Attendance at major French museums has fallen dramatically since the terrorist attacks in Paris on 13 November, which claimed 130 lives. The week after the atrocities, the number of visitors to the Louvre was down by 35% compared with the same week in 2014. The following week (23-29 November), attendance was 30% down on the previous year, according to a spokeswoman. She attributes the drop to “instructions issued by the ministry of education forbidding schools from visiting museums”.
A spokesman for the Centre Pompidou says that attendance fell by 50% in the two weeks after the attacks but that it has been “coming back to nearly normal since then”. Military patrols and police protection units are stationed at the museum, he adds.