The prefecture is therefore opening three additional Sundays, on November 15 and 22 and then on December 27. For some downtown retailers, the move is welcome, but it does not replace a strong Saturday.
These dates are in addition to the eight Sundays already authorized each year by the city. The measure is intended to support activity that was halted or slowed by the damage of October 17 and by the demonstrations held every Saturday.
In the city center, retailers remain marked by the images of the tourist office in flames, as well as by the vandalism and looting that followed.
Professionals know, however, that the losses will be difficult to make up. Sunday opening does not, in their view, compensate for a Saturday of normal activity.
Marion Grelaud heads the association My Presqu'île, which brings together 350 shopkeepers. According to her, rather than 90% losses in turnover in November, businesses may suffer perhaps 80%.
That gap, she says, can help pay the bills, the rents and the insurance, without erasing the hole left by the disrupted weeks.