Paris and its suburbs found themselves on Tuesday in the snow, which caused hundreds of kilometers of traffic jams and significant delays and disruptions in transport.

 Significant snowfall whitened Tuesday, 6 February the French capital and its suburbs. They have also caused more than 700 kilometers of traffic jams around Paris, the closure of the Eiffel Tower, a slowdown in TGVs and major disruption in public and school transport.

The snow affected Tuesday night the northern half of France, where freezing temperatures have led 22 departments to activate their plan “cold weather”.

The snowy episode “notable and durable” makes the difficult traffic conditions on an axis going from the Pays de la Loire and Poitou, in the west, to the Ardennes in the east, while passing by the Île-de-France, according to Météo France, which maintained Tuesday evening 27 departments in orange vigilance snow and ice until Wednesday noon.

 

In Ile-de-France, a peak of 739 kilometers of traffic jams was recorded shortly before 7:30 pm by the Sytadin road news site, before starting a reflux. Buses serving Paris and the suburbs of Paris were all recalled in their deposit early evening, “because of traffic difficulties that can not run anymore,” said a spokesman for the RATP to AFP.

“We are on a scenario of strengthening the snow while the holding is facilitated by slightly lower temperatures and the night,” told AFP Emmanuel Demael, forecaster at Météo France. The situation could become critical in the night from Wednesday to Thursday with the fall of temperatures – down to minus 10 degrees – and the appearance of “frost” on snowy ground, he added.

For its part, SNCF announced Tuesday that it has reduced the speed of its trains on part of its network, causing slight delays, while the LGV Atlantic was experiencing some disruption.

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