The title of this post in French means: shame. I don't usually rant on this blog but this is going to be a big time rant. Snow was forecasted yesterday. And it came. It was so pretty. Slightly worried, I left the office at 15:19 hours, dropping my boss and a colleague off. What time did I arrive at home? 20:00 hours. That's 4 hours and 40 minutes for a distance of 18.6 kilometres (11.5 m). And you know what made my temper flare to boiling hot? The government said "il n'y a pas de pagaille", basically meaning there is no problem. Right. Don't believe politicians. Never. Don't believe journalists either, they tell you there are 170 km of traffic jams around Paris when in fact there were well over 400 km. Angry? Me? Really? I'm sure they'll find a perfectly good excuse to explain why the roads weren't cleared despite heavy snowfall having been forecasted. In this country at least, they usually say 'the snow was heavy' or 'the extent of the snowfall was unexpected' or something to that effect. And next time the problem will be exactly the same. I'm lucky, I made it home and I am thinking of all the people who will have been stranded for the night, having to sleep in their cars or public places such as gymnasiums that have been requisitioned by the authorities. Shame is the word. Oh... I took these photos yesterday at about 19:55 hours in Montreuil neighbourhood when I was almost home and to be fair, driving through Versailles wasn't the worst bit, the avenues had been more or less cleared in the city. I wish I could have shown better ones because it really is bee-eau-ti-ful out there. Sorry about this rant.
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Je n'ai pas l'habitude de trop râler sur ce blog mais là, j'en ai ma claque. Un peu inquiète par l'ampleur des chutes de neige, j'ai quitté le bureau hier à 15 h 19, déposant ma responsable et un collègue à la Porte d'Orléans. A quelle heure suis-je arrivée chez moi ? 20 h. Et vous savez ce qui m'a mise HORS DE MOI ? Les déclarations gouvernementales : "il n'y a pas de pagaille". Ah non, certes non, 4 h 40 pour faire 18,6 km, ce n'est pas la pagaille. D'où le titre de ce post. J'ai honte que dans un pays comme celui-ci, malgré les prévisions de Météo France, on trouvera demain des excuses, genre la neige était trop lourde, l'importance des chutes a surpris les services de l'équipement... Et la prochaine fois, ce sera exactement pareil. J'ai réussi à rentrer tant bien que mal, en première ou au point mort pendant environ les 9/10è du temps. J'ai une pensée pour les pauvres personnes tombées en panne, celles qui passent la nuit dans leur caisse ou dans les gymnases réquisitionnés dans les Yvelines. La honte je vous dis. Au fait, j'ai pris ces photos hier vers 19 h 55 à Montreuil, presque arrivée chez moi. Pour être honnête, à Versailles les grandes avenues étaient à peu près dégagées. Désolée de ne pas pouvoir montrer plus joli parce que dehors, c'est ma-gni-fique et au lieu de galérer, on devrait en profiter... Désolée de râler...
The reward for chaos is sheer beauty. I was lucky to be able to work from home so at lunchtime I sneaked out yesterday and this was what I saw on Avenue de Saint-Cloud.
The title of this post in French means: shame. I don't usually rant on this blog but this is going to be a big time rant. Snow was forecasted yesterday. And it came. It was so pretty. Slightly worried, I left the office at 15:19 hours, dropping my boss and a colleague off. What time did I arrive at home? 20:00 hours. That's 4 hours and 40 minutes for a distance of 18.6 kilometres (11.5 m). And you know what made my temper flare to boiling hot? The government said "il n'y a pas de pagaille", basically meaning there is no problem. Right. Don't believe politicians. Never. Don't believe journalists either, they tell you there are 170 km of traffic jams around Paris when in fact there were well over 400 km. Angry? Me? Really? I'm sure they'll find a perfectly good excuse to explain why the roads weren't cleared despite heavy snowfall having been forecasted. In this country at least, they usually say 'the snow was heavy' or 'the extent of the snowfall was unexpected' or something to that effect. And next time the problem will be exactly the same. I'm lucky, I made it home and I am thinking of all the people who will have been stranded for the night, having to sleep in their cars or public places such as gymnasiums that have been requisitioned by the authorities. Shame is the word. Oh... I took these photos yesterday at about 19:55 hours in Montreuil neighbourhood when I was almost home and to be fair, driving through Versailles wasn't the worst bit, the avenues had been more or less cleared in the city. I wish I could have shown better ones because it really is bee-eau-ti-ful out there. Sorry about this rant.
Just blue. 
Snowy scenes from Saturday morning in Saint-Louis neighbourhood. Shovelling snow with an improvised shovel: a broom and some cardboard! In the background the butcher is tending to his roast chicken.
Avenue de Paris on Saturday morning, before the snow turned to icy rain.
Snowstorm yesterday, a world in white. The storm didn't last though, it turned into icy rain by lunchtime. Still, here's to a week of snow photos!
The end of Avenue de Paris with the palace in the middle, the king's stables on the left and last week's modern street lamps are reflected in a car for James' Weekend Reflections. Photo taken about 3 weeks ago.
Some of you might remember this little house in the summer. Have a look, it's this way. It is located on the edge of town, just opposite the entrance to Fausses-Reposes forest.
Good grief, I ALMOST forgot Theme Day, having been away and then sick and all that. Hence the NOT very original photo, which happens to be a not so good archive photo. It is the clock of the palace marble courtyard. Happy December to you all! Click here to view thumbnails for all participants
