Well in the run to post on the regions of France, lovely run indeed, we need to catch up to what is going on in my belle France.
Well the flood is still high around the rivers of France, especially in the north from east and west of Paris. The metro line 9 of Paris is cut off according to the RATP the organism that managed them and traffic is cancelled between Porte de Saint-Cloud and Pont de Sèvres. The stations of Pont de Sèvres, Billancourt, and Marcel Sembat are closed to the public. The problem is infiltration due to the rise of the Seine river. The reopening will be by tomorrow estimated and a bus service is in place instead. The town of Gournay in Seine-Saint-Denis is flooded and the Marne river should go over 5,55 meters at the limit of the wall. The level can go to 5,80 by Saturday next. The gymnasium du Clos de l’Arche in Noisy-le-Grand , (5 rue Jean Richepin) is available to host folks evacuated if needed. The basin of the Seine river is still high and influence the levels of the Marne river and tributaries. The area is in orange alert (second highest) into the Val de Marne according to Méteo France. By Saturday, the Marne river can go 15-30 cm higher , and Seine having lost 29 cm in 25 hrs still needs to go down and rainy days do not help. It will be needed to wait until next week to see the descend more realistic. To be continue….
the toll fees on highways ./autoroutes continue to go up of course. Increase of 1 – 2 % starting from February 1st 2018, and 3- 4 % in the secondary network of roads. Due to high cost of salt on the road and the high price of the gel of 2015!! this is a rip off but the happy French taxpayer will do again and the visitors will help of course. According to the authority on the regulation of rail activities and highways or ARAFER this increase is not justifiable . The pro consumer group 60 millions de consommateurs have shown that on 29 autoroute axes 28 have increase their rates by more than 5 % between 2011 and 2017. Six tranches have even increase it by more than 10 %. The top comes to the section of Bordeaux to Pau , more than 16%. IN 10 years the price of toll fees have increase by almost 20 %!!!. Yeah and the roads are the same but we pay more ,lousy service ,one more proof the government is not to save lives but to make money.
The museum or musée de Cluny is closing within one month. By March 1st they will closed their doors for about four months for renovations. The small entrance lobby of 52 m2 will be replace by one of 250 m2! and two elevators/lifts will be installed. The city of Paris will take advantage of this to make the rue Sommerard pedestrian. The museum at 6, place Paul Painlevé (5éme). More here: http://www.musee-moyenage.fr/
And one of my all time favorite as my boys grew up going here often is the Jardin d’Acclimatation now in renovation but still confirm to re open by May 1st. The Labor day holiday here. The owners are now the famous brand LVMH. This park of 18 hectares in the Bois de Boulogne (16éme) will have a new identity to it’s 40 activities and function ability to the machines providing admission fees of 4,90€ adults or the pass for all at 29€. The park is a historical leisure place for Parisians that is here since 1860. The new renovation will keep the place of promenade and rest for all as always. A garden renovated in the spirit of old Paris, a village of activities such as the Les Rockets, an attraction unique in Europe with 500 meters of rollercoaster, bobsleigh etc going down at 45 kph ( 28 mph) in 2 minutes 30 seconds in a forest of sequoia trees. There will be an interactive cinema, an decorated alley in the north part on the side of Neuilly-sur-Seine. A farm normand recreated and the heritage of Napoléon III rebuilt. The factory to make satin fabric that has been made into a café as well as station with a old clock, and several small houses to bring back the spirit of Napoléon III. They have planted 45 000 shrubs and 200 trees with a natural river flowing thru. More here: http://jardindacclimatation.fr/
Grand Paris Express will go the distance for the supermetro around Paris. 200 km of metro and 68 new stations in 5 new lines 14,15,16,17,and 18 will be build by the govt by way of the company Société du Grand Paris (SGPl) . The proposals will be received by the council of overlook of the project of the SGP during the month of March 2018.
And knowing this line, I know what they are going thru. The wonderful old outdated public transports in Paris. The train Line U trip of La Verrière (Yvelines my oldest boy school was here) and La Défense had a terrible last trimester of 2017. From initiative of the users association ” Plus de Trains”, meeting have been held with the SNCF. they need to improve it, an important line of 50 000 passengers per day meanwhile the SNCF recognizes that they are two times more cancelled trains here that before and the line is worse than from last May 2017. Just saying, not the same visiting than living here; transports is not what they are made to show for at all. There is a blog in French telling us about all the problems of the transports in the Paris region here: https://meslignesnetu.transilien.com/
More transports evils, before you take the bus and transport passengers the drivers of the buses of the RATP needs to come on board and park their own cars. Well at Boulogne-Billancourt or the Porte de Saint-Cloud, the parking for them is hard and has prompted given a strike notice by Friday. The strike is posted for the bus lines 169 and 171,in the dept Hauts-de-Seine, but, also lines 22, 52 ,and 72, that transit in Paris. They claim they have only 25 parking spaces for 250 drivers ! and now they are prohibited from parking their personal cars in the bus terminal of Pont-de-Sèvres, where the drivers of bus lines 169 and 171 start their work day. Until now there was tolerance on their parking here bu the dept of Hauts-de-Seine,in charge of the places have installed anti parking blocks here! When are they are goint to learn they cannot stop the car, as they have no space no money and no means of creating spaces!!!
More on trains, the RER E in dept 93 Seine-Saint-Denis has since December 23rd last taken the form of strikes of 59 minutes every morning!. It happened last at the station of Raincy, where the trains of 7h49 and 7h56 were cancelled without any notice to passengers. Therefore, starting February 1st the Unions will have strikes for 59 minutes between the hours of 6h30 to 7h29, from 17h30 to 18h29 , and between 0h30 to 1h29. They are asking for the erosion in their purchasing power and an increase in salaries. So now in addition to delays old Equipment cancellations, and now salaries, the workers in the area going to work will go thru hell once again. Hopefully the visitors will not notice any of this and will still claim Paris transports is very nice lol!!!
To continue on transports and outside Paris region of île de France we go to the Oise at Beauvais and their network of buses Corolis. For the fourth consecutive day they are on strike and will continue. This includes the free navette in city center and the service chronopro 2 will be cancelled again. This is in addition to the 26 departures cancelled of the Chrono 1 from/to the districts of Argentine, Saint-Jean,and Hôtel de ville. Just for info ok nothing bad just routine transport woes. More here in French: http://www.corolis.fr/actualites-mouvement-de-greve-ce-jeudi-1er-fevrier-et-ce-vendredi-2-fevrier-20
And to make it even more so bad, the Conseil d’orientation des infrastructures (COI),that is mandatated by the government to decide on priorities for transports for the next 5-10 years on big projects like the lines TGV Bordeaux-Toulouse, Paris-Normandie or Provence-Côte d’Azur, new autoroutes etc are looking into a phaseout period on the construction of these. they will be done in stages over a longer period of time. Of course no money for this but they keep raising fees and higher fines and less parkings etc As we say la vie est belle indeed. The line Toulouse-Bordeaux as an example the first stage schedule for 2018-2022, the finish is now estimated to be by 2037 or later!!! The same for the line Provence-côte d’Azur,where the completion will be extended from 2023 to 2037. oh là là là; it’s all here in Les Echos in French: https://www.lesechos.fr/industrie-services/tourisme-transport/0301236338269-infrastructures-de-transports-les-pistes-pour-faire-admettre-des-reports-2149953.php
Ok cool, on a more peaceful story about football/soccer; The village of Poncy bordering the autoroute A13 as well as roads D30 and D113 all around Poissy will be the new training camp of Paris football/soccer team PSG. There will be a new traffic circle by Aigremont in the D30, all my old hangouts. The team will have a huge complex here with 15 football fields, buildings for housing and stadium for 5000 persons to be done by 2020.
And one guy that has not received all the credit due him as a painter is Jean Fautrier and he will be shown at the museum or musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris. An exposition with his 140 paintings and 25 Sculptures of Jean Fautrier (1898-1964). All until May 20 2018. WE see in his paintings signs of Turner, as well as Rembrandt, or even Chardin. However , he flirt with abstraction and created the jargon of informal art with several work of the expressionist school. You need to see the work « Nature morte aux poires » from 1927. It has a font black and gray emerging three pears with a light spectacle that is taken from the game of lights of a Turner or a Rembrandt. His « Jolie fille » done in 1926-1927 is a mass of nuts in a sculptural body where he hardly shows the face, it is radical! As well as the work done in 1922, when he decided to take on the « Portrait de ma concierge ». He made exist an old lady with a minucioiuse representation in grey tones, black and violets. In his funeral André Malraux said that Fautrier made him think of Goya. Anyway Jean Fautrier is a great one of the painting history, the master of modern tragidy . More here: http://www.mam.paris.fr/fr/expositions/exposition-jean-fautrier
On November 27 2017, the auction house of Artcurial proposed in auction a magnificent ensemble of work in sculptures by Camille Claudel. They were rare and beautiful, a pedigree (coming from the family of the sculptor) the estimation were awesome and three world records were established. A sweet revenge for that which for a long time was considered the student of her lover Auguste Rodin. All had the right of pre emptive that was exercise by the French government in auctions of arts in favor of six muséums, so on the 20 works 12 were send to French arts institutions. That is the story the museum or Musée d’Orsay is showing until February 6. The others are the Musée Rodin, Paris, Musée Camille-Claudel, Nogent-sur-Seine (Aube), the pool museum or Piscine-Musée d’art et d’industrie in Roubaix (Nord), Musée Sainte-Croix of Poitiers , and the Maison Camille et Paul Claudel of Villeneuve-sur-Fère (Aisne), all already with important works of Camille Claudel .More here: http://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/collections/works-in-focus/search/commentaire_id/lage-mur-107.html?no_cache=1&cHash=50e8feacee
sit back and enjoy the arts in beautiful Paris and extraordinary Opéra in the season 2018-2019 at the Opéra de Paris. The year 2019 will be a double anniversary, the creation in 1669 by king Louis XIV of the royal academy of the opera or the Académie royale d’Opéra, that will take on the name of the royal academy of music or Académie royale de Musique; but, also as well the opening of the room Bastille, opened about 30 years ago by Président François Mitterrand for the bicentenary of the French revolution. Some of the work shown are: Les Huguenots by Giacomo Meyerbeer created in the Opéra in 1836 followed by the first curtain rising of the Opéra Bastille in 1989. Also, Les Troyens of Hector Berlioz under the direction of Philippe Jordan and to finish with the opera ballet of Rameau, Les Indes Galantes under the direction of Leonardo Garcia Alarcon in a scene of Clément Cogitore. Not less than 32 programs with 15 new spectacles will be shown. some of the new will be Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk by Dmitri Chostakovitch in a scene of Krzysztof Warlikowski. Don Giovanni of Mozart directed by Philippe Jordan and scene of Ivo Van Hove or the La Traviata of Verdi with a new scene of Simon Stone. On the Dance side, you have ballets likes the Cendrillon, La Dame aux Camélias and the Le Lac des Cygnes and also the premiere in the Opera Garnier on December 29 2019 a hip hop battle with Juste debout, the organizer in France of the biggest international competitions. More here: https://www.operadeparis.fr/en/ticketing?gclid=Cj0KCQiAzMDTBRDDARIsABX4AWx0VX7X_RgCGFN402ZuTLROW04-qP6rXTGKEoS6I6R13mp-YQuxZkMaAl7QEALw_wcB
And last but not least, the nocturnal chases at the Louvre museum. Call is out for the lovers of the Da Vinci Code ! Each Wednesday and Saturday night the musée du Louvre welcomes the great adventurers that we are for a mysterious treasure hunt. For nearly two hours in the heart of the museum collections your mission will be to be first in opening the crypts of the Joconde (Mona Lisa). Anima,the organizer of the events in Paris will have a quiz to help on the hunt; you will need a team to discover the three pyramides on three initiating trails before the others. This will be until February 28 2018 . Night events at 19h and matinees on Saturdays at 10h30 . Admission are 33,60€ for the adult tickets with Louvre admission included or 17,40€ just for the treasure hunt, 10,20€ for the children and the museum is free for those under 26 with proof of age. Musée du Louvre entrance by the Pyramide – Cour Napoléon – 1er more on the organiser Anima site here! http://www.anima.events/chasse-au-tresor-au-louvre-3/
Ok so a change of pace from the regions report but figure Paris can’t wait lol!!! Enjoy Paris , the most beautiful city in the world. Hey UN WTO figures are in for 2016 France got 82,6 millions visitors again tops in the world ::) Cheers!
Paris1972-Versailles2003 