Residents have been advised to stay home and there are few tourists in what should be a busy shopping day in one of the last weekends before Christmas. Dozens of streets across central Paris have been closed, and shopkeepers have boarded up storefronts for fear of looting. The Eiffel Tower and famous museums the Musee d’Orsay and the Louvre are closed.
There have been 8,000 officers and 12 armoured vehicles sent into Paris today as more than 1,000 people gathered in the city centre.
Now tear gas has been fired in Paris, as the first clashes in the day of protests begin.
These protesters met at the Champs-Elysées and marched to a police cordon before stopping.
This is now the fourth weekend of protests, with last week seeing hundreds of people arrested and many injured on the streets.
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These confrontations have been the worst in decades for the French capital.
Last weekend rioters set cars aflame, looted shops and defaced the Arc de Triomphe monument with graffiti.
Interior Minister Christophe Castaner told news site Brut today: “We have prepared a robust response.”
He asked for peaceful protestors to not become mixed up with “hooligans”.
Mr Castaner continued: ”The troublemakers can only be effective when they disguise themselves as yellow vests.
“Violence is never a good way to get what you want. Now is the time for discussion.”
Why are there protests in France?
The “yellow vest” movement began three weeks ago in opposition to a rise in fuel tax, and have caused violence, tear gas and arrests.
Ministers have said the protests have been hijacked by “ultra-violent” protestors as four have died and hundreds more have been injured.
Despite the violence, the movement has garnered support from the French people, with 77 percent justifying the protests according to French news site Le Figaro.
The government have since said it is scrapping the fuel increases and has frozen electricity and gas prices for 2019.
However, protests have erupted over other issues, such as the need for higher wages, lower taxes, easier university requirements, better pensions and even President Emmanuel Macron’s resignation.
Protester Claude Rigolet told the BBC: “Everything is more expensive. Taxes are going up – housing, heating costs, cars. Everything is going up.”
Protesters have organised themselves via social media, declaring this weekend as “Act IV” in a dramatic opposition to Macron’s policies.