Étretat, France - The small French coastal village of Étretat has been overrun since the launch of the Netflix series Lupin. Now the mayor must act – and is resorting to extraordinary measures.

The French series Lupin has become a huge success for Netflix when it launched the first two parts of the series this year.

In no time at all, it took the number one spot among the most-watched series across Europe and even became the first French production ever to make it into the top 10 in the US.

The storyline focuses on the fictional adventures of master thief Arsène Lupin, played by Omar Sy (43).

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Though the story and picturesque setting has set Netflix up for a profit, the series has created quite the headache for residents of Étretat, the French resort town on the Normandy coast.

Since its release, countless fans of the series have made the pilgrimage to the village of 1,200 to experience one of the filming locations up close and personal. Unfortunately, the booming tourist numbers amount to several thousand tourists a day.

"I saw Lupin on Netflix and just had to come here," one young French woman told Swiss news service SRF. Another says: "I'd heard of the books before, but I only discovered Lupin through the series."

For the villagers, however, mass tourism is more of a curse than a blessing: "There are traffic jams on all the main roads, the parking lots are overcrowded and the cars are just parked anywhere," says Mayor André Baillard (72).

Many residents feel that the travelers are interfering with their daily lives. Some have protested with posters and signs, others are packing their bags and moving away.

"The schools here used to be overcrowded, now there are hardly any children. The local families are moving away," reports one local.

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That's why Baillard has now decided on a drastic course of action: "We want to close down the village."

Étretat is soon to be accessible only to local cars, and more parking spaces are to be created outside the village boundary.

It remains to be seen whether this solution will truly remedy the tourist rush because the hype around Lupin is unlikely to die down. The next season has already been slated for release in January.