Aubagne and Plan-de-Campagne, and in Marseille they now also include government buildings: the town hall, the prefecture and the courthouse.

Paris. The Paris police prefecture has extended the night curfew in the Place de la République and Les Halles perimeters: every night from 23:00 to 06:00, for adults and minors, until Monday morning, 26 October (reported by franceinfo). Our 21 October post said the Paris curfew had expired; it is now back in force.

The exact boundaries are set by maps attached to the prefects' decisions. Before heading into the centre in the evening, check your own department's prefecture channels.

If you cannot get to work

A full day without metro and buses is, above all, a question of how to get to your shift. Service-public has no page specifically about transport shut down by the authorities. The closest is its page on transport strikes (F21019, checked on 9 October 2026). It deals with strikes only and does not say whether the same approach applies to a shutdown ordered by a prefect. Still, the steps it describes are worth knowing:

• Tell your employer by any means — a call or a text. According to the page, there is no sanction if the employee warned of the lateness or absence and can show they could not get in. As an example of proof, the page cites a certificate from the transport company.
• Pay. Time missed is generally unpaid, and any deduction must be strictly proportional: 20 minutes late means 20 minutes deducted. A collective agreement may be more generous.
• Remote work only by mutual agreement. The employer cannot impose it and does not have to accept a request for it.
• Other options, also by agreement: a day of paid leave, an RTT or compensatory rest day, unpaid leave, or making up the hours on another day of the week.
• The employer may help but is not obliged to: a shuttle, car-sharing, paying for another means of transport or for lodging nearby.

The practical takeaway for Saturday: if you are due to work on the 24th, it is better to sort things out with your employer in advance, on Friday, rather than on the morning of the shutdown.

Background

This follows the events of 17 October, when shops and public buildings in Marseille were looted and damaged; France 3 links the addition of the town hall, prefecture and courthouse to the curfew zone to damage at some of those sites. In both Marseille and Paris these are prefecture decisions for their own territory, so the rules for the same day can differ sharply from one department to the next. Go by your own prefecture rather than by national headlines.

No extension beyond Monday has been announced so far.