This is my latest from my belle France ; as we are In Winter and it surprise more rain warmer temps ! Most said winter will be harsh and with the exception of a brief few days the temps are been warmer than usual, However, is that 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 , And for those non Roman CCCLXIX is 379 ! ,with another dandy round of news of my belle France , of course, chosen by me; there are many others. We will be tidy and drinking a nice glass of wine! Hope you enjoy the post as I.
I like to start with a sad news that must be speak out for the soothing blues in me, I had the unfortunate passing of my dear loving father Elio on Saturday January 7th 2023 at home, He was under treatment by a team of nurses and doctors on what is call here HAD or hospital at home, a real army of health caregivers who had the courageous duty to do these things, He was 87 yrs old and fully enjoy life with us been everywhere I went even in wheelchair up ladders and castle stairs, I have the consolation he lived a full life, He will be cremated on January 12 2023 14h30 at Plescop in my beautiful Morbihan, Later, his aches will be thrown at sea in Honfleur Normandie to reunite with my dear mother Gladys and dear wife Martine, I am left with my three wonderful loving boys still with me, Thank you,
A dozen four- and five-star hotels will open in Paris in 2023. To welcome their future customers, they offer various services: restaurants, cocktail bars, access to a rooftop or a fitness room. competition will stiffen in the course of 2023 in the high-end hotel segment. Lifestyle establishments and others, more luxurious, plan to welcome their first visitors at the end of winter. See for example at Rue Danton (6éme) at the Hotel Dame des Arts, which opens in February, the suites, equipped with a balcony, offer an exceptional view of Paris, This is an ongoing trend for several years now and is picking up steam ; Paris is eternal and the rich and famous wants to be there !
The Rue Beaubourg, and rue de Renard..will have a redevelopment that will please cyclists and pedestrians , Cycle paths on both sides of the road, new raised pedestrian crossing… and removal of one of the two lanes for cars. After six months of work, this very busy axis in the heart of Paris appears to have been transformed. Good news, the redevelopment work on Rue Beaubourg (3-4éme) and Rue du Renard (4éme), which connects the Arts et Métiers crossroads to the City/ Town Hall, is almost complete. The mayor of Paris Centre (mayor Socialist party) has decided to open the cycle paths before they are finished. Oh yeah less lanes more trafic and the beat goes on.
From 2024, several streets of the Butte Montmartre hill will become pedestrianized. The City/town hall of the 18éme arrondissement, at the initiative of the project, plans to start work at the end of 2023. Barriers will be placed around the Montmartre hill to prevent access to cars, this ban will still remain partial since the inhabitants of the district are many have private parking lots. The project should be completed by the end of 2024 and provides for 3 different categories of pedestrian zones, with a modification of the traffic plan. On several streets, access to cars will be prohibited by barriers, “an open pedestrian area” will also be installed at the top of the Butte and finally a “meeting zone” will be set up in the residential sector. In addition to the establishment of pedestrian zones, the project provides for the greening of around ten streets in the district and the widening of certain sidewalks. I have driven in Montmartre, have you ? Braise yourselves for chaos in the future, but you know Paris is eternal !
In Nîmes, the last bearers of the flamenco flame, the city in the Gard is preparing to host its traditional flamenco festival, from January 9 to 21 2023. one of the most recognized in France, A great event, more info webpage : https://theatredenimes.com/
In Val-Thorens, the ski season starts at the time of the energy crisis. If you want to put on your skis as soon as possible, you have to come to Val-Thorens. It has become the tradition, More info webpage : https://www.valthorens.com/en/
Louvre, Orsay, Versailles… The public has found its way back to French museums and monuments, museums and historical monuments are pleased with a virtual return to normal in 2022. Subordinated to the foreign public, in particular Asian, which is still conspicuous by its absence, the largest establishments in Ile-de-France have not yet reached their pre-Covid-19 levels. At the Louvre, which counts 7.8 million visitors thanks in particular to the massive return of Americans, attendance remains 19% lower than in 2019. The same observation is made at the Palace of Versailles, which announces 6.9 million visitors, triple 2021 but down 16% compared to 2019. The Musée d’Orsay, which attracted 3.2 million visitors in 2022, a figure boosted since September by the 6,700 daily admissions to the “Munch. A poem of life, love and death”, still shows a drop of 10% compared to 2019. The Center Pompidou, in Paris, totals 3 million visitors, or 8% less than in 2019 where the monograph Francis Bacon had been a hit. The Quai Branly welcomed just over a million people, a figure up 63% compared to 2021, but again below the 1.11 million recorded in 2019, a year already in decline. Universcience, which brings together the Cité des sciences et de l’industrie at La Villette and the Palais de la Découverte in the Parisian golden triangle, however, doubled its audience in 2022.
Rising operating costs and shrinking consumption impose rigor on fashion brands ! The winter sales start on Wednesday 11 January 2023 . But, since the end of December, in hypermarkets, shops and on the Internet, the French have already benefited from discounts, promotions and private sales to buy coats, boots and sweaters at discounted prices. Because fashion and shoe stores are full of goods ,despite sales growth of 3.7%, at the end of November 2022, compared to the same period in 2021, clothing sales in France have not recovered the level of the year 2019. (pre covid),
Forty years ago, the architect Alain Bourbonnais and his wife, Caroline, opened to the public what had until then been their country house, in Dicy (today Charny-Orée-de-Puisaye), in Yonne. . This anniversary, which the Halle Saint-Pierre in Paris judiciously celebrates, is a beautiful tribute to a family adventure (their daughters continue to animate the place) which began with the discovery, in 1946, of the art exhibition brut organized by Jean Dubuffet at the Parisian gallery Drouin. The announcement, in 1971, by the same Dubuffet that his collection was going to take refuge in Switzerland, in Lausanne, encouraged Bourbonnais to take over, with the blessing of the master. He first opened a gallery, Atelier Jacob, devoted to what he preferred to call “non-standard art”, of which he seems to have been the best client. the Bourbonnais collection is therefore partly visible to the Parisian public, “La Fabuloserie”, Halle Saint-Pierre, Paris. From January 25 to August 25, 2023, Webpage : https://www.hallesaintpierre.org/2023/01/02/la-fabuloserie/
And for the traveling train aficionados, the tickets for the Occitanie regional express train network, the TER “ilO“, will be offered at the price of one euro every first weekend of the month and during pollution peaks. It is better to book! SNCF estimates that these offers, as well as those intended for young people and seniors, will generate new subscriptions and therefore new income. As the train “is not present everywhere”, (really!!) ,the region has also decided to grant “carpooling aid” and has signed partnerships to this effect with the platforms Mobicoop, Karos, Atchoum, Klaxit and BlaBlaCar Daily, for the benefit of both passengers than drivers. More info webpage : https://www.ter.sncf.com/occitanie/tarifs-cartes/billets-un-euro
Have you ever devoured your Netflix guilty pleasure? Last December 21, the third season of Emily in Paris was released on the streaming platform. For wealthy Americans and Britons, this dream is becoming more and more a reality and many continue to seek a base in the French capital. A reality that not everyone can afford, therefore, since the real Parisian life, we know it, with its overpriced maids’ rooms and its crowded smelly metros… Not so glamorous as that. OF course, all you see is glitter as Paris is eternal !! You know it Netflix : https://www.netflix.com/fr/title/81037371
Sadly as an anecdote of non travel related, The oldest store in Meaux, the Dauvergne 1871 hardware store will close its doors at the end of January 2023. Opened in Meaux just after the Paris Commune, this business located next to the cathedral went on for 152 years, it has always remained in the same family: the Dauvergne. Installed since 1871 in the rue Saint-Étienne, a few steps from the cathedral. Meanwhile, all items are sold with discount. There are crockery, kitchen utensils and drugstore items. This is old town Meaux many walks over the years and even shopping there with my dear wife Martine and her grandma Fourré !! Webpage : https://dauvergne-1871-meaux.jimdosite.com/
Unaccompanied foreign minors, whose real minority is debated, were responsible for 30% of burglaries, 44% of pickpocketing and 32% of violent thefts in Paris in 2020, according to justice. And represented nearly 80% of referrals of minors. The Paris police headquarters is concerned for its part of “their rise to power”: between 2016 and 2020, they went from 3 to 29% of those questioned in matters burglaries and 8 to 27% for violent thefts According to the Central Department of Public Security (DCSP), they target foodstuffs, telephones, bank cards, jewelry, scratch games, cigarettes and cosmetics. And rob shops, restaurants, bakeries, greengrocers, clothing stores and pharmacies. Polydrug addicts, they can show great violence, and are often carrying bladed weapons, even handguns. So Paris is nice and safe huh I know done the beat at nights ; stay away from young folks on the streets, be in groups, and if possible avoid very late nights on the metro/RER, Paris is eternal !!!
The American franchise Popeyes, already established in thirty countries, is packing its bags in Paris. Know them from my days in Daytona Beach FL USA !! The opening of its first restaurant is scheduled for February 1 2023 near the Gare du Nord. Specialized in chicken, the chain aims to set up everywhere in France from 2023. Born in 1972 in New Orleans, the franchise taken over by the Napaqaro group (Buffalo Grill, Courtepaille) and specializing in fried chicken , Be there from 11h that day, at 9, boulevard de Denain (10éme), on the forecourt of the train station,More news coming in webpage: https://www.popeyesfrance.fr/
The Grandes Halles of the Vieux Port now host a market of craftsmen and producers specializing in Mediterranean gastronomy, The Cours Estienne-d’Orves had lost some of its luster over the years, connoisseurs preferring to frequent restaurants in the nearby rue Sainte, which goes up to the Saint-Victor abbey. But three young men from Marseille, had the idea of gourmet halls where the taste buds would quiver, in the old Buffalo Grill, deserted for six years. Over 2,000 square meters, twelve stalls have been offering catering at the counter or on the large outdoor terrace since this past summer. And if the flavors of the Grandes Halles make you want to cook at home, you just have to cross rue Euthymènes, which overlooks the Vieux Port, to enter the market. In this former rope factory, with stone walls and 17C framework, welcomes excellent producers. To eat well in Marseille, just head towards to the Vieux Port. I know it !! Webpage : https://www.lesgrandeshalles.com/
After Petit, Gros and Bleu Bao, the Bao Family has decided to expand a little more. The new kid? Bao Express, a clever mix between a Hong Kong restaurant, a bakery, a coffee shop and a speakeasy. In a space of 500 m2, we will enjoy these delicious filled buns and other Chinese specialties. In this new spot, we find for the first time the Bao Bakery: the bakery of our dreams to buy the best delicacies of the Bao Family. This address also offers us its own speakeasy, The Underpool, a small bar hidden in the basement. The ideal place to continue your evening with a few cocktails. Bao Express, 10, rue Bréguet 11éme, Open from 12h to 15h and from 19h to 23h. webpage : https://www.baofamily.co/bao-express
Something we had in our town and we indulge once in a while ; they are now all over France ! Each year, the kebab-frites site unveils its annual ranking of the best kebabs in France, In first place, a Toulouse address, Delizioso, followed by the l’Artiste in Abbeville. And it is on the third place of the podium that rises an address in Paris, Streaters at 39 rue des Pyrénées 20éme, a restaurant well known to the inhabitants of the Porte de Vincennes neighborhood. It is not the only address in Paris that reaches the top 50. In the rest of the ranking, Greek Snack (rue de l’Ecole Polytechnique 5éme) takes 18th place, then Marmara (102 rue de Colombe , Courbevoie (92) ) in 26th place, followed by Mondial Kebab (190 avenue de Clichy 17éme) in 28th place and Ozlem Snack (57 rue des Petites écuries 10éme). More info webpage : https://www.kebab-frites.com/meilleur-kebab/
There you go folks, another round of my some news from France coming to you freely by the road warrior travel guy . Hope you enjoy this post and do take care of winter but still not feld as much, and the white one, well stay away better ,me think,,, And remember, happy travels, good health, and many cheers to all !!!
Paris1972-Versailles2003 