Union says operating company is ‘heading for disaster’ with budget based on unrealistic future visitor numbers
The Eiffel Tower was closed to the public on Wednesday after staff went on strike on the 100th anniversary of the death of its creator, Gustave Eiffel.
Disappointed tourists who had booked tickets to access the 134-year-old monument were told it was shut and they would be contacted by email.
Continue reading...Thousands sign petition challenging Macron-backed restoration that would add contemporary design to building
A plan backed by the French president, Emmanuel Macron, to replace stained-glass windows in Notre Dame Cathedral’s side chapels with contemporary creations has been criticised as “vandalism”.
A petition has been signed by more than 120,000 people to retain the original windows. Critics say the change would destroy the architectural harmony of the historical building that was ravaged by fire in April 2019.
Continue reading...Crane installs weathervane symbolising resurrection, resilience and hope following devastating 2019 fire
The installation by a crane of a new golden rooster on Notre Dame, reimagined as a dramatic phoenix with licking, flamed feathers, goes beyond being just a weathervane atop the cathedral spire.
It symbolises resilience amid destruction after the devastating April 2019 fire – as restoration officials also revealed an anti-fire misting system is being kitted out under the cathedral’s roof.
Continue reading...Petition demanding station outside Paris does not use singer’s name has received 4,000 signatures
He was a poet-provocateur whose songs transformed French music and whose often outrageous behaviour on TV was shrugged off with a smile.
But plans to name a new Métro station east of Paris after the singer Serge Gainsbourg have sparked a row, with campaigners saying he was a misogynist whose songs glorified child abuse and should not be celebrated.
Continue reading...Home of the patisserie falls for US doughnuts with hundreds of people lining up for opening of first branch
France, the country that gave the world the word “patisserie”, a nation famous for its macarons, meringues and millefeuilles, whose restaurants strive for gastronomic perfection and whose baguette is on the UN heritage list, has fallen for another foreign interloper: the American doughnut, or more precisely the Krispy Kreme.
On a freezing morning last week, 400 people, some having camped out all night, formed an uncharacteristically orderly queue for the opening of the US chain’s first outlet in a central Paris shopping centre.
Continue reading...‘It’s a form of social justice,’ says Anne Hidalgo of move to target richest drivers to tackle climate breakdown
Paris intends to triple parking charges for large sports utility vehicles (SUVs) in order to push them out of the city and limit emissions and air pollution, the mayor has said.
“It is a form of social justice,” Anne Hidalgo announced on Friday of the plan to deliberately target the richest drivers to tackle the climate breakdown and air pollution. “This is about very expensive cars, driven by people who today have not yet made the changes to their behaviour that have to be made [for the climate].”
Continue reading...Suspect detained after German-Filipino man killed and two – one British and one French – injured near Eiffel Tower
A 26-year-old man suspected of killing a German-Filipino tourist and wounding two others near the Eiffel Tower in Paris on Saturday night had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in a video released online.
The French anti-terrorism prosecutor, Jean-François Ricard, said the French suspect, named as Armand Rajabpour-Miyandoab, “had recorded a video before committing the act”, in which he spoke in Arabic, swore allegiance to Islamic State and supported its jihadists in different areas from Africa to Iraq, Syria and Pakistan.
Continue reading...Rédoine Faïd gets extra 14 years as 11 members of family also convicted for aiding breakout
A French gangster who made a spectacular escape from prison by helicopter has been sentenced to an extra 14 years in jail.
It was the second time Rédoine Faïd, a career criminal described as France’s most wanted man during his three months on the run, had broken out of prison.
Continue reading...Musée Grévin says it is ‘improving’ wax figure of Fast and Furious star after it attracted widespread ridicule on social media
A wax museum in Paris that was criticised for “whitewashing” a statue of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson says it will give the waxwork a do-over.
The Musée Grévin, which is modelled on London’s Madame Tussauds, unveiled the wax figure of the professional wrestler turned actor last week, but it swiftly attracted widespread ridicule on social media, as well as from the Fast and Furious star himself.
Continue reading...Closure comes after decision to put France on high alert following fatal school stabbing by suspected extremist
Thousands of visitors have been evacuated from the Louvre in Paris after museum staff received a written threat.
The warning on Saturday came as France is on its highest alert for terrorist attacks after the killing of a teacher by a suspected radical Islamist in the north of the country on Friday.
Continue reading...Evolyn says route is ‘strategic and high demand’ and it intends to launch its first service in 2025
A Spanish rail company has announced plans to launch a Paris to London high-speed train service to rival Eurostar.
The company, Evolyn, said the route was “strategic and high demand” and that it intended to launch its first service in 2025. It had reached an agreement to buy 12 high-speed trains from the French manufacturer Alstom and had the option of acquiring four more, it added.
Continue reading...In today’s newsletter: With Paris under siege by these tiny, blood-sucking terrors, many on the other side of the Channel are wondering if they’re next – and what can be done
• Sign up here for our daily newsletter, First Edition
Good morning. Paris is being overrun by bedbugs, at a time when the country is hosting the Rugby World Cup and preparing to host the 2024 Olympics. The news has alarmed people living in France and those visiting: in a moment of particularly acute panic, the deputy mayor of the French capital declared that “no one is safe”, which certainly intensified the concern.
A bedbug epidemic on the other side of the Channel has unsurprisingly left many people worried that the hordes of insects are about to hop on a direct train to St Pancras International and invade the UK. London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, has said everything is being done to ensure that the problem does not get out of control, though he has acknowledged that it is a “real cause for concern”. Transport for London is disinfecting seats on buses and tubes every day and Khan is also in contact with Eurostar.
Gaza | A massive Israeli military buildup is continuing along Gaza’s border, as the country’s military confirmed the death toll from Saturday’s Hamas attack – the deadliest militant assault in its history – had passed 1,200 and wave after wave of airstrikes hit the territory.
Labour | Keir Starmer has made a direct appeal for “despairing” Conservative voters to back Labour at the next election, telling them he would repair a Britain broken by 13 years of Tory governments.
Bibby Stockholm | The Home Office plans to return asylum seekers to the Bibby Stockholm barge next week following a lengthy evacuation after legionella was found there.
Disinformation | The EU has issued a warning to Elon Musk over the alleged disinformation about the Hamas attack on Israel, including fake news and “repurposed old images”, on X, which was formerly known as Twitter.
Luton airport | A major incident has been declared at London Luton airport after a huge fire broke out at a car park in the terminal, with all flights being suspended.
Continue reading...After French capital hosted fashion week and Rugby World Cup there are concerns the problem will spread
Paris is burning its luggage and bed linen as it battles a “scourge” of bedbugs, stoking fears of infestation around the world as pest controllers report an uptick in inquiries and transport operators and hoteliers seek to assuage concerns.
The city of light is reportedly under siege from the nocturnal bloodsuckers, leading the French transport minister, Clément Beaune, to meet transport operators. “It’s a real nightmare,” says Yacine, a schoolteacher in Paris who declined to give his surname. “I’m so afraid to take the Métro, I don’t go to the cinema – it’s very alarmant.”
Continue reading...Musée d’Orsay adds AI and VR to display of artist’s last works, never previously seen together
For a man who died in 1890, Vincent van Gogh seemed remarkably au fait with 21st-century parlance.
Asked why he had cut off his left ear, the artist replied that this was a misconception and he had in fact only cut off “part of my earlobe”. So why did he shoot himself in the chest with a revolver, causing injuries from which he died two days later?
Continue reading...‘World’s most beautiful avenue’ in French capital will undergo urgent cosmetic changes after years of decline
On paper and in urban legend, the Champs-Élysées is the most beautiful avenue in the world. For the last 30 years, however, Parisians have lamented the slow decline of the capital’s famous street.
The pavements flanking what is now an eight-lane highway used by an average 3,000 vehicles an hour have become an obstacle course of uneven paving stones and electricity cables and a hotchpotch of restaurant, bar, cafe and brasserie terraces of all shapes, sizes and colours.
Continue reading...Artistic director Olivier Rousteing posted that a van travelling between a Paris airport and the firm’s main office was hijacked
Balmain artistic director Olivier Rousteing has said robbers have made off with more than 50 pieces of the new collection that his Paris house intended to show at fashion week later this month.
Posting overnight on Sunday on Instagram, Rousteing said a group of people hijacked his delivery driver on the way from an airport to Balmain’s Paris headquarters. He said they made off with the last pieces he had been expecting for the 27 September womenswear show – more than 50 items in all. He did not give a breakdown of the stolen items.
Continue reading...Terms ranged up to life in prison and included high-profile culprits Salah Abdeslam and Mohamed Abrini
A Belgian court has handed out sentences of up to life in jail to eight men for the 2016 jihadist bombing attacks in Brussels, bringing to an end the country’s largest-ever criminal trial.
The suicide bombings on 22 March 2016 at Brussels’ main airport and on the metro system killed 32 people and were claimed by the Islamic State group.
Continue reading...Works by painter, whose turbulent life often overshadowed his short career, go on display in Paris
The life of the Russian-born French artist Nicolas de Staël was short, turbulent and ultimately tragic.
Forced into exile by the 1917 revolution, orphaned, a loner who was hopelessly romantic but unlucky in love, De Staël died at the age of 41 after he threw himself out of the window of his Côte d’Azur atelier after the woman with whom he was obsessed rejected him.
Continue reading...Actor famous for Amélie, The Bureau and La Haine, which he also wrote and directed, reportedly in a ‘worrying’ condition
The French actor and director Mathieu Kassovitz is in a “worrying” condition after a motorbike accident in greater Paris on Sunday, authorities say.
The 56-year-old, who is best known for his 1995 film La Haine and his role in the 2001 film Amélie, was on a motorcycle training course at the time, a police source told Agence France-Presse.
Continue reading...Suspects accused of using chemicals to destroy locks of apartment doors during 90 break-ins
Five people have been charged over 90 burglaries in the Paris region in which acid was used to break the locks on apartment doors.
Four of the suspects have been held in pre-trial detention since Wednesday and the fifth is being monitored by police, prosecutors in Nanterre, north-west of the French capital, told AFP.
Continue reading...