Day: 9 August 2018

Divers from the Monaco Underwater Exploration Club and the Department of the Environment combined their efforts on Sunday, August 5, to survey the local population of Pinna nobilis, a large Mediterranean bivalve shellfish.

The species is vulnerable to injuries from anchors and bottom fishing gear and is listed as a threatened species in Annex II of the Barcelona Convention’s ASP/BIO protocol.

Fifteen members of the diving club took part in the survey, carried out under the auspices of the RAMOGE Agreement, under the cliff between the Oceanographic Museum and the entrance to the port of Fontvieille.

The results were encouraging, with 199 healthy individuals identified in the chosen area. The presence of other protected species is an indicator of the good ecological status of the environment, the Department of the Environment said.

A large swathe of eastern France has been hit by violent storms that brought a sudden and dramatic end to the weeks-long heatwave.

The Departments most affected were Gard, Dordogne, Lot-et-Garonne, Drôme, Nièvre, Yonne, and Bas-Rhin. In the Gard, a 75-year-old German tourist has been reported missing.

Significant damage was caused, and a total of 1,600 people were evacuated, the Ministry of the Interior said. Several people were taken to hospital suffering from hypothermia.

Very heavy rainfall on Thursday morning was repeated again in the late afternoon. Cities that have taken precautions such as closing parks and other public areas include Strasbourg, Metz, and Nancy.

Further west, in the Dordogne and Lot-et-Garonne, more than 7,000 homes were reported to be without electricity at midday, compared to 19,000 cut off earlier in the day.

Meanwhile, the forecast for Monaco is mainly settled from Friday, August 10, with daytime temperatures dropping from 33 to 28 degrees in the following week.

After years of delay, the French authorities have now approved a scheme to reopen an offramp on the A8 that will be welcomed by Monaco drivers.

Elisabeth Borne, France’s Minister for Energy Transition, said that “conditions are now ripe for several major project in the Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur region, as part of the Highway Investment Plan.”

The opening of the offramp, which has previously been used only for highway maintenance and emergency access, is likely to greatly reduce the incidence of traffic jams involving the two exits currently in use, direction France to Italy.

Work started on May 13, after the last Ligue 1 football game played at home, to completely renew the grass pitch at Monaco’s Louis II Stadium.

This work was carried out in two phases in order not to interfere with the Herculis EBS international athletics meeting on July 20.

Initially, from May 13 to Friday, July 6, the organic substrate and the irrigation system were completely removed from the entire playing area in order to reach the underlying slab. A new drainage network was put in place together with an automatic watering system, plus a heating network to promote the growth of natural grass.

New turf has been placed on the field, and the pitch is now ready for the resumption of the Ligue 1 football championship, against Lille, on August 18.

A new traffic system will go into force for Place du Casino, from Thursday, August 9, 2018, in a bid to alleviate the uneasy coexistence of pedestrians and cars in one of Monaco’s tourism hotspots.

The plan includes a pedestrian zone directly in front of the Casino and the Cafe de Paris. Guests at the Hotel de Paris will be able to continue to access and deposit their luggage.

The new system is experimental, and a decision will be made at the end of the year about making it permanent.

Casino operator Société des Bains de Mer, the Public Security Department and the Urban Planning Department have all made their input into the scheme, which is intended to separate pedestrians and traffic.