If you happen to be in France on the first Wednesday of the month, any month, a word of warning: Don’t be alarmed when the alarm sounds.
Depending on the region, at 11.45, noon sharp or 12.15, the wail of the sirens will cut through city noise as part of the SAIP (système d’alerte et d’information des populations), to make sure the sirens are working properly and people recognize the signal.
The origins go back to the Middle Ages, when the tocsin, or alarm bell, rang to alert the population to a danger. After World War II, church bells have been replaced by the sirens sitting proudly atop the fire stations or town halls. As recently as 2019, they alerted the population of the Normandy city of Rouen and the surrounding area as a chemical products plant caught fire.
Even more recently, in 2022, these alert measures were completed by an alarm system called “cell broadcast” that will send alert messages to the cellphones in an area affected by a threat.
So don’t be alarmed by the alarm, as long as it’s sirens and not your cellphone wailing.
Postscript: While we’re on the subject of alarms, firefighters and emergencies, do you know what number to dial for an emergency in France? There’s a bunch of two-digit numbers to call depending on what your emergency is, but thanks to the European Union, all you need to remember is one three-digit number that will work no matter in which EU country you are, and even in many other European countries, and get you an operator speaking English:
