Geoffrey Branger, edited by Alexandre Dalifard / Photo credit: MAGALI COHEN / HANS LUCAS / HANS LUCAS VIA AFP 14:13 p.m., October 21, 2023

As the All Saints' Day holidays begin this weekend, the French are rushing to rest and escape this heavy news marked by the attacks and the war between Hamas and Israel. At the Montparnasse train station, where Europe 1 visited, everyone wanted to get away from Paris and "get out of the anxiety-provoking climate".

With this news, marked by the war between Israel and Hamas as well as the attacks in Arras and Brussels, the All Saints' Day holidays are welcome for a large number of French people. At the beginning of this weekend, the Montparnasse train station in Paris is taken over by holidaymakers and their suitcases, ready to leave for a few days.

"We need to disconnect"

For this first weekend of departures for these All Saints' Day holidays, holidaymakers are relieved to be able to breathe. "The events are quite heavy, so we need to disconnect. Being in a big train station, I admit that I am not serene. I took the metro to come, I wasn't serene either and I can't wait for the train to start and for us to be far from Paris," says Sabine, who is present in the Paris station. The war in Israel, the terrorist attack in Brussels and, of course, the attack in Arras are on everyone's mind.

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Audrey, a school principal in the Paris region, takes a train to Nantes to meet up with friends. "We had to put a lot of things in place in the schools and also reassure the students so that they could come to work serenely. So there, this need to disconnect, it is very much felt. We cut ourselves off a little from the news even if it is omnipresent, but we need to think about other things and the weekend with friends comes at the right time," she told Europe 1.

And others even prefer to escape abroad to completely cut themselves off from the news. Charlotte, a student, flies with her family to the sun, far from the capital. "I'm going to the Canary Islands with my family. To get out of the anxiety-provoking climate. I know that in Spain, Portugal or countries like that, they are less interested in current events or the conflict in Israel, for example," she said. A well-deserved break for these holidaymakers, even if some admit that they already find it difficult not to take a look at their phone and social networks.