France

The Occitanie region and Toulouse Métropole can celebrate after four years of battle over a highly political project. On 27 April, a letter from Prime Minister Jean Castex confirmed that the French government was committing €4.1 billion to funding the Bordeaux-Toulouse high-speed line. By 2030, the project will have...

The fall was inevitable and will come as no surprise to anyone. In 2020, the Best Western network in France recorded an unprecedented drop in sales of -52.4 %, following a record performance in 2019. The causes are well known: a pandemic which, through confinements and border closures, triggered a series of...

Jean Castex spoke on Thursday 22 April to give an update on the health situation in France and the resulting changes to the regulatory framework. In particular, the Prime Minister confirmed that travel within France could resume on 3 May: "From 3 May, we will be able to lift the restrictions on travel within France....

In a few hours' time, Thomas Pesquet will take part in the Alpha mission and take command of the International Space Station (ISS): a first for a Frenchman, and an experience that ordinary mortals will never get close to. To compensate, Futuroscope has decided to launch a new hotel concept. The "Station Cosmos...

The TousAntiCovid application, long shunned and even scoffed at, is set to see its download rates soar over the coming weeks. The government has just decided to integrate test certificates and vaccination certificates into the application. This will transform the tool into a health pass, a new sesame being used by a growing number of...

The decision was finally taken very quickly. No sooner had flights to Brazil been banned than France decided to impose a compulsory ten-day quarantine, with tests to back it up, for all travellers from the country. [link-block prefix="Related news:" post="108317"] In an interview with France Info, epidemiologists explained that they...

Everyone has had the misfortune of seeing their metro tickets demagnetised because they have been exposed to another magnetic source. And, as more and more cards have magnetic strips, this type of incident has become a recurring occurrence. But the end of demagnetised tickets is approaching. The Board of Directors of Île-de-France Mobilités has approved...

The restriction of domestic routes to a two-and-a-half-hour rail journey, proposed as part of the Climate and Resilience Bill, has been adopted at first reading by the National Assembly. This first vote paves the way for the abolition of four air routes from Orly to Bordeaux, Lyon, Nantes and Rennes. It will...

The transformation of the three billion euro loan into a capital increase by the French state in the airline Air France makes it a definitive aid for the company's survival. The four-year loan of three billion euros granted by the French government to Air France last year will no longer have to be repaid. In...

For many years, the most prestigious Air France agency faced the Pont Alexandre III in Paris. The Air France branch at Les Invalides was housed in a beautiful structure reminiscent of an orangery, built in 1900. Air France moved there in 1946. It housed an agency, a baggage check-in desk,...

The decision was very discreet. It received little press coverage. But it is important for all French expatriates living outside the European Union and EEA countries (Andorra, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Norway, San Marino, Switzerland and the Vatican). From 12 March 2021, French nationals living outside the...

The rise of Transavia is now visible, as the carrier continues to strengthen its domestic and international network from its main bases. Nicolas Henin, Executive Vice President Commercial at Transavia, talks about the airline's prospects in an exclusive interview. Following the restructuring of Air France's domestic network, where do we stand today in terms of...

Jean Castex made it official on Thursday: since the evening of 19 March, confinement has once again been in force in 16 French departments, in Ile-de-France and Hauts-de-France, as well as in Alpes-Maritimes, Eure and Seine-Maritime. The measure will apply for at least four weeks, "unless positive results are observed in the meantime" ....

With passenger traffic in 2020 only a third of what it was in 2019 (70 million in 2020 compared with 214 million in 2019), France's airports are gearing up to win back the market. According to Thomas Juin, Chairman of the Union des Aéroports...

We suspected it, but the Union of French Airports (UAF) has confirmed it. 2020 will have seen a collapse in traffic on a scale hitherto unknown in the history of French air transport. Last year, French airports welcomed 70.045 million passengers, a fall of 67.3% compared with 2019. The number of flights reached 898...

The compelling reasons requirement for travel to or from a country outside the European area, which has been in force since 31 January 2021, has just been relaxed by the French government. From now on, travel to or from seven countries will no longer be prohibited, unless it can be shown that there is an emergency of a family, medical or other nature....

The Radisson Blu Rouen Centre has opened in the heart of the city, not far from the train station and close to its famous cathedral and the pedestrian district that criss-crosses the historic centre of the Norman city. "With this opening, we are further strengthening our position as the leading international hotel group in the region, with 20...

Patrick Mendes has been in charge of Accor's international sales for some time, before taking over as head of the hotel group's operations in Latin America. He is now heading up a new division which, for the first time, brings together the Sales, Distribution, Marketing and Loyalty divisions. As part of his duties, Patrick Mendes also oversees the eight regional hubs recently created by Accor...

No real surprises on the financial results for French air transport. 2020 has been confirmed as the worst year ever for Air France-KLM. The bi-national tandem suffered a historic loss of 7.1 billion euros. By way of comparison, the biggest loss recorded by the group in the 2009-2010 financial year was "only" 1.6 billion euros....

At its annual conference, In Extenso drew up a gloomy balance sheet for the French hotel industry as it prepared its accounts for 2020. Revenue per room (RevPAR), the industry's benchmark, has fallen by 55 % compared with 2019, a figure that sums up the hotels...