Lunchtime News Thursday 24th September 2020

Local 

Weather warning - Météo France has place the Alpes Maritimes on a yellow weather alert with storms forecast from mid-afternoon today. The warning is in place until 6am Friday morning.

Bars and restaurants to close in Marseille from Saturday - All bars and restaurants in Marseille are to close from Saturday 26th September due to the spread of Covid-19. The announcement was made during the weekly update from France’s Minister of Health Olivier Véran on Wednesday evening.

Véran defended the move saying he had taken “a unilateral decision”. The announcement has caused anger amongst elected officials of Marseille with the president of the Provence Alpes Côte d’Azur region Renaud Muselier calling it “collective punishment”.

Aix-Marseille and Guadeloupe were placed on “maximum alert” with bars and restaurants closing completely for two weeks while Paris, Lille, Toulouse, Saint-Etienne, Rennes, Rouen, Grenoble and Montpellier joined Bordeaux, Lyon and Nice being classified as “enhanced alert zones”. Meaning that from Monday, in these areas, bar and restaurants must close at 10pm at the latest, sports complexes, recreational centres and meeting halls are to close, local festivals are banned, gatherings of more than ten people are prohibited and weddings, communions and other celebrations are limited to no more than thirty guests.

In each of these zones, the Prefect may also take additional measures.

The Minister also warned that other cities, such as Tours, Strasbourg, Dijon or Clermont-Ferrand were likely to be classified as “alert zones” in the coming days.

Second body found after bad weather in the Gard - The body of the caregiver missing since Saturday during bad weather which hit the Gard in southern France has been found.

Firefighters discovered the body of the sixty-year-old woman on Wednesday several kilometers from where she had disappeared after her car was crushed.

The bad weather led to flooding in the region with water levels rising six meters in the space of two hours, forcing the authorities to evacuate several hundred people as a precaution.

Poster campaign - An association in Marseille has launched a poster campaign and called for “urgent action from authorities” concerning the number of shootings related to drug trafficking.

It was back in 2016 that the “too young to die” association launched its first poster campaign and then in 2018 called for a “rescue plan for the northern districts”. According to the association nothing has been done and action need to be taken urgently.  

Monaco football club limits number of spectators - Monaco’s football club has announced that the number of people allowed to attend football matches at the Louis-II stadium is to be lowered to 1,000 people.

AS Monaco are set to play Strasbourg on Sunday. The club has closed the ticket office for the match and tickets will be refunded.

Renovation - A famous Nice landmark is getting a makeover. The water mirror on the Promenade du Paillon will close today for renovation works. The mirror, which has 132 water jets and 256 LED lights, will be back in action on October 5th.

Juliette Gréco – Legendary French singer Juliette Gréco, whose career spanned over half a century, has died aged 93 at her home in Ramatuelle in the Var.

Born February 7, 1927 in Montpellier, Juliette was the daughter of a Corsican policeman, Gérard Gréco, and a Bordeaux woman, Juliette Lafeychine.

Gréco became a muse to philosophers and writers including Jean-Paul Sartre. She only stopped performing aged 89 after a farewell tour.