Paris1972-Versailles2003

The icy weather should be back this weekend with announced periods of snow, now we have fallen in my area rain and ice mix intermitently. The roads are still good thus. We will see as the messy road conditions of last week caused the highest output of electricity consumption in France at 96K  kw per day. Saturday 18 December 2010  and the snow its heavy around me easy 8 inches of the soft one on the ground, my car is covered and I am home for the weekend ::)

The new announcement in Paris is that the electric car will be part of the scene soon the same as the velib bike has done. Groupe Bolloré have just won the contract to installed  in Paris for the electric car and they can be rented.  From now until the end of 2011 about 3000 cars will be available in Paris and 27 neighboring communities; in about 1000 stations of which 700 will be inside Paris. It will be about the same concept of the Velib bike system. This concept is already in Antibes and Nice will have it soon . The phenomenon started with the city of La Rochelle. Watch for those little blue buggers all over Paris soon !!! News from Le Figaro in French here http://www.lefigaro.fr/societes/2010/12/15/04015-20101215ARTFIG00748-paris-lance-le-grand-chantier-autolib.php

The plan for the improvement of life in  Paris continues to have public hearings under the Paris Grand Projet. The idea is to make the city more pedestrian friendly, the plans calls for uplifting the areas along the Seine river such as Pont de Solférino/Musée d’Orsay, Port du Gros Caillou, Invalides/Concorde, Port des Céléstins, and Port de l’Hôtel de Ville. The French webpage is this one   http://bergesdeseine.paris.fr/#panel-5

Have a wonderful day everyone ::)

ps latest news all over the papers, the head of king Henry IV has been found and identify. The head is in good condition, it is held at a bank vault pending the process of bury it with the rest of the body at the Basilica of Saint Denis, this is taken part by the descendant of the Bourbon line of kings, the Duke d’Anjou or Luis Alfonso de  Bourbon, which if they have monarchy again will be Louis XX. Apart from other disputing the crown, from royal and imperial sides. The ceremonies will be reveal soon after negotiations with the French government on how and when to do it.

allo allo well some news about France now, as the season is just around the corner.

First the trains zones in Paris will be change beginning in July 2011. Now we have 6 zones stemming from Paris proper zone 1 all the way to Mantes la Jolie on the west and Melun in the east with Disneyland in zone 5. Now the longest zone will be zone 5 ,eliminating zone 6. The idea is to have a unique tariff for all transport by the year 2012. As July is the month where tarifs prices change in France, you will need to be on the lookout for that date on new tarifs update while traveling in France.

In addition the WTO=World Tourism Organisation has come up saying that France will remain in first place for visitors in 2010. In 2009, France had 74,2 million visitors,  United States 54,9 m, Spain 52,2 and China 50,9. For 2010 France will keep its first place, according to the organisations estimates with USA second and China moving up to third, Spain fourth. It is expected China to be number one by the year 2020.

Heavy snows in my area of Versailles, as much as 5-7 inches of snow (13-16cm +-) fell yesterday, and all transports were stopped. Cars were left on the road as folks could not get by. I spent 8 hours getting out my kids from school and work in Versailles, snow covered streets as police had blocked some routes for safety, and I needed to do some alternative routings to get in and out.

Unfortunately forgot the camera at home …………………….still learning ::)