This is my latest from my belle France; the year of the Olympics ! Therefore, 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 14 years , And for those non Roman CDII is 402 ! ,Of course, chosen by me; there are many others. Hope you enjoy the post as I.
If you are planning to be in or around Paris during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games be aware it will be a mess on mobility and security ,be aware ok,
From the Porte de la Chapelle to Place de la République, the transition from the Olympic flame to Paris was on Monday July 15, and 185 km of tracks are reserved for rescue police vehicles, accredited and taxi on the device and several highways . In Paris, the Olympic routes are prohibited from buses and cyclists. These reserved routes on the peripheral boulevard, until August 13, then from August 22 to September 11, for the Para Olympics, between the Porte de Vanves and the Porte de Bercy. Only taxis, the shuttles of the authorised personnel, the security, rescue and transport vehicles for disabled people (WFP) are allowed to drive there. VTCs are excluded from the system. Admittedly, there will be more difficult to access areas, even prohibited, but most will be accessible to pedestrians and bikes, with fewer cars
The Olympic flame will leave Paris on Tuesday, July 16 where it has been for two days. But it will be back. Indeed, after a ten-day journey throughout Île-de-France region , the most famous torch in France will return to the city on Friday July 26, the day of the opening ceremony on the Seine river !!! The Olympic flame will do its last lap before the Olympic basin ignited for two weeks in the Jardin desTuileries. The biggest legends of international sport will participate in this national relay. like Allyson Felix, Nadia Comaneci, Serena Williams, Pau Gasol… etc, ; in total, more than 12 medal athletes will carry the flame on July 26 2024
From the courtyard of the Château de Dourdan to the lawn of the National Rugby Center in Marcoussis, passing by the Ringeuil-Matin roundabout in Montgeron, where the first round of France had left, the passage of the Olympic flame in Essonne (dept 91) on July 22. After a kick -off given at 8h15 in Étampes, the flame will take the direction of Chamarande, where it will arrive at 10h precise. It will enter the field seven minutes later at the orangery level, where a 700 meter route will lead it to the castle.
After crossing a good part of the Seine-Saint-Denis (dept 93) on July 25, the day before the start of the Paris 2024 Olympics, the Olympic flame will appear at the Georges-Valbon Park in the evening. The Georges-Valbon Departmental Park at La Courneuve, the largest green space of the 93 designated as such “Park of the Games” during the Olympic period
Call it “Brungis”! The formula was found. On Sunday July 21, a large morning meal is organized at the Rungis market, temple of Gourmandise, on the occasion of the Passage of the Flame of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Val-de-Marne (dept 94).
On July 19, the Olympic flame relay will parade in Val-d’Oise (dept 95). At 8h, it will start from Théméricourt, in the Vexin. Théméricourt will be the smallest village in France to welcome the Olympic fire. Yess nice know it well , see post,
In order to allow agents mobilized during the Paris Olympic Games to take their vacation before the opening ceremony, the offer of trains on RER line C has decreased by 40% on average since July 8. Consequence: crowded and waiting time awaiting the travelers, I told you so.
And what a timing, according to a study by the Respire( breathing) association and an interactive map unveiled this Tuesday, July 16 ,2024 almost all of Parisian outdoor and petite couronne adjacing areas to the City ,the open air installations exceeds the WHO (World Health Org) recommendations in terms of air quality, especially near the BP péripherique beltway of Paris . The association calls for more prevention intended for athletes. Come prepare I told you so,
The Swiss sportsmen and sportswomen, 128 in total. To welcome them as it should be, the Swiss Embassy in France has transformed and welcomes the Swiss house for the first time, an ephemeral structure of almost 1100 m2, in the heart from its garden. Free accessible to the public, Maison Suisse, Jardin de l’Ambassade de Suisse en France, 142, rue de Grenelle 7éme webpage info : https://maisonsuisse.paris/en
At the Maison du Denmark, the games are a real springboard to promote Danish design, culture and gastronomy. Thus, during the competition, the building dating from 1955 and the Denmark tourist office, Visit Denmark, will host a temporary structure entitled the Denmark pavilion. Accessible to the public for free, the programming will be particularly eclectic between art of all kinds, concerts, workshops, design or even 100% Danish gastronomy. Pavillon du Danemark , Maison du Danemark, 142, avenue des Champs-Élysées 8éme. webpage info : https://www.visitdenmark.com/denmark-pavilion
The Fluctuart barge is the first floating urban art center in the heart of Paris, at the foot of the Pont des Invalides, left bank. Difficult to find a better place to set up during the games, fortunately, the Seine Canada festival bet on the right boat.Franco-Canadian friendship will be celebrated there for 44 days of music, street food, fashion, street art and other unpublished activations; Among the expected artists, there are Coeur de Pirate, Fouki, Robert Charlebois, Clay and Friends, Alexandra STRELISKI or Emile Bilodeau. Festival Seine Canada , Fluctuart , Port du Gros-Caillou 7éme, From July 27 to September 8 2024, webpage info : https://www.seinecanada.com/en/home
During the Olympic and Paralympic Games, Ground Control welcomes the SNCF and becomes Voie 24, a space open to everyone entirely dedicated to sport and sharing. Demonstrations and sports initiations are planned to highlight a maximum of disciplines during the summer , breakdance, football, climbing in VR, Boccia or Cécifoot, but also cultural animations made in Ground Control Voie 24, 81 Rue du Charolais 12éme, From July 26 to August 11 2024 Open from Mon to Fri from 12 noon to midnight, Sam. from 11h to midnight and Sun from 11h to 22h30, Free admission, webpage info : https://www.groundcontrolparis.com/project/voie-24/
If there is a place where sports fans must meet to see their heroes closer and intimately live the emotions produced by these Olympic Games, it is at Club France de la Villette, beating heart of the competition. Dissemination of tests, dozens of sports initiations, medalist celebrations, meetings with athletes, artistic activities in the middle of the day, concerts until 02h… La Grande Halle de la Villette intends to vibrate, stride by several major artists from the French scene , including 47ter, Bob Sinclar or L’Impératrice . Unique event obliges, the reservation is strongly recommended. Club France, Grande Halle de la Villette, 211, avenue Jean-Jaurès 19éme, From July 27 to August 11, then August 29 to September 8,2024, up to € 5 in Olympic period, free in the Paraolympic period. webpage info : https://www.clubfrance2024.fr/
And now for something other than the Paris Olympics here comes the Americans lol The Americans,
“spoiled real estate children”, the first foreign buyers in Greater Paris , according to a study by the CCF bank from the data of the notaries of Greater Paris, the Americans indeed lead to the nationalities which are offer a pied-à-terre in Île-de-France region with 231 purchases in 2023. In second position, the Lebanese follow their steps with 132 acquisitions, followed by our Italian (89), Belgian (62) and German (60 ). Among the plethora of non-resident foreign buyers in the region of 62 registered nationalities-American nationals alone represent a quarter of the volume of purchase of second homes in the region. And these non-residents are ready to put the price: the average amount of the transaction thus reached 803,000 euros last year! Paris is on sale who says is expensive, the Americans seems to love it lol !! Ricains power ……..
Let me open your eyes to my region of Bretagne/Brittany/Breizh …. In Brittany, the moving sands of the
mer Blanche or White Sea south of Finistère, welcomes you to this fragile lagoon tides, the nesting of gravels and summer visitors attracted by its pearly or turquoise waters. A table landscape, permanently renewed, which is discovered on foot. The White Sea: The name summons our imagination on the side of Russia, south of the Barents Sea. But there is another closer white sea, in the south of Finistère, between the towns of Bénodet and Fouesnant (yes see their posts), in the heart of the Breton Riviera. This 4 km long coastal lagoon is located west of the Pointe de Mousterlin; It thus lets the sea penetrate with each tide through a grau, allowing to observe the back and forth movements of the ocean, Sublime !
The wonderful Paul Gauguin had traveled a lot: from his childhood, he left for Peru with his family, who moved away from the Napoleon III regime (his father, a republican journalist, dies on the way). Having become a Marine lieutenant, he sails for five years, then moved to Denmark-the country of origin of his wife Mette-Sophie Gad , then in Polynesia, in Tahiti and in the Marquesas Islands, where he will die. But a destination will take a singular status when, in July 1886, he got on a train for Brittany . Gauguin settles in
Pont-Aven (Finistère 29) (see posts). Nicknamed the “City of Painters”, the town is already frequented by many artists-notably Anglo-Saxon. Gauguin moves to the Pouldu at Clohars-Carnoët, (Finistère 29), an isolated village that overlooks the sea, lodge at the beach refreshment bar, where the painters Meyer de Haan , Paul Sérusier and Charles Filiger are also residing, It was during this period of the painter’s life that this issue of the series « Une maison, un artiste », or A house, an artist is interested in the participation of art historians, including David Haziot , author of biographies of Gauguin and Van Gogh. The film stops in particular on the dining room of the hostel, including the doors, the windows, the walls and the ceiling were decorated by Gauguin and de Haan, for the most part Gauguin leaves for Arles, then for the Polynesia, briefly returns to the Pouldu to leave overseas. In 1989, a house-museum will reproduce the original inn identical-which the documentary does not say, which goes too quickly on these decorative elements and also did not specify what was lost or destroyed. When he died, on May 8, 1903, in his bed, in the Marquesas Islands, in the “Maison du Jouir” in Hiva Oa, Gauguin always has “a corner of Brittany at the bottom of the heart” and, within gaze, the village Breton under the snow, the canvas he painted around 1894, which is now kept at the Musée d’Orsay, in Paris . Paul Gauguin, the beach refreshment bar in Brittany, in the series « Une maison, un artiste » is now a documentary by François Chayé (Fr., 2024, 26 min). It is on France Television chain no 2 FR2 until January 2025.
If you love Camille Claudel , you will like Nogent-sur-Seine , the museum dedicated to her gives justice to the moving sculptor long stayed in the shadow of Rodin. The city, where she received its first lessons, considered her artistic birthplace, made a very pleasant goal of a walk. Camille Claudel is often associated with Auguste Rodin , of which she was both the collaborator, the lover, the model and the inspiration. We associate her in Paris , with her latest Quai de Bourbon workshop, on Île Saint-Louis, which she left until 1913 for a psychiatric internment near Avignon. However, it is a city that perpetuates the memory of the virtuoso sculptor and whose museum in her name contains its greatest collection of works in the world. It must be said that Camille Claudel’s reasoned catalog has only ninety issues. The artist wasted a lot of time, consumed by her relationship with Rodin. She destroyed many sculptures in her distress access. And definitely stopped working at 48 years old. This city is Nogent-sur-Seine (Aube dept 10), coiled in a river loop, a hundred kilometers from the capital. At the borders of Brie and Champagne, it is a pretty sub-prefecture with old houses, some of which, with wooden sides, are a multi-year-old. Here lived
Camille Claudel adolescent in a bourgeois house. She was the eldest daughter of the mortgage curator. Her vocation for the statuary manifested itself very early, and the large local sculptor, Alfred Boucher, spotted her talent. He was later her teacher in Paris. In 2017, Claudel returned to Nogent thanks to the purchase by the town of the Reine-Marie Paris collection, her great-niece. The
City of sculpture Nogent sur Seine on Claudel : https://www.nogentsurseine.fr/decouvrir/ville-dart/ville-de-sculpture
And to another form of Arts in my eternal Paris , “Paris capital of fashion! 50 years of fashion week!
You will see the places that welcomed it, private fairs to the facilities for which luxury brands and groups compete in gigantism. Many archive images have been gathered, commented by designers in sight and sometimes “Chouchous” or darlings Karl Lagerfeld has anonymously produced the Altumn 1982 ready-to-wear collection at Chanel, a year before its official entry on rue Cambon, when he woke up the (more so) beautiful asleep since the death of Mademoiselle, in 1971. Paris capital of fashion! 50 years of fashion week! Documentary by Loïc Prigent (Fr., 2024, 93 min.) Online at France.TV until January 1, 2025, Glad to tell was part of it for many years while in luxury hotels in Paris ! Awesome !!!
The Zenith of Paris welcomes this winter a sensational concert of the most beautiful Disney music this winter, interpreted by a philharmonic orchestra live before your eyes. This winter, the Disney tour in concert is back throughout France to rock the hearts of the children of yesterday and today, and will be in Paris on December 13 and 14, 2024. On the program: 2 hours of cine-concert where the most beautiful music of Disney films are sublimated by a complete symphonic orchestra and its singers, for an experience full of emotions. Disney en concert at the Zénith de Paris – La Villette, 211, avenue Jean-Jaurès 19éme, webpage info : https://www.g1prod.com/
The opportunity to discover the fabulous bike exhibition at the Arsenal pavilion. A unique exhibition which traces more than 2 centuries of links between the metropolitan area of Paris and the two-wheelers, from 1818 to 2030 yes, if Paris was recently elected best city to cycle, it is not for nothing, Since it is here that the whole world had the chance to discover this fabulous mode of traffic.It all started on April 5, 1818, at the Jardin du Luxembourg. The German baron Drais von Sauerbronn presents to the public his vélocipède or balance bike, a bicycle without pedal. It didn’t take more for the machine to be launched, and a few years later, Pierre Michaux and his sons will be the first to market bicycles (with pedals this time) in Paris. Paris and the bicycle, it is a great love story that continues to write today thanks to more than 130 local associations and antennas that have emerged in the past 30 years. À Vélo, Paris Métropole 1818-2030, Pavillon de l’Arsenal, 21, Boulevard Morland 4éme, Until September 29, 2024, free entry. Webpage info : https://www.pavillon-arsenal.com/en/expositions/12978-cycling.html
There you go for something Latino in France go to the Festival Tempo Latino 29th Edition from July 25-28 2024. This event will be in Vic-Fezensac dept 32 of Gers in the Occitanie region. Big names will be ther from the scene in France; more info official site : https://tempolatino.com/en/infos-pratiques/
Another ranking but here is the story for all to read and think, It is in the English newspaper The
Telegraph that we owe this new most flattering ranking. At the end of May, they established a list of the
50 most beautiful cafes in the world, and one thing is certain, Paris and its countless addresses were able to show up. Indeed, it is not 1, but 2 Parisian coffees that managed to integrate the top 10. I will tell you about the two because I have visited them several times over the years and always looking forward to be back, eventually.
The Le Breizh Café (6th place) is above all a crêperie, before being a coffee shop. For those who would not be familiar with the concept of the restaurant, it is a somewhat original crêperie that combines this traditional Breton dish with Flavors and products straight from Japan. A concept developed by Chef Bertrand Larcher, who has lived there for many years. The house today has many addresses across the capital, but it is that of rue Vieille-du-Temple which was rewarded, in particular thanks to its all-wood and leather atmosphere. By the way Breizh is Brittany in the Breton language, Le Breizh Café ,109, rue Vieille-du-Temple 3éme, webpage info : https://www.breizhcafe.com/
The Le Café de Flore, is a little magical place that instantly immerses us in the literary history of Paris. Sitting on the red vinyl benches, we imagine Sartre very well and Beauvoir discuss and write for hours. More than a simple coffee, it is a place that sums up and transmits the whole state of mind of the Saint-Germain-des-Prés district, where we love to settle at the bar to observe the regulars , read the newspaper and servers perform their fascinating ballet. Café de Flore, 172, boulevard Saint -Germain -6éme, Webpage info : https://cafedeflore.fr/
Casa Luisa, is the new tapas bar of MoMA Group in Paris 16éme, You will be surrounded by chandeliers that this Gare de Muette old trainstation is dreaming of posterity by playing in the restaurant, chandeliers that she conscientiously derails with each new passage. It’s very simple, with her and until then, failure no longer hid the next. This is this narcissistic now at the tapas hour. Not happy to find a kind enough genre to tease the appetite of an audience that is no less so, this freshly baptized Casa Luisa is disgusting a certain Roman Fornell, the most Occitan of the Catalan chefs who became reference on the side of this Culinary Barcelona, This was my old nostalgic La Gare resto mentioned in previous post, unfortunately it closed and another try was done ,and now this is the second try with Casa Luisa,,, Webpage : https://casa-luisa.com/
This is grand Paris and love it, many memorable moments here and always looking forward to be back, eventually, Guinguettes, and barges with the feet in the Seine, this is Chalet des Îles, It takes about 20 minutes on foot from the Muette, but once arrived at the pier by the lower lake of the Bois de Boulogne, the view of the Swiss chalet surrounded by greenery created for the Empress Eugénie in 1854 immediately seduced. The canoeing crossing (billed € 2 but included in the Navigo pass) allows you to appreciate the renovation freshly done by Nicolas Laisné. Once the foot on the ground on the island where the geese are walking freely, the Chalet deploys its different areas in chic country house (rattan, white tablecloths) … and ran! Again decor, new chef, with the arrival of Pierre Chomet, ex- “top chef” now at his home at Ambos (6éme). He offers a traveler and seasonal bistro with Thai accents which he likes …webpage : https://chalet-des-iles.com/ For reference his other resto Ambos webpage : https://www.ambos-restaurant.fr/
There you go folks, my latest round of my some news from France coming to you freely by the road warrior travel guy . Again, hope you enjoy this post as I.
And remember, happy travels, good health, and many cheers to all !!!
Paris1972-Versailles2003 