Circus Shenanigans

The Court in Orléans has ordered that a circus must pack up and leave Blois.

 

Circus tent on the Champs des foires in Preuilly sur Claise.

The circus had installed themselves at the showgrounds in late January without asking permission. They didn't bother asking because the authorities in Blois would have refused them. Blois banned circuses with wild animals in 2020, and this circus has wild animal acts.

There is no national statute forbidding wild animal acts in France, so the Court ordered the circus to leave Blois on the grounds that it did not ask permission to set up there. The circus will be fined 100 euros a day for every day it overstays. The authorities are assuming that the circus will indeed leave and at this stage are not planning to send the police round there to physically evict them.

A Bactrian camel belonging to a circus, helping itself to the hedge around the recycling bins.

Basically, the circus has to leave, because a different circus is booked to arrive and put on a show that does not include animals.

Note that the photos are of a different circus not involved in this fracas, photographed in Preuilly some years ago, and just used for illustrative purposes.