Par Théo Zuili
Published on Dec 24, 23 at 7:52 See my news Follow Lyon News
The Christmas market takes place every year at Place Carnot, in the 2nd arrondissement of Lyon, from November 24 to December 24. The hundred or so merchant chalets welcome thousands of visitors during this Christmas and Festival of Lights period.
But in recent years, traders keep criticizing measures that come restrict hours with consequences on turnover.
A regular who can’t take it anymore
Security measures are getting tougher from year to year due to the Vigipirate plan. In 2023, the Lyon Christmas market had to close even earlier than the year before during the Festival of Lights: 6 p.m. from Thursday 7 to Saturday 9 and 5 p.m. on Sunday December 10.
The last straw, for an anonymous regular, who assured one of our journalists that he would not return for the 2024 edition. Like a large majority of his fellow traders, he denounces an injustice : “We pay a lot of money and we have to close on the evenings of the Festival of Lights while people sell mulled wine nearby. »
How is it that, from 6 p.m. on record busy evenings in Lyon, a market benefiting from private security and barricaded by large barriers with only two entrances and exits on which the public is searched, is forced to close two to four hours earlier than usual hours?
Christmas Market Trader
All bags are searched by security agents at the entrance to the Christmas market barricaded by barriers in Lyon. (©AS / news Lyon)
” I have known the very good yearswhen we weren’t barricaded,” recalls a shopkeeper who has been coming back here for 12 years.
Leave, for real?
To protest and demand that things change, are the traders of the 95 chalets on Place Carnot ready to unite and threaten the survival of the market by announcing that they will not come back?
No. At least, that’s what the fifteen traders we interviewed recognized. Discouraged, they respond: “What can we do? It’s not going to change anything. »
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We’ll come back anyway. It’s still interesting to stay. We are suffering from opening hours, the weekend of December 8 is really complicated. But it is the fault of the City and the Prefecture. In the end, we have 25 days of good for four days of bad.
Paul BouchetManager of Chalet Les Montagnards (Sale of mulled wine and tartiflette)
Another continues: “It cuts us off from work evenings when they are the busiest hours. For us, it won’t be prohibitive, because we need to be here for the visibility, but it’s really disappointing. »
Damage for traders and customers
From our discussions, it appears that traders won’t go any further. Their criticisms do not seem to be accompanied by any hope that this will change. Finally, if some “understand” that one of their colleagues is announcing his departure, others dismiss this idea by calling it a “rumor”.
Angry at the reduced hours during the Festival of Lights, traders at the Place Carnot Christmas market in Lyon plan to continue coming next year. (©Théo Zuili / news Lyon)
I understand that it’s annoying. Every year, we just ask for a return to normal schedules, but we know that the prefecture has the right to impose schedules on us. There is no consultation, we find out the week before. But afterward, we have to put things into perspective: there are four days left and we have no choice.
Douglas CaillauManager of the Place Carnot Christmas market
Too bad for the “90% of dissatisfied traders”, therefore, but also for the visitors: “The customers think like us, they scream and tell us to make a petition. All those who come from outside for the illuminations and who arrive earlier to take advantage of the market meet stuck in front of the gates and don’t understand either, some people attack us. »
Likewise, for another trader, “the whole neighborhood is suffering”. Delphine, a hat maker in the aisle of the market reserved for creators, tries to see the positive in it: “At least, me who sells artisanal products, it allows me to finish early ! »
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2023-12-24 06:59:17
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