And its time to tell you about some news from France, my regular news bulletins of what I think are best to tell. We are now in the Fall season and temps beginning to come down all over France. The vaccin drome complex are beginning to be closed like the Stade de France north of Paris. And the beat goes on,,,Here are my latests !
As usual the great Paris public transport network goes thru some interruptions for the weekend of 2-3 October 2021; and this is not over folks it will continue into Winter, I always recommend people checking ahead for this, As I have friends coming over in December to Paris, I have already alerted them to check in on last minutes changes.
RER B. Due to the many construction sites that are continuing in the northern sector of line B, traffic will be interrupted all weekend between Aulnay-sous-Bois and terminal 2 at Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle. A substitute bus service is in place. RER C. Trains connecting Juvisy to Versailles Chantiers and Pont de Rungis to Massy-Palaiseau are canceled on Saturday and Sunday. In addition to setting up substitute buses, a strengthening of regular bus lines is planned. Sunday evening, the entire southern branch will be stopped from the Orsay museum station. RER D. Watch out for the stops canceled this Sunday. From 22h50, the RER trains heading towards Melun or Corbeil-Essonnes will not serve Créteil-Pompadour and Villeneuve-Triage stations. Replacement buses are being put in place.
For the Transilien network: Line K. Traffic is suspended, all weekend long and in both directions, between Mitry-Claye in Seine-et-Marne and Gare du Nord. Users can go to the “east” branch of the RER B which makes the same journey and operates normally. Line L. No train will run, Saturday and Sunday, on the sections between Saint-Lazare on the one hand and La Défense and Maisons-Laffitte (Yvelines) on the other. Traffic on the rest of line L will be normal except between Saint-Nom-la-Bretèche and Saint-Cloud (Hauts-de-Seine) where trains will be canceled, from 22h to 7h, overnight from Saturday to Sunday . Line R. Like last week, line R will terminate at Melun in Seine-et-Marne, Saturday and Sunday. Trains to Montargis and Montereau are canceled and replaced by buses serving all intermediate stations.
Metro Line 4. Continuation of automation work. Like every Sunday, line 4 will only open to travelers from noon. It will work normally on Saturday. The Tramways; T1. Due to modernization work, the trams no longer stop at Escadrille Normandie-Niemen, Marché Saint-Denis, Hôpital Delafontaine and Courneuve 6 routes stations. T4. Beware of extended travel times this Saturday morning. Before 5h, the T4 line trams are replaced by buses. Allow 15 minutes more than by tram between Aulnay-sous-Bois and Bondy in Seine-Saint-Denis.
And on the road: pedestrian Champs-Élysées. Like every first Sunday of the month, the Champs-Élysées sector and almost all of Paris-Centre (the first 4 arrondissements) are added to the districts of the “Paris breathes” Sunday pedestrianization plan. This Sunday, from 10h to 17h, motor vehicle traffic will be completely prohibited on the Champs-Élysées and only reserved for motorists with an exemption in the hypercentre. And the beat goes on, Paris will be super crowded!!
This Saturday, from 19h to 02h, you can wear your hiking boots and set off on one of the three GR75 routes. More than 100 events are scheduled for the 20th edition of Nuit Blanche. The theme – art and sport – imposes its rhythm and its style. Anquetil (in the Bois de Vincennes) or the Georges-Vallerey swimming pool (20éme arrondissement), major Olympic sites of 1900 and 1924. Start at the Hôtel-de-Ville square. Obviously, you have to start with the meeting place at Place de l’Hotel-de-Ville. From 19h to 20h, this is the last moment to see Christo’s runaway on the Arc de Triomphe. It will be dismantled the day after the Nuit Blanche. The exhibition at the city’s Modern Art Museum presents for the first time commissions from five young artists who won the 2nd edition of the 1% Art Market Prize. The Carnavalet Museum provides a setting for a performance by an artist choreographer. The Centre Pompidou will be completely open with lighting on the facade. Finally, go to Church Saint-Eustache to witness the song of the whales, a video and hologram installation. Other churches put on their own performances. Nuit Blanche begins at 19h, especially with the opening of museums. Everything is free. But unlike in years past, Nuit Blanche does not last until the end of the night. The program will end at 02h, in order to respect the metro schedule.
And traditions ends again at Tati,sadly. In Barbès, nostalgic customers came to say “one last goodbye” to Tati. Between wave in the soul and buying fever, the last customers looked for good deals in the almost empty shelves of the historic store in the 18éme arrondissement in this last day before the final closing. Before lowering its curtain forever, the emblematic store of Barbès-Rochechouart, welcomed this past Thursday, the day of definitive closure, its last customers from all walks of life….
In addition to the behind-the-scenes film immersion with Rex Studios, the big Rex now also offers an escape game called “Save the Cinema”, designed by Team Break. Their mission: to stop the infernal machine hidden in the bowels of the mythical institution of the Grands Boulevards, which is causing the great classics of the 7th art to disappear one after the other. Grand Rex 1, rue Poissonnières (2éme arrondissement). Wednesdays, Saturdays, Sundays, public holidays and every day during school holidays, from 13h to 19h. From 2 to 7 players. From 10 years old. Price: from 23 euros. Information on the Le Grand Rex website: https://www.legrandrex.com/cinema/3479
The Société du Grand Paris is opening 40 supermetro work sites to the public on October 16 2021. But better not to wait to book. At the half-time of its course, this titanic project, which began 5 years ago and whose first commissioning is scheduled in less than 5 years, needs to show the backdrop. The baptism of a tunnel boring machine and the closing of an important stage in the progress of the structural work. The next, the “KM9” will take place on the evening of October 16, in Massy (Essonne dept 91). There is no need to register there. Meet on site in front of 241 avenue du Maréchal Leclerc in Massy at 18h Webpage: https://visitezlegrandparisexpress.societedugrandparis.fr/
This Sunday, October 3,2021, an exceptional sale of three works by François-Xavier and Claude Lalanne, created for the European Center for Permanent Education (Cedep), and never seen by the general public, is being organized. The possible exhibition before the sale allows everyone to discover the work of these artists from Seine-et-Marne, of international renown. Claude Lalanne had produced in 1969 “The Man with the Head of Cabbage”, a sculpture which inspired Serge Gainbourg to title a song and an album. Her husband François-Xavier had created an egg-shaped bar for fashion designer Yves Saint-Laurent. Did you know that this couple of artists from Seine-et-Marne, rather original and of international renown, had made three sculptures installed in a campus of Fontainebleau, out of sight! For the first time, the public will be able to discover them in the park of the campus of the European Center for Continuing Education (Cedep), next to Insead, before their auction this Sunday, October 3.2021.webpage: https://www.cedep.fr/
Ten years after an aborted first project in Bussy-Saint-Georges , Costco France is back in Seine-et-Marne. The American brand will finally finalize its installation in the eastern part of the Ile-de-France region, around mid-November in Pontault-Combault. In the meantime, the hard discounter opened its first store in France in 2017, in Villebon-sur-Yvette (Essonne 91 ), where 165,000 membership cards were issued. Already a success. We hope to have four to six Costco’s in Ile-de-France, at all cardinal points around Paris, ”said Gary Swindells, president of Costco France. And there you go folks, our Costco is now fully growing in France, hoping to come by Bretagne soon! webpage: https://www.costco.fr/store-finder
The Palace of Versailles: more than twenty years after the storm, the allée de Saint-Cyr is back with its trees, 450 oaks have just been planted in the gardens of the castle that the storm of 1999 had ravaged. Thanks to sponsorship, the palace is definitely turning this dark page in its history. The Allée de Saint-Cyr, one of the axes leading from l’Étoile Royale (Royal Star) of the Palace of Versailles, has been given a facelift. 450 trees were planted in four symmetrical rows, recreating a long-lost perspective. Beautiful will need to see!
The bicentenary of Napoleon’s death, commemorated in 2021 (not my favorite historical figure as was an imperialist dictator), highlights the tourist route that bears his name, between Golfe-Juan, in the Alpes-Maritimes, and Grenoble. The Napoleon route revolves around the stages that were those of the “flight of the Eagle”. The stèle, plaques and monuments that can be admired faithfully mark its passage. On the other hand, the actual route of the road deviates in several places from that actually followed by Napoleon in 1815, for example in the beautiful hairpin bends that precede Seranon [Alpes-Maritimes]. The idea of naming the RN 85 “Route Napoléon” was launched in 1913 by a priest from the Var, but it was not until 1932 for the creation of the label. Today, the network of “imperial towns” founded at the initiative of Rueil-Malmaison [Hauts-de-Seine] in 2011; where La Malmaison is located, emblematic home of the Napoleon-Joséphine de Beauharnais couple, continues to develop. . Napoleon has become a real tourist brand. The Imperial cities webpage: https://www.ville-imperiale.com/en/
And a webpage in French on the Route Napoléon: https://route-napoleon.com/#
From Monday, September 27, 2021 , the RER C will unveil its Paris Museums Train with wagons completely redecorated with works by Parisian institutions. In its Parisian portion, the RER C serves several emblematic museums of the capital such as the Petit Palais at the Invalides stop, the Cognacq-Jay museum in Saint-Michel Notre-Dame, the Maison de Victor Hugo in Austerlitz or the museum of ‘Modern art of Paris at the Champs-de-Mars Eiffel Tower and Pont de l’Alma. To pay tribute to its great institutions and the treasures they contain, the interior of a train on the RER C line will be entirely filmed with works. In each of the trains, you will be able to admire the creations of Amedeo Modigliani, Robert and Sonia Delaunay or even Raoul Dufy. A real journey into masterpieces. The city of Paris Museums webpage: http://www.parismusees.paris.fr/fr/actualite/lancement-du-train-paris-musees-sur-la-ligne-c-du-rer
In Mid-2022, cars should be definitively banned from the Butte Montmartre … This is the wish of the socialist city/town hall of the 18éme arrondissement, as part of the “Embellish Paris” project, and the candidacy of the hill as a world heritage site by UNESCO. The Paris tourist office on Montmartre: https://en.parisinfo.com/discovering-paris/walks-in-paris/montmartre-village-in-paris
And last but not least, far from imagining that rapper Maître Gims would one day launch his own pizzeria. Well there you go, it’s done: Fya Pizza has just popped up, with the possibility of delivery on Deliveroo. Location the dandy 18 Avenue du Président Kennedy, 16éme arrondissement, right under the pont Bir Hakeim. Deliverioo (meal delivery site) webpage: https://deliveroo.fr/fr/menu/paris/Passy/fya-kennedy
There you go folks, a dandy of news from beautiful Paris and France, can’t beat the one-two punch! Hope you enjoy it as I.
And remember, happy travels, good health, and many cheers to all!!!
Paris1972-Versailles2003 
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