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Day: 12 April 2023

What to expect from the pension reform strikes on 13th April

by: Elsa Carpenter
12/04/2023
sncf avantage

The next round of mass protests against France’s pension reforms is to take place on Thursday 13th April. Here’s what to expect. 

Marking the 12th round of strikes since French President Emmanuel Macron announced his controversial plans to shake up the nation’s pensions system back in January, the incoming day of union action is going to affect commuters on their way to work the most heavily.  

SNCF train services are likely to be seriously disrupted, with early estimates from the rail travel network suggesting just one in five Intercités train and three in five TER trains will be running. Late evening and overnight services will be entirely cut, according to Le Figaro. TGVs will be impacted less, although some cancellations should be expected. 

The Direction Générale de l’Aviation Civile (DGAC) has announced 20% of flights will be culled in the regional airports of Toulouse, Bordeaux and Nantes, but airports in the French Riviera and Paris have been spared cancellations. Delays, however, could still materialise.  

France’s refineries are expected to kick off a two-day strike on Thursday 13th April, adding further pressure to low stocks in fuel stations across the country. A map detailing where to find fuel can be found here. 

Schools and other educational establishments do not appear to be affected by the protests.  

The most recent day of strikes, which took place on Thursday 6th April, saw over 110 people arrested by police and more than 150 officers injured in the shuffles around the country, according to French politician Gérald Darmanin.  

 

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Photo by Monaco Life

Daniel Mulhall goes “Around the World” with Yeats and Joyce

by: Stephanie Horsman
12/04/2023
daniel mulhall

In May, the Princess Grace Irish Library will host former Irish diplomat Danial Mulhall, who will be looking back over his 44 years of telling Ireland’s story using W.B. Yeats and James Joyce.  

When fiction and reality collide, it makes for a heady brew. This will most certainly be the case when Daniel Mulhall, a former diplomat who held ambassadorial posts in Berlin, London and Washington, tells how he spent 44 years revealing the nature, identity and long literary history of his country via the works of two renowned Irish authors.  He also published his own book, Ulysses – A Reader’s Odyssey, in 2022. 

The one-night-only event is being held at the Princess Grace Irish Library in Monaco on Wednesday 10th May. Entitled “Around the World with W.B. Yeats and James Joyce: A Diplomatic Odyssey”, Mulhall will tie in his nation’s modern history with that of the past, drawing on literary references to explain the complexities of the people, places and events that shaped, and continue to shape, Ireland.  

“Mulhall’s deployment of Joyce and Yeats around the world is a masterly example of exercising ‘soft power’ on behalf of Ireland,” says Ted Smyth, a former diplomat and business leader familiar with Mulhall. “Ireland might not have a large security force, but it does have an army of fabulous writers, poets, musicians, and artists who, with our talented diplomats, enable Ireland to punch above its weight in the international arena. Mulhall cleverly decodes all 18 episodes of James Joyce’s famous book while also providing personal and funny insights.”  

The lecture will take place at 7pm. It will be animated by actors from the Monaco-Ireland Arts Society, who will do dramatic readings of works by Yeats and Joyce. For more information, please click here. 

 

Do you have an event in Monaco or the French Riviera that you would like us to include in our What’s On section and events calendar? Please email editor@monacolife.net.  

 

Photo source: Princess Grace Irish Library