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A Glance Around France: Dordogne residents warned and Paris gets new street bins

In our Glance Around France on Wednesday there was a warning to residents from the gendarmes in Dordogne and a look at the new state of the art, anti-rat street bins in Paris.

Paris rolls out new anti-rat bins
 
New bins specially designed to keep out the city's rat population have started popping up around the French capital. 
 
The move is part of a €1.5 million plan to fight the French capital's growing rodent problem. 
 
The idea is that the new model which is made of Plexiglass will prevent rats coming to feed directly from the bin bag by piercing it as they have been doing with the previous version. 
 
About 20 of the new closed bins can be found in front of one of Paris' most popular tourist destinations, Notre-Dame Cathedral and they will soon be rolled out to parks and markets across the city. 
 
Eventually a total of 30,000 will be on the streets of the French capital. 
 

 

Auchan supermarkets to open allotments

French supermarket giant Auchan intends to launch a huge project that will see giant allotments or urban farms as they are called, built around 50 of its stores around the country.

And it won't just be small patch of the car park that will be turned into a vegetable patch, but several acres of land.

The first one should be ready by 2020.

The supermarket giant already owns farmland around its stores but wants to make better use of the land by growing seasonal vegetables that can then be sold in stores.

Although if you live in the Paris region don't expect your local store to be part of the scheme. The land is just too expensive, Auchan says.

For more on this story CLICK HERE

Hyperloop capsule heads to Toulouse

Can you imagine travelling from Paris to Rome in just one hour?

Nope, nor can we, but it's the idea behind Hyperloop Transportation Technologies which unveiled its first prototype of a passenger capsule named “Quintero One” that's headed for testing in Toulouse.

The hyperloop system would, if it ever gets off the ground, see passenger capsules as seen in the image below travel at lightning speeds – around 1,000 km/h – in vacuum tubes levitated by electro-magnets.

The capsule measures 32 metres long including the interior cabin which measures 15 metres. It weighs 5 tonnes.

Next year testing will take place at the Francazal airbase near Toulouse with a 1km tube set to be erected, 5.8 metres off the ground.

Dordogne residents warned of calendar thieves

Police in the Dordogne have warned residents to be wary when people come to their door trying to sell calendars.

It's quite common for people to come knocking on your door in France towards the end of the year trying to get you to buy a calendar. The pompiers and rubbish collectors do it routinely.

But there are a few sellers you might need to be wary of. The gendarmes in the Dordogne are warning residents after two homes were burgled in the villages of Excideuil and Bassillac this week.

In each case two “sellers” robbed cash from their victims, with one creating a diversion while the other rummaged around the house.

Residents are advised to ask for a identity card or a professional card or call the police on 17 if they are in doubt.

For more on this story CLICK HERE

Insect farm set to open in northern France 
 
A rather unusual farm is set to open in northern France at the end of 2019. 
 
The new farm which will produce products made from a species of fly from southern Europe will be located in the town of Nesle in the northern Somme department.
 
But these insects are not part of a bug-related food revolution in France, instead the flies will be destined for the mouths of farmed trout and salmon.
 
And the people behind it see it as a positive move for the environment.
 
“Currently, farmed fish eat plant protein and fish protein that comes mainly from fisheries in South America and Africa. Our product has the ability to replace this,” said Clément Ray, the co-founder and president of InnovaFeed, the company behind the new farm.
 
“We can support the development of quality aquaculture with low environmental impact.”  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

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WEATHER

IN PICTURES: French town hit by freak June hailstorm

A French town has been hit by a freak hailstorm that left locals clearing drifts of ice in the streets with shovels and snow ploughs.

IN PICTURES: French town hit by freak June hailstorm
Photo: Sapeurs-pompiers des Vosges

The hail struck the town of Plombières-les-Bains in the Vosges mountains on Tuesday morning.

Romain Munier, head of communications for the local emergency services, told French media: “There were up to 60 centimetres of accumulated hail” while in the wider area, “up to 10 millimetres of water accumulated in six minutes”.

https://twitter.com/timbaland57/status/1409881345741012994

Locals were pictured clearing the street of ice with shovels and snow ploughs after the storm passed and the fire and rescue crews for the Vosges area said they had received 56 callouts in total.

Large areas of France are on weather alert for storms until Thursday, as a ‘cold drop’ passes over the country leading to extremely unsettled weather.

In most areas, however, the storms will be confined to heavy rain and thunder.

In neighbouring Switzerland, the Swiss news agency ATS reported giant hailstones up to seven centimetres wide in the canton of Lucerne.

In the canton of Fribourg, the police and fire brigade were called 300 times, including to rescue a class of 16 children and two adults caught in the hail.

Six of the children and one adult were taken to hospital.

At least five people were injured in the German-speaking Swiss cantons, including a cyclist who suffered head injuries from hailstones, according to ATS, whilst in Germany severe flooding has hit parts of the country including Stuttgart.

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