Recurring violence dogs France’s image

What with protesters and police clashing in Paris, soccer hooligans brawling at Euro 2016 matches and a deadly jihadist attack, France is hardly a picture-postcard destination these days.

Not to mention the rubbish piling up on the streets of Paris last week after strikers blockaded incineration plants.

Or the epic floods that hit the City of Light earlier this month, causing riverside museums to close.

“We had helicopters and hysterical police sirens all day outside our [apartment’s] back window,” said Nancy Anderson, 61, a frequent visitor from the US staying in Paris’ seventh district, which was at the heart of fierce clashes between police and protesters on Tuesday.

It was the worst violence in a wave of anti-government protests which began in March.

The most shocking incident saw hooded youths smashing the plateglass windows of a nearby children’s hospital.

Just the day before, France was shaken when a police couple was stabbed to death at their home in the first deadly jihadist attack since the November bloodbath in Paris that claimed 130 lives.

And on June 12, Marseille saw the worst violence at an international soccer tournament since 1998 – which also occurred in France – with pitched battles between Russia and England soccer fans in the southern city’s old port.

During the clashes, more than 30 people were hurt, including a Briton who was beaten over the head with an iron bar. Ten hooligans were later jailed.

With France in the global spotlight, the serie noire of violence has prompted fears of lasting damage to the image of the world’s premier tourist destination.

Paris already suffered a 13.7 percent drop in tourist arrivals in the first four months of the year, according to the regional tourism office CRT.