By Vincent Daheron
PARIS, Oct 25 (Reuters) – The Pittsburgh Steelers and the New Orleans Saints were set to kick off the first NFL regular-season game in Paris at 2.30 p.m. (1330 GMT) on Sunday, in a calm and festive atmosphere, a day after fresh demonstrations drew more than 100,000 people into the French capital.
The nationwide protests largely overshadowed the build-up to the game, with some fan and NFL events cancelled over the weekend, mainly due to their location in central Paris.
On Sunday, as Saturday’s rain gave way to sunshine, the mood was peaceful around the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, some 10km (6 miles) north of Paris centre and more than 13km (8 miles) from Porte d’Italie, where Saturday’s protests began in southern Paris.
James Brown, a 51-year-old Saints fan who travelled to Paris especially for the game, told Reuters the atmosphere around the stadium was “wonderful, really good”.
The police presence appeared neither heavy nor unusual at the Stade de France, which hosted rugby sevens and athletics during the 2024 Paris Olympics and regularly serves as the home ground for the French national rugby and soccer teams.
Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators marched in France on Saturday, with largely peaceful rallies giving way to clashes in Paris and Marseille as night fell despite a huge security operation aimed at preventing a repeat of last week’s unrest.
The main demonstration took place on the southeastern fringes of Paris, where at least 110,000 people turned out to denounce rising living costs and growing inequality.
“We didn’t notice much yesterday,” 38-year-old Steelers fan Lukas Baldridge told Reuters. “We came in, went to a bar, got some drinks, got dinner, went home, didn’t see any protesting.”
“Streets were closed. Most shops were closed. That felt unusual maybe but I don’t know enough about Paris to know what is normal and what’s not normal.”
(Reporting by Vincent Daheron; editing by Clare Fallon)
