This is news from France for Sunday 16 May
This week:
France reached its 20 million target for Covid-19 vaccinations
The Paris mayor announced plans to restrict car traffic in the city centre
and an orca whale joined the leaders of a cross-Atlantic yacht race.
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President Emmanuel Macron announced on Twitter Saturday that France had reached its target of 20 million first vaccines.
The statement came ahead of this week’s planned reopening of museums, theatres, cinemas, concert halls, non-essential shops and restaurant terraces as part of easing lockdown restrictions.
The daily reported cases of Covid-19 stood at just over 15,000 as of Sunday.
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The mayor of Paris announced a public consulation for a project to close the capital’s four central arrondissements to car traffic from next year.
Anne Hidalgo was re-elected as mayor last year and promised to tackle pollution by building new bus and bicycle lanes and closing roads – including the expressways on the banks of the River Seine – to cars.
The consultation is due to last until October –
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18 yachts set off from the bay of Concarneau in north west France on Wednesday headed for Saint Barts in the 15th edition of the cross-Atlantic (Transat en Double) yacht race.
Each boat has a crew of two – and on Sunday, off the coast of Portugal, the Figaro III was joined by an orca whale which the crew filmed playing alongside their yacht. Crews are used to seeing dolphins, but not whales.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLIOkglHWDo&t=7s
The record for making the 7,000 kilometer voyage to the Caribbean is 18 days.
https://www.transatendouble.bzh/actualites
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This has been News from France for
Sunday 16 May 2021.