It’s time again to tell you my latest rants about some news from France. An eventful post in my blog that I have enjoyed together with you for the last 12 years now!! And for those non Roman CCCLXVII is 367 , another dandy round of news of my belle France , of course, chosen by me; there are many others. We are in Summer ,and temps already back to normal range , cooler rainy so perfect for a glass of wine,,,anything, and we continue eating out in our veranda porch , grand! Hope you enjoy the post as I.
I have written posts on transports in and around Paris , however, the pricing and ticketing have change from these and the times of me working in the City, Let me give you an update from the official RATP.
If you want to o you want to visit Paris, and travel at will and in complete freedom in Île-de-France, then the Paris Visite Pass day pass is for you! This Pass is available for 1, 2, 3 or 5 consecutive days and is valid according to the formula chosen: In zones 1 to 3: trips to Paris and near suburbs, Zones 1 to 5 travel in Paris, inner suburbs & to Orly/CDG airports, Disneyland and Versailles, The Paris Visite Pass allows you unlimited travel on: metro lines, RER lines, Île-de-France bus lines (except on Fileo, Air France sightseeing tours and shuttles), Montmartre tramway and funicular. The validity, period goes from the first day at 0h to the last day at 24h. If your ticket becomes demagnetized, contact the agents present in the metro and RER stations who will replace it free of charge.
If you want to travel by metro, bus or tram and have a rechargeable pass? The Navigo Easy pass is made for you! Your Navigo Easy pass is valid for 10 years , The Navigo Easy pass is sold for 2 Euros and then offers more advantageous rates on t+ ticket books. You can load your Navigo Easy pass from the “Bonjour RATP” app. at all ticket offices and counters in stations and stations, at all ticket machines; at RATP approved retailers, At the time of validation, the control devices respect the following order of priority: First, the pass (when it is valid of course); Then, the ticket for a trip (t+/OrlyBus/RoissyBus, automatically detected depending on the mode of transport you use), It is not possible to travel with several people with a single Navigo Easy pass. Each traveler must have their own ticket.
If you want unlimited travel in Paris and Ile-de-France on all modes of transport (except Orlyval), then, as me the Navigo Month and Week passes are made for you. They exist in “all zones” or “two zones” You can travel on all modes of transport in Ile-de-France: metro, RER, bus, tram and train – with the exception of the Orlyval line, SNCF reservation lines and lines at special Optile rates. The “all zones” package gives you access to all zones, every day. The “2 zones” package allows you to travel in the chosen zones. I had the Navigo Month in all zones !!
The official RATP on the ticketing choices : https://www.ratp.fr/en/titres-et-tarifs?utm_content=titres_tarifs
The museum of modern art has decided to definitively close the Eugène Leroy exhibition which was to be held until next Sunday August 28. Bad weather on August 16 caused electrical malfunctions preventing the smooth running of visits. The torrential rains that fell on the capital in mid-August got the better of the exhibition devoted to the French painter of the 20C sadly. During the heavy rains, the water seeped into the walls causing the lights to fail and slightly damaging the paint on the walls. The MAM does not rule out the closure of certain rooms of the permanent collections,. Work is underway to repair the electrical damage.webpage :https://www.mam.paris.fr/en
The Babyland amusement park has established itself as the leading leisure center in Essonne. Since its opening in 2008, the amusement park has continued to grow in number of rides and visitors. Babyland-Amiland amusement park is in Saint-Pierre-du-Perray (Essonne 91).webpage : https://www.parcbabyland.fr/
The Rock en Seine festival returns bigger than ever after two years of absence in the national domain of Saint-Cloud (Hauts-de-Seine 92) , It starts today Thursday, August 25 to August 30 2022, webpage : https://www.rockenseine.com/en/
If in France there are a total of 10,000 organs, until now there were only three in secular places. A fourth will soon be installed. And it is in Meaux (Seine-et-Marne 77) that it will happen. A town that already had five organs for 56,000 inhabitants. But all the others are in places of worship. A large organ almost 6 meters high and 5 meters wide, baptized Bach, is installed in the lower vaulted room of the Bossuet museum. Webpage : https://www.musee-bossuet.fr/
The zoological park of Thoiry (Yvelines 78), has a new resident of size since this past Tuesday evening. It had been twenty years since a new pachyderm had been housed there. Ben, the only elephant at Thoiry Zoo , now has a new sibling. Moyo, 9, joined him on Tuesday evening after an exceptional and perilous operation lasting several hours. The young pachyderm arrived from Magdeburg in eastern Germany after traveling almost 1,000 km in a specially equipped container. He will now share an open-air roommate with his 42-year-old eldest. In the next few days Moyo will take possession of his new territory and meet Ben. They will be joined in a few weeks by a third male from Sweden. Work for the creation of a brand new “Terres d’Afrique” (African Lands) zone has begun. A house of 1,400 m2, with a territory of nearly 2 hectares, will see the light of day at the entrance to the safari. Educational nocturnal observation lodges will be created in this area, also allowing you to spend a night in the territory of the elephants.webpage : https://www.thoiry.net/plan-interactif
This is great to see the story in the Le Parisien newspaper because I have been saying it for years ! People are so crazy about Paris they want to rent a hotel next to the Tour Eiffel and pay for it, You know ,Paris has an excellence public transports network, just saying, Nowdays, to find accommodation, tourists no longer hesitate to cross the ring road: “Paris is too expensive”,lol ! The tourists from France and Navarre are back in Paris! New fact on the other hand: it is no longer rare to see them in outlying districts or on the platforms of lines 8, 3, 12, 13, direction… the suburbs. This summer, small and large Parisian towns are full of tourists. Yes indeed just prefer the west of Paris areas and you will love it !!
And the upgrading of the public transport network continues , it needs to, New works at the Gare de Lyon: easier connections, but not for a few years sadly, Not always easy to find your way around when you go from RER A to other lines, or when you join your train from the metro. In order to simplify life for users, the principle of renovation has just been adopted by Île-de-France Mobilités. The project should be launched in early 2023 and last until 2029. Funny I have used the station and find it ok but then again others might have use it a lot more….
Each year, Le village préféré des Français or the favorite village of the French highlights charming villages hidden across France. Since its first edition in 2012, the France Télévisions program, presented by Stéphane Bern, has already crowned 11 towns. I have visited all except those in Alsace, 2012: Saint-Cirq-Lapopie (Midi-Pyrénées), 2013: Eguisheim (Alsace), 2014: Cordes-sur-Ciel (Midi-Pyrénées), 2015: Ploumanac’h (Brittany), 2016: Rochefort-en-Terre ( Brittany), 2017: Kaysersberg (Alsace), 2018: Cassel (Hauts-de-France), 2019: Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue (Normandy), 2020: Hunspach (Alsace), and 2021: Sancerre (Centre-Val de Loire), and 2022 : Bergheim (Alsace).
My belle France stretches on the sea side for 5850 km, including 2400 for the Atlantic coast alone, a few scuba diving spots on which beginners can discover the beauty of the fauna and flora at less than 20 meters deep. I love this my hobby in young men days but unfortunately nose breathing problems made me stop a few years back, These are spots I have been and seen, of course dove as was shallow waters last time in 2018, Marseille boasts over 70 dive sites. One spot is particularly resonant, that of Grand Congloué, an archaeological site of two ancient boats discovered in 1952 by Jacques-Yves Cousteau and his Calypso team (remember him follow all over his adventures!). Thousands of amphorae and crockery are then brought ashore. In 2010, around 250 of these amphorae were submerged at a depth of 14 meters, allowing as many people as possible to feel the soul of an explorer, in the midst of damselfish and octopus. The underwater cliffs at Belle-Ile-en-Mer (my Morbihan 56), . The sites of Grands-Sables, Bordardoué and Port York, in Belle-Île-en-Mer, allow you to discover the banks of maërl (red limestone algae), flatfish living on the sand. In Port Puce, Deuborh, Bordéry, Penhoet, the creeks are the refuge of spider crabs and lobsters. Ster Vraz and Port Scheul have a relief as impressive as that of the surface: cut faults, caves, holes in the rock illuminated by the rays of the sun. The biodiversity in the bay of Brest (Finistère 29) ,In Brittany too there are seahorses, you just have to look carefully in the seagrass beds. The rocks are carpeted with sponges and colorful anemones and on the small sandy bottoms it is not uncommon to see several kinds of rays. As for the colorful nudibranchs, they are a delight for photographers. Be aware that the more colors these sea slugs have, the more toxic they are to their predators! Divers, fortunately, risk nothing by looking at them. The Les Sept-Iles and Ploumanach’ (Côtes d’Armor 22), visitors and divers alike enjoy this area around Ploumanac’h where a colony of gray seals lives. Sometimes lobsters, lobster and crabs show the tips of their shells. The beauty of a multicolored spectacle is ensured on the rocks by the gorgonians, sponges, anemones. To filter their food, spirographs spread their colored filaments in a crown around their mouth, like a crown that ripples in the current. Do not get too close, otherwise these turbicolous worms immediately retract into their tube. Some info on scuba diving in Bretagne/Brittany : https://www.plongee-bretagne.fr/o%C3%B9-plonger/
Alain Ducasse opens his new gourmet address, Le Biscuit! To revisit this delicacy, Alain Ducasse only surrounds himself with the best. In the kitchen we find the pastry chef Flora Davies, already present behind the succulent ice creams of the Manufacture de la Glace and the executive pastry chef Arnaud Coutret who joined the Ducasse Paris family almost a year ago. Each cookie will be prepared on site by the team with the ambition to create cookies with precise recipes, complex textures and strong flavors. I will be there eventually ! Le Biscuit Alain Ducasse 42 Rue de la Roquette 11éme opens September 1, 2022, webpage Ducasse : https://www.ducasse-paris.com/en/addresses
There you go folks, another round of my some news from France coming to you freely by the road warrior of this blog. Hope you enjoy the post and do prepare for an eventful Summer! And remember, happy travels, good health, and many cheers to all !!!
Paris1972-Versailles2003 
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