Difficult traffic this Sunday afternoon in Île-de-France, with major traffic difficulties near Orly airport, where Chinese President Xi Jinping landed this Sunday afternoon. According to witnesses contacted by Le Parisien, several vehicles were stopped in the Province-Paris direction on the A6 as they tried to reach the ring road. The inner ring road was also closed.
“We were coming back from vacation and the traffic signs suddenly turned black,” says Stéphane. According to him, many people had to stand still for more than an hour on the road. Some motorists took the opportunity to briefly leave their vehicles, traffic having briefly been completely interrupted, he also said.
According to Sytadin, the site dedicated to traffic in the Île-de-France region, nearly 120 km of traffic jams were recorded across the entire region at 4 p.m., compared to usually barely sixty, the threshold of traffic jams briefly rising to an “exceptional” level. Traffic on the A6 in the Province-Paris direction was also very disrupted after Paris-Orly airport at 5:30 p.m. The southern ring road was also temporarily closed.
These disruptions could be linked to the arrival of Xi Jinping in France at Orly airport, requiring the implementation of security measures. In fact, Xi Jinping must stay at the Peninsula hotel (16th arrondissement of Paris) near the Arc de Triomphe. 200 suites and rooms have been reserved there, according to our information. Its transport may have required the implementation of such a device. Contacted, the Val-de-Marne prefecture did not respond to our requests.
At the same time, metro line 6 will not serve three stations (Charles de Gaulle-Étoile, Kléber and Boissière) located near the Chinese president’s hotel until Tuesday, May 7 at noon. A large security perimeter has also been set up all around. “To access it, people have the obligation to submit (…) to security pat-downs, visual inspection and search of luggage as well as inspection of vehicles likely to enter this perimeter” , indicated the Paris police headquarters.
