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Glance around France: Rabbit murders and the resurrection of a homeless man’s outdoor library

Our roundup of stories from around France on Thursday includes mysterious rabbit killings in Brittany and neighbours campaigning to bring back a homeless man's much-loved 'open air library' after it was destroyed by police in Bordeaux.

Published: 25 October 2018 18:14 CEST
Glance around France: Rabbit murders and the resurrection of a homeless man's outdoor library
Photo: Joe Raedle, Getty Images, AFP
Outcry in Bordeaux after local authorities destroy a homeless man's 'library'
 
Bordeaux city hall has been at the centre of a local storm since Tuesday, after it gave orders to destroy a much-loved homeless man's open air 'library' in the city centre.
 
For the past three years, Dominique – known affectionately by locals as 'Neneuil' – had set up a reading space outside the Palais des Sports building in the southwestern French city, with all kind of books for passersby to browse and enjoy.
 
But his 'library', which had become a bit of an institution, was raised to the ground by police after they binned all the books during a cleaning operation in the area, where several other homeless people congregated.
 
After news of the destruction spread, horrified locals signed a petition and posted support messages on social media. Faced with such an outcry, the local authorities apologised and vowed to find a solution to allow Neneuil to set up a new and more permanent, library.
 
To find out more on the story, click here.
 
 
 
 
Marseille ring road finally opens… 30 years after it was started
 
 
It's been a long time coming, but hopefully for drivers in this busy southern French city, the completion of the L2 ring road linking the north of Marseille to the East was well worth the wait.
 
On Thursday morning, cars drove on the new road for the first time, thirty years after the building works first began.
 
Traffic in and around the southern city can get very dense, especially during rush hour. Now, instead of taking up to one hour to go from the north to the east, it should only take 10 minutes, according to local police.
 
To find out more on the story, click here.
 
Photo: Anne-Christine Poujoulat, AFP
 
Rabbit serial killer in Brittany
 
Who is responsible for murdering one hundred rabbits in the Côte d'Armor region in Brittany? This week, police launched a call for witnesses after more rabbits were found dead in the area.
 
Since late August, around ten properties have been targeted by this rabbit assassin. “Cages are opened, then the animals are killed in cold blood with a pointed object and then just left there,” police, who also advised rabbit owners to lock up their rabbit hutches tightly, told OuestFrance.
 
An inquiry has been launched into the bizarre animal slaughters.
 
To find out more on the story, click here.
 
 

 
 
Angry Paris bus driver forces passengers off the bus to allow disabled man on
 
A furious bus driver in Paris asked all his passengers to get off his bus and wait for the next one in order to allow a man in a wheelchair to get on.
 
In a tweet posted on Sunday, the disabled man explained that he tried to get on the bus last week with his brother but failed after passengers inside the bus did not make space for him. That's when the driver intervened and told the passengers, some of them grumbling, to get off.
 
“The driver said no one in his family was disabled, but that it was just about being courteous,” said the Parisian man, who also deplored the lack of access in the French capital for disabled people to public spaces and shops.
 
To find out more on the story, click here.
 
 
 
Traffic slowed in Strasbourg as 80 ambulances stage go-slow operation
 
There were more traffic jams than normal in Strasbourg on Thursday morning after around 80 ambulances slowed down traffic in the city centre and on the ring road by staging a go-slow operation to protest against a new reform.
 
The ambulance drivers fear for their independence since a new measure was introduced this month which makes hospitals responsible for their funding.
 
The deplored 'article 80' aims to reduce fraud, but private ambulance companies worry it will threaten their jobs, as hospitals are now under the obligation to put out calls for tender for transport contracts.
 
To find out more on the story, click here.
 
 

 

 

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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.

Published: 29 June 2021 16:44 CEST
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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