French and Riviera News Friday 16th August 2024

News

80th anniversary of landing in Provence – The French President Emmanuel Macron has honoured six veterans, five French and one foreign, with the Legion of Honour during a ceremony to mark the 80th anniversary of the Allied landing in Provence in Saint-Rephael on Thursday. Meanwhile, nearly 2,000 spectators have attended the "reenactment" of the very first operation of the Provence Landing on the beach of Canadel in the Var. Earlier in the evening a ceremony took place in front of the old Rayol-Canadel train station, transformed into a chapel in 1962. Martin Rey-Chirac paid a vibrant tribute to his grandfather and former French President Jacques Chirac, who spent his childhood in Rayol-Canadel during the German occupation. The ceremony ended with a fireworks display on Canadel beach.

Weather alert lifted – In other news , the orange weather alert for thunderstorms has been lifted in both the Var and Alpes-Maritimes. Météo_France lowered the storm warning from orange to yellow on Thursday evening for the departments of Var, Alpes-Maritimes and Corsica, where no major damage occurred on Thursday, even if transport was severely disrupted. Météo-France recorded gusts of wind of up to 90 to 110 km/h near the coast of the Alpes-Maritimes and up to 30 millimetres of water fell in one hour near Fréjus and 15 millimetres in six minutes in Corsica.

Travel disrupted - The stormy episode affecting the South-East of France began on Wednesday evening, mainly off the