Category: Paris

Are French Restaurants More Likely than American to Survive the Lockdown?

France is not unique in seeing its service industry shut down in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. But compared to other countries, France has a robust safety net of social security, unemployment, and healthcare. France has also implemented emergency measures that may prevent many of these businesses from going under.

As French restaurants begin to slowly reopen for outdoor service, the culinary landscape in France looks very different when compared to the United States.

Government Aid: Two Countries, Two Philosophies

In March, President Emmanuel Macron said he would do “whatever it takes” to ensure that no company, big or small, collapsed under the financial weight of the pandemic. He announced 300 billion euros in loan guarantees and tax exemptions. The government also played a role in negotiating rent forgiveness for restaurants.

Perhaps even more helpful, at least in the short-term, were easy-to-access “solidarity funds:” 1500 euros per month given tax-free to small businesses, compounded with an additional allowance of up to 2500 euros from URSSAF, a social security union for small businesses. On April 15, Gérald Darmainn, Minister of Public Action and Accounts, also announced that the restaurant industry’s taxes and social charges – about 750 million euros – would be forgiven instead of merely suspended for the duration of administrative closure.

In the U.S., by contrast, most small restaurants didn’t qualify for loans, while huge corporations like McDonald’s and Shake Shack did. According to the New York Times, big chains were able to access “tens of millions of dollars while many smaller restaurants walked away with nothing when the $349 billion fund was exhausted [April 16].” The Los Angeles Times reported that those small businesses that did qualify were reluctant to apply for the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program because of the “strings” attached to loans.

Restaurant Workers Feed Us, But Can They Eat?

As far as restaurant employees are concerned, in France, most are secure within the net of the country’s robust social structure. When forced closures were announced mid-March, restaurant workers were encouraged to first use up their paid vacation (an average of about five weeks per year) before becoming eligible for partial unemployment (the equivalent of 84 percent of their salary.) Continue reading “Are French Restaurants More Likely than American to Survive the Lockdown?” →

Site helps owners plan dog-friendly trips in France

As French residents are encouraged to take holidays in France this summer post-Covid-19, a website is helping dog-owners plan holidays with their pets, sharing dog-friendly listings around the country.

Emmène ton chien (Bring Your Dog), launched by Sophie Morche, has around 100,000 monthly visitors – known as “Wouafers” – who search the site find to dog-friendly places to visit in France, as approved by other members.

Ms Morche says visitors can share places that have made their dogs “really welcome” in France. Dog-friendly establishments are then given a rating from 1-4 on the website’s “Qualidog” scale, depending on how positive users’ experiences have been.

Information provided on the site includes how many dogs can be allowed into a dog-friendly establishment at once, what size dogs are welcome, and whether services – such as bowls and dog pads – are provided. It also answers questions such as which campsites allow dogs in onsite restaurants, and which holiday cottages have dog-gardens. 

Five years ago, Ms Morche adopted her own dog and quickly found: “Finding dog-friendly places wasn’t simple. Often you don’t know what the welcome will be like when you go somewhere. My dog is a member, and a full part, of my family. There are about 18 million people in the same situation [in France], and we shouldn’t apologise for wanting to go on holiday with the whole family!”

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InspiDog du jour : et si le roadtrip en 🚐van aménagé ou 🚍camping-car était le secret pour s’évader quelques jours avec son chien?! C’est ce qu’a choisi @tornade_bleue ⛱🏝 et apparemment c’était Wouafement Bien !! Ça donne envie! ⁣Vous avez déjà testé? ⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣ 👩🏻‍💼: utilisez le #emmenetonchien pour partager vos photos et toutes vos activités avec votre chien ⁣⁣⁣!! ⁣⁣⁣ 🐶 : Découvrez tous les bons plans des Wouafer’s en suivant le compte 👍⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣⁣ 🕶 Question à @wikicampers ou @yescapa : des locations dogfriendly pour les Wouafer’s ? 🐶⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣ #⁣#emmenetonchien #vanlife #chienstagram #happydog #deconfinement #chien #plage #weekend #vanlifewithdogs #dogonthebeach #swimdog #doglovers #doglife #campingcariste #campingcar #campingcarlife #doglovers #roadtrip #dogadventures #dogtravel #dogtricks #dogtrip

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As well as accommodation and restaurants, emmenetonchien.com includes popular destinations in France, such as tourist sites and physical activity centres. It also has listings for activities specifically for dogs, such as agility courses and even dog massages. 

For places that want to improve their “Qualidog” rating, the site also offers advice on how to better welcome dog owners. 

Source: Site helps owners plan dog-friendly trips in France

Paris Is Plotting a Greener, Slower Beltway

Paris beltway imagined new
A rendering of the reimagined Paris beltway. (Credit: Céline Orsingher)

Mayor Anne Hidalgo’s reelection manifesto calls for a green revamp of the Boulevard Périphérique, the city’s car-clogged inner ring urban highway.

By Feargus O’Sullivan

Like so many cities, Paris is girdled by beltways — several of them, in fact. The innermost and most notorious one is known as the Boulevard Périphérique,  a 22-mile-long ring road completed in 1973 and built in part upon the footprint of the city’s historic walls. The traffic-clogged urban highway plays a major role in Parisian mobility, but it’s also a prime contributor of pollution, both atmospheric and aural, as well as an all-but-impassable barrier severing the historic city from its inner suburbs. Last year, Paris deputies proposed downsizing the Périphérique, removing vehicle lanes and dropping speed limits to transform the road from a smog-spewing limited-access highway into a tree-lined “metropolitan avenue.”

Continue reading “Paris Is Plotting a Greener, Slower Beltway” →

The nurse arrested during a demonstration in Paris will be tried for “contempt” and “violence”

The nurse arrested Tuesday during the Parisian defense demonstration of the public hospital came out of police custody Wednesday June 17 in the afternoon with a summons to the criminal court for September 25, announced on Wednesday the prosecution of Paris . This 50-year-old woman, who will be tried for “contempt” and “violence without total interruption of work (ITT)” on a person holding public authority, admitted the facts during her police custody.

During her hearing, this 50-year-old nurse working at the Paul-Brousse hospital in Villejuif (Val-de-Marne) admitted that she threw stones at the police, according to a source familiar with the matter. ‘Agence France-Presse (AFP). But, she said, her anger was not directed at the police but at the state. She said she fell apart.

The nurse told, still according to this close source, the harshness of her profession, working days from ten hours to fourteen hours at the height of the epidemic of Covid-19, the death of twenty patients during this period, its presence with them, his fatigue and a positive serology to the virus. A support rally was held for 16 hours in front of the police station of the 7 th  arrondissement, where she had been placed in custody.

Highly shared videos on social networks

Questioned by the press on Wednesday after the Council of Ministers, the government spokeswoman, Sibeth Ndiaye, justified this arrest which “follows a jet of projectiles made by this lady”, she said, and ”  was carried out taking into account the previously known behavior” of this woman. She, however, declined to comment on the way in which the nurse was arrested, adding that the government condemned “firmly” the disorders caused by “thugs” and “black blocks” at the end of the Paris demonstration .

Several videos of the nurse’s arrest were taken up on social networks. We see a woman wearing a white blouse arrested unceremoniously by the police when scuffles broke out when the procession arrived on the Esplanade des Invalides. The nurse asked for her Ventoline, a medicine used by people with asthma.

Other videos show the same person throwing projectiles at the police a few minutes earlier. “A woman, a nurse by profession, was arrested for contempt and throwing projectiles at the police,” a police source told AFP on Tuesday.

“I was not there, and it appears, taking into account the images, that this arrest followed the criminal acts carried out by this lady,” repeated Ms. Ndiaye. “A police officer hit by one of these projectiles will file a complaint,” Wednesday said a police source.

The Prefecture of Police reported thirty-two arrests linked to these scuffles. Clashes between thugs and police also took place in Lille, on the sidelines of the procession in which the outgoing mayor, Martine Aubry (PS) participated, but also in Toulouse and Nantes.

Source: The nurse arrested during a demonstration in Paris will be tried for “contempt” and “violence”

Paris Match cover photo illustrates the insanity we are experiencing

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Manifestation des soignants : Farida, le visage de la colère. Un rassemblement s'est tenu mardi soir devant le commissariat du VIIème arrondissement, à Paris. Il réclamait la libération d'une infirmière, arrêtée quelques heures plus tôt en marge d'une manifestation des soignants qui a donné lieu à quelques échauffourées dans la capitale. Des images de l'arrestation de cette femme quinquagénaire, infirmière dans le Val-de-Marne, ont suscité la polémique sur les réseaux sociaux. Sur certaines d'entre elles on la voit être tirée au sol par un agent de police ou encore réclamer sa ventoline, un médicament utilisé par les personnes souffrant d'asthme, alors qu'elle est entourée de plusieurs policiers. Pourquoi cette manifestante en blouse blanche a-t-elle été arrêtée par les forces de l'ordre? Une source policière a fait savoir qu'elle avait été «interpellée pour outrage et jet de projectiles sur les forces de l'ordre». Sur des images de BFMTV, tournée quelques minutes avant son interpellation, on voit cette femme jeter des projectiles et faire des doigts d'honneur en direction des policiers. Soucieux de «rétablir la vérité» après cette arrestation, le syndicat indépendant des commissaires de police a diffusé cette vidéo de la chaîne d'info en continu sur Twitter. «La gentille infirmière, qui avait besoin de sa ventoline, et qui est présentée comme une victime de la police. Elle jetait des projectiles, juste avant son interpellation», a réagi le syndicat. «Un policier atteint par un de ces projectiles déposera plainte» mercredi, a fait savoir une source policière. A la fin de la manifestation, qui a réuni 18 000 personnes à Paris selon les chiffres de la préfecture de police, 32 interpellations liées aux échauffourées ont été réalisées par le police.⁣ Photos : @raphael_lafargue @abaca_press⁣ —⁣ #personnelsoignant #paris #parismatch

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