And as trips goes cannot be too far from my run of some news from France. There has been a lot going on since I left on a little trip to Toulouse/Lavaur (more coming up) .However, its time to tell you what is going on and some tips.
There are strikes all over France , as said this is a rather a customs than a nuisance unless you need to go to work in Paris region of Ïle de France. We were in Toulouse the day of a big strike but it was all confined to Saint Cyprien areas and we did not notice anything until we were back and saw the news lol!!!
So therefore, if coming in the next month read the news as some of your transport option may not be available in France. Here are the latest scoops.
The social protest was deployed in several forms yesterday Saturday January 18 2020 in Paris as a protest against the pension reform, the Gilets Jaunes or Yellow Vests took part in their 62nd protest in the streets of Paris. A relatively large crowd, compared to the past few weeks. Leaving the Porte de Champerret around 11h, the procession joined the Gare de Lyon in a very hostile climate. The demonstrators recalled their global opposition to the policy led by Emmanuel Macron and the government . Mobilizations also took place in many cities in France such as Marseille, Bordeaux, Strasbourg, Toulouse, and Clermont-Ferrand, where lawyers marched there alongside Yellow Vests and Unionists.
Who set fire to the famous restaurant La Rotonde? Has the legendary Montparnasse brasserie, prized by Emmanuel Macron (he celebrated his winnings there), been the target of arsonists? Against the background of political demands? The police officers of the territorial direction of security of Paris, to whom the Paris public prosecutor’s office entrusted the investigation, asked themselves the question and raked the scene of the restaurant !La Rotonde, 105, boulevard du Montparnasse (6éme), in search of indices. Stay tune for more
Thirty people gathered Friday in Paris in front of the Bouffes du Nord Theater where Emmanuel Macron attended a performance. According to the Elysee Palace, the president was “secure” for a few minutes but was able to attend the performance until the end.
The historic strike at the Opera Garnier may be prolonged, for lack of compromise between the artists and machinists, attached to their special pension scheme, and the gov of Macron determined to abolish it. This Saturday, 200 people from all trades at the Opera, but also from the “Maison de Molière”, organized a free concert in front of the Palais Garnier. In front of a dense crowd, the orchestra and the choir of the Paris Opera performed, among other things, an extract from “Carmen” by Bizet and “La Marseillaise”, with loud applause or “long live the strike!” launched by spectators. This new show was organized as part of the protest against the pension reform.
So these events will continue and you were told here, be prepared.
It is a sea or rather freshwater snake which resurfaces. Like others before her, candidate Anne Souyris, head of the environmental list in the 13éme arrondissement, dreams of reviving the Bièvre! , this river buried since the beginning of the 20C in Paris. Based on studies carried out by the Parisian Urban Planning Workshop (APUR) in 2000 and the Paris Region Institute (formerly IAURIF), the project studied at the time by the architect Pierre-Marie Tricaud, and now carried by the ecologist, aims to make the forgotten river flow in Parc Kellerman (13éme), Square René-Le Gall (13éme and the Natural History Museum (5éme). New: the project will also be accompanied by a green corridor along the route of the Bièvre for pedestrians, cyclists and soft mobility. In the longer term and based on feasibility studies, Anne Souyris wants to reopen canals connecting these green spaces and develop a “blue flow” from the ring road at the Porte des Peupliers to the Seine river up to Austerlitz. This is a political promise as such it rest to her to win and see the outcome. Source: Le Parisien newspaper
Brief history : The Bièvre is a river that rises in Guyancourt (Yvelines dept 78) and once flowed into the Seine river near the Gare d’Austerlitz station after a 33 km journey through the Essonne (91) , Hauts-de-Seine (92) and the Val -de-Marne (94) departments. It entered Paris (75) at the Poterne des Peupliers and crossed the 13éme and 5éme arrondissements. It was covered at the beginning of the 20C and its route diverted towards the sewers of Paris. If the Bièvre river still follows its natural course for around twenty kilometers, in Paris, there are only commemorative plaques scattered throughout its route today. In Paris see it better at my usual business spot rue de Bièvre, name so because the river passes by here underneath still….
Here all about it; Nearly 500 employees will be recruited before the New York hotel reopens on June 15 2020. In five months, it will have welcomed its first customers. Closed for a year for a major renovation on the Marvel theme, one of the three universes of the Disneyland Paris extension, the New York hotel is in the process of recruiting personnel.ok. More here: Disneyland Paris Hotel New York
And one of my magical spots in my old beloved Yvelines dept 78 Marly-le-Roi
Built in 1679, the Château de Marly (Yvelines 78) and its park only welcomed the Sun King and his friends, far from the noises of Versailles. The museum of the royal domain, which recounts this era, reopens on Saturday January 18 2020. There, the king had built a palace and a garden reserved for the elite of the elite. The Musée du domaine de Marly, which reopens on Saturday after three years of work in a revised version, is working to restore it. Because unfortunately, of the castle itself, only ruins remain: it was destroyed in 1806. The vast park, always very pleasant for a walk, has only kept its plan and some of its many pools , like the l’Abreuvoir. Another wonder was to make Marly an object of fascination across the continent: Its machine! To supply the multiple fountains with gushing water, an ingenious system had to be found. They imagine an immense wooden machine, fitted with 14 wheels 12 m in diameter, to pump water from the Seine 2.5 km below and raise it, in several stages, 160 meters higher. A real scientific performance at the time, which the museum evokes through numerous reproductions but also two interactive models which should make the happiness of the children. As recalled by the paintings and objects in the museum windows, one of the favorite occupations remains the hunting in the park and the surrounding forest. It seems that at Versailles it was entirely business and that in Marly it was entirely for him and his pleasure ”, wrote Racine to Boileau in 1687.
At the Musée de Marly, her portrait, made around 1700, stands enthroned among those of the locals. No wonder: Elisabeth-Charlotte of Bavaria, known as Princess Palatine, is the second wife of Philippe d’Orléans, the brother of Louis XIV. As a sister-in-law, she was practically all of the monarch’s stays in his “second home”. The princess had an easy and inexhaustible pen. Sort of feminine Saint-Simon, more raw, it is even nicknamed the “Ocean of ink” for its correspondence which reaches 60,000 letters! Documents which constitute a very important source in the knowledge of Marly at the time of the Sun King.
Musée du domaine royal de Marly (Yvelines 78). Open wednesdays to fridays from 9h30 to 12h30 and 14h to 17h; as well as weekends from 10h30 to 17h. Admission is 7 € general adult. The garden park is free. More info here : www.musee-domaine-marly.fr
The above is a wonderful place near my old home and have written before in my blog; see here: My post on museum park at Marly le Roi
Two major changes in France!
The legendary restaurant of Paul Bocuse has just lost its third star. In 2019, four of them left the gastronomic firmament (few), with injuries still alive. Paul Bocuse, who passed away in 2018; how would he have reacted on January 16, when he learned that his restaurant L’Auberge du Pont de Collonges (Rhône), triple star since 1965, had just lost his third badge? Guide Michelin is in a cleaning out move and many controversial calls here in France.
Clapping an end for Jean Paul Gaultier, who announces his last fashion parade. The famous 67-year-old French couturier presented his final haute couture show last Wednesday at the Théâtre du Châtelet, in Paris, and announces that he is embarking on a “new project” with his house. In fifty years of career, Jean Paul Gaultier has become one of the symbols of French luxury. This fashion icon will bid farewell to haute couture shows in Paris.
In the Marais, the Galerie de l’Instant puts Jane Birkin in the spotlight. Sublimated by the photographic eye of her brother Andrew Birkin, and by that of her friend Tony Franck: the photos are all the more intimate, and striking. Guaranteed nostalgia. Immersed in the intimacy of Jane B, we are entitled to two points of view on the life and the beauty of the most French of English women. In the studio, with the family, at the fair .The two photographers, moreover, each captured very closely the daily life of the couple Jane B / Gainsbourg, remained legendary in the collective unconscious See the expo Jane B at The Gallery of L’Instant 44, rue de Poitou 3éme; until March 1st, 2020. More info here: La Galerie de l’Instant Paris
Something from my Morbihan Breton that is big in Paris too. Go for it!!
Maison Georges Larnicol: Georges by his first name is a Breton by birth. Even though he has come a long way since then, the artisanal values of his origins have never left him. With pure butter and coarse salt, the house kouign-amann is, for many of us, the best we have had the opportunity to eat in Paris. The favorite? The kouignettes (smaller kouign-amanns delicious!! ), just to take several without regretting it!! Maison Georges Larnicol ,14, rue de Rivoli ; 4éme Paris too !! Of course in Paris other stores at 19 rue de l’Harpe 5éme and 132 Bd Saint Germain 6éme, and 7 rue de Steinkerque 18éme. More info here: Maison Georges Larnicol and stores
For those who are French and/or permanently live in France. The poll on Parisians to reveal the undisputed signs of the passage to the thirties in the city. If you recognize yourself in more than 5 statements, you are 30 years old (or maybe 50). Have fun! I am ::)
Did you know the metro in working order. You’re trying to buy an apartment, and you tell yourself that you wouldn’t be so bad in the suburbs actually. You bought an electric bike. Your body is slower, time flies faster. You drink natural wine (Bio). You are more emotionally stable. At least that’s what you think. You don’t care what people think of you. In pajamas downstairs to buy milk with your hair still in a mess? Don’t care. You have already sworn that you would never ride an electric scooter … before changing your mind. You are subscribed to the weekly basket of organic vegetables closest to you. You make dinners between couples and you bring back “a small organic bottle found in a small wine shop at the bottom of rue Lamartine”. You get up early on Sunday without GDB (complaining ok). You have a favorite brand of tea, and you even bought a teapot. You follow the Marie Kondo method and it changed your life. You bought yourself a juicer to make yourself some juices. You do meditation and it changed your life. You start to take pleasure in telling young people that they are young. Young people take pleasure in telling you that you are old. You became the oldest or the oldest in your box / startup. Sunday is brunch! But healthy, be careful. And, you eat no more McDo because “it hurts you”. You have an unlimited UGC cinema card and you go to the cinema at least once a week. RTL2 is not that bad after all as a radio. You wake up earlier than your alarm clock and you take the opportunity to jog. Even when you are not tired, your dark circles do not fade. You see babies and you think that you may have one, one day, when you have money and you have a house with a garden in the provinces / suburbs. You fuck less and less often, but the sex is better. You have no weekend free because you are invited to full weddings / BJW / BGD / family reunion. All your friends are starting to have children. You plan to buy a Dyson vacuum cleaner for 1000 € because the low-cost version of your cordless vacuum cleaner is dead after 2 months. You start to understand your parents. You start having friends the age of your parents. You can no longer chain two evenings in a row and you take 3 days to recover from an evening that was a little too drunk. You go to bed late in the week, like 22h45 . We ask you when you plan to get married or when you plan to have babies. You are going less and less after .You no longer support certain music. You plan to save all your money and eat rice for 15 years to open a ditch and leave this superficial world. Or a house by the river in Averyon (more realistic). You can’t take it anymore from Paris but you can’t stand the province. Source: Le Bonbon
So there you folks, enjoy your Sunday and thanks for reading my Some news from France series and my blog; appreciated. And I just clean my garden from and back of the house and the basement and air the house and clean the windows, and car wash my car with my boys help. Cheers
And remember, happy travels good health, and many cheers to all!!!
Paris1972-Versailles2003 