The Steelers and Saints will not have Paris to themselves this weekend. The first storm of the autumn reaches northern France on Friday, the day NFL House opens and the Steelers land. On Saturday the city braces for a second big day of protests against the cost of living, under what the government calls a “massive” security operation. And on Sunday, the morning of the first regular-season NFL game in France, the clocks go back an hour.
None of it has touched the game itself. The league has said all week that preparations “continue as scheduled” and that there has been “no disruption or impact at league sites.” But fans heading to the Stade de France, and to the league’s events in central Paris, face a busy few days. This is what was known on Thursday afternoon.
The league’s French account showed the stadium in Saint-Denis being dressed for Sunday on Thursday.
Friday: Storm Austen and a yellow wind alert
Météo-France has put Paris and all eight departments of the Île-de-France region, including Seine-Saint-Denis, where the stadium stands, on yellow alert for strong winds on Friday. The storm, named Austen, deepens off Brittany overnight and then runs between the south of England and the Channel coast. The worst of it, with gusts above 100 km/h, is aimed at Brittany, Normandy and the far north. In Paris forecasters expect gusts of 70 to 90 km/h, with local peaks close to 100 km/h, strongest in the early afternoon and easing in the evening, with showers and a high of about 14°C. Météo-France has not ruled out an upgrade to orange for the Paris region.
The railways are already reacting. SNCF has stopped all trains between Paris Saint-Lazare and Normandy from Friday until Saturday afternoon, and several regional lines out of Gare du Nord, including Paris–Beauvais, are suspended from midday to 11 p.m. on Friday. No precautionary closures have been announced on the RER or the metro in the Paris region.
Friday is also the busiest fan day of the week so far. NFL House opens at the Pavillon Cambon Capucines, 46 rue Cambon in the 1st arrondissement, from noon to 7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday (1 p.m. to 8 p.m. in Cairo). Entry is free but needs a timed ticket booked through the NFL OnePass app. Inside are flag football clinics run with the French federation, Madden, a stage for talks and DJ sets, and the Vince Lombardi Trophy alongside a collection of 60 Super Bowl rings. Paris Saint-Germain’s Hail Mary over the Seine at the Petit Pont is also set for Friday; as of Thursday afternoon neither the club nor the league had announced any change because of the wind.
Saturday: one march allowed, the Opéra route banned
On Thursday the police prefecture approved a single route for Saturday’s protest, the one declared by the CGT union, from Place de la Bastille to Place de la Nation in the east of the city. The route filed by the yellow-vest movement, which would have gathered at Bastille at noon, set off at 2:30 p.m. and marched through République and along the Grands Boulevards to the Opéra by about 6 p.m., will be banned by order. The prefecture pointed to last Saturday’s looting and to violence at the tail end of earlier marches. The yellow vests have said they will still be at Bastille from midday.
The banned route matters to anyone visiting the league’s events. The Opéra and the department stores of boulevard Haussmann are a short walk from NFL House on rue Cambon and from Place Vendôme, where the Saints open their Saints House pop-up at the Pavillon Vendôme on Saturday. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez has told prefects to keep marches away from public buildings and shopping streets, and the government is adding Sentinelle soldiers and elite police units to the weekend deployment.
President Emmanuel Macron hardened the line on Thursday after a security meeting at the Élysée. Demonstrations not declared by trade unions will be banned “wherever we can,” he said, and he advised people not to demonstrate at all in the coming days. A defence council meets on Friday, and more measures could follow before Saturday. Lyon has already banned every protest on Saturday.
On Saturday the RATP is expected to close metro stations along the protest routes at the prefecture’s request, usually announced the evening before. The ones to watch include Bastille, République, Strasbourg-Saint-Denis, Grands Boulevards, Richelieu-Drouot, Opéra, Chaussée d’Antin and Nation. Metro line 8 runs along almost all of the yellow-vest route. On October 17 the network closed 25 stations.
The nights: stations shut again, and a court steps in
Paris has spent three straight nights under a partial curfew, from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m., on the central square of Place de la République and part of Les Halles. The latest order expired at 6 a.m. on Thursday. By Thursday afternoon no new curfew order had been published for Thursday night, but the RATP said that, at the prefecture’s request, it would again close Châtelet, Châtelet–Les Halles, Les Halles and République from 10 p.m. Trains will run through without stopping, and the RER B, the line to La Plaine–Stade de France, will be cut between Saint-Michel–Notre-Dame and Châtelet–Les Halles.
A court has also changed how the curfews are announced. On Wednesday the Paris administrative court ruled that the prefecture published its first two orders too late, at 8 p.m. and 5 p.m. for curfews starting at 11 p.m., and said that breached the right to challenge them before a judge. It ordered the prefect to post future curfew orders on the prefecture’s website at least 12 hours before they take effect, “except for an imperative reason of urgency.” The court did not rule on whether the curfews were justified and attached no penalty. In practice, a curfew for 11 p.m. should now be public by 11 a.m. the same day.
Our curfew report has the full background on the orders and the zones, none of which have reached Saint-Denis or the league’s fan sites.
Sunday: getting to the Stade de France
Sunday looks like the calmest day of the weekend. After rain on Saturday afternoon, forecasters expect the last showers to clear around dawn on Sunday, leaving a mostly dry, brighter and still breezy day with highs of 13 to 16°C. Clocks in France go back an hour at 3 a.m. on Sunday, so kickoff at 2:30 p.m. Paris time is 4:30 p.m. in Cairo.
- There is no public parking at the stadium; the league is asking everyone to use public transport.
- RER B to La Plaine–Stade de France (about four minutes from Gare du Nord) is not affected by any planned weekend works.
- RER D to Stade de France–Saint-Denis still runs from Paris, but the line is cut north of the stadium, between Creil and Stade de France–Saint-Denis, on Saturday and Sunday, with replacement buses for the stations in between.
- Metro line 13 to Saint-Denis–Porte de Paris serves the north side of the ground.
- Metro line 2 is closed between Père Lachaise and Barbès-Rochechouart until Sunday night for viaduct repairs, so Stalingrad and La Chapelle, near Gare du Nord, are not served by it.
- The stadium campus, with food, merchandise and fan activities, opens at noon Paris time (2 p.m. in Cairo). Tickets are mobile only, screenshots are refused, a clear bag policy applies and there is no re-entry.
Saints House and the hometown crowd
The Saints are leaning into the week away from the field as well. Shirin Braden, the club’s vice president of brand strategy, explained on the team’s Gold Sessions podcast how New Orleans is bringing its culture to Paris: youth flag football for French children, Saints House, the partnership with Paris Saint-Germain and a watch party back home for fans who could not travel. Kickoff is 8:30 a.m. in New Orleans.
Kellen Moore’s team, based in Versailles since Monday, walks through at the Stade de France on Saturday, as he explained in our Saints practice report. The Steelers fly out of Pittsburgh on Thursday evening, and Mike McCarthy’s plan for the trip is in our Steelers travel story.
The weekend in Cairo time
- Thursday, October 22, 11 p.m.: Châtelet, Les Halles and République stations close at the prefecture’s request
- Early Friday, October 23: the Steelers fly out of Pittsburgh after Thursday’s practice
- Friday, October 23: Storm Austen, with the strongest gusts in the early afternoon; NFL House open 1 p.m. to 8 p.m.; PSG’s Hail Mary over the Seine; a government defence council meets
- Saturday, October 24: protesters gather at Bastille from 1 p.m., with the authorised march to Nation; NFL House open 1 p.m. to 8 p.m.; Saints House at the Pavillon Vendôme; the Saints walk through at the Stade de France
- Sunday, October 25: clocks in France go back an hour at 3 a.m.; stadium campus opens at 2 p.m.; Steelers vs. Saints kicks off at 4:30 p.m.
How the league got from Wembley in 2007 to Saint-Denis is in our interactive Paris timeline.
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