‘Another Brexit benefit’
Non-EU visitors – including Britons since we bid au revoir to the EU – could be forced to pay more to visit top attractions in France.
Under French government plans, a 5-euro surcharge could be added to non-EU nationals to visit sites owned by the state, including museums, monuments and attractions like the Eifel Tower. The extra money will be used to help with the upkeep and maintenance of historic sites. It is hoped that the scheme would raise €75m a year, which, as France’s culture minister Rachida Dati claimed, would be enough to “save all the churches in France.”
Dati told the French newspaper Le Figaro: “I want visitors from outside the EU to pay more for their entrance ticket and for this supplement to finance the renovation of the national heritage.”
Dati questioned whether it was “normal” for a French person to “pay the same price for entry to the Louvre as a Brazilian or Chinese visitor.”
As Britain is no longer in the EU, the surcharge would apply to British visitors.
The news was predictably leapt on by the pro-Brexit press.
“Disaster for Brits as close neighbour could launch shock ‘£5 per attraction’ tourist tax,” headlined the Express. In another article, they lamented: “World’s most visited museum to charge British tourists £4 more to enter,” focusing on the Louvre, where ticket prices could rise from €22 to €30 by 2026.
“Plans to also charge tourists an entry fee for Notre Dame Cathedral have also been controversial,” the article continued.
GB News was equally outraged, citing a ‘heritage historian’ and member of the National Commission for Architecture and Heritage, Alexandre Gady, criticising the proposal to charge for previously free cultural experiences in France.
“We are using a bookkeeping approach that is devastating us in this country,” he told France Info.
Unsurprisingly, the GB News’ comment section turned into a hotbed of anti-French sentiment. One reader suggested, “Reciprocate by putting extra charges on them both Spain and France, teach them a lesson.”
Another said, “Perhaps we need to now impose a fine on France of 10000 euros per head for each illegal migrant they allow to cross the channel?”
The irony, of course, is that it’s the very Brexit these folks championed that now means they’ll be paying the same higher prices as all other non-EU nationals.
“Another Brexit benefit,” mocked the London Economic.
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