A scrum of disappointed tourists stared, wistfully, through the maze of metal fences lining the River Seine. Ahead of them, Notre Dame cathedral and other Parisian treasures lay, tantalisingly, out of reach.
“We don’t have a code,” said a woman from Mexico, watching others – armed with the requisite QR security code – pass, with an approving beep, through a police checkpoint.
Further downstream, beside the Eiffel Tower, a weary couple trailing large suitcases performed a slow U-turn on a crowded pavement.
What a grotesque state of affairs.
