Champs-Élysées 2030

The new-look Avenue des Champs-Élysées under the proposed Green development plan for the city of Paris to be completed by 2030.

PCA - Stream

Green Plan - Paris

Paris is gearing up to become one of the world's greenest cities by 2030. As it stands, green spaces make up just over 9% of municipal Paris. By comparison, green spaces in London cover 33% of the city's territory. However, under mayor Anne Hidalgo's ambitious plan, Paris will see the development of 'urban forests' and new green spaces that will transform historical landmarks such as the Hotel de Ville, as seen below, as well as the Avenue Champs-Elysees. While Paris still has incredible parks such as Parc des Buttes-Chaumont and Parc Monceau, this development plan will radically enhance the city's livability and bring allow it to claim the title of one of the world's greenest major cities.

Apur/Celine Orshinger

Birobizhan

Birobizhan train station

Rosella Tercatin/Times of Israel

Les Batignolles - 10/30/21

Early evening scene in the heart of Les Batignolles in Paris's 17th arrondissement. This photo was taken outside L'Endroit just across from the Église Sainte-Marie des Batignolles. Even after a long and exhausting day having gone on little sleep, I managed to spend a good portion of the evening hours exploring the neighborhood before heading back towards the flat off Rue de Levis. There is an invisible boundary between Plaine Monteau and Les Batignolles, which becomes increasingly hard to delineate as you walk up from the Villiers metro and move into the pedestrianized market of Rue de Levis. It was only when I walked eastward on Rue Legendre and crossed over the railway tracks did I finally realize I was now in Les Batignolles. The area still has the feel of being somewhat like a village, which has retained a quiet and local pace. Given its location in the upper west quadrant of the city, I genuinely felt like I was away from the hustle and bustle of central Paris while still being in the heart of a distinctly Parisian neighborhood. Given that I'm still in need of catching up on sleep, I'll add more in a bit more detail about some of my recent Parisian wanderings and explorations throughout October and November. 

J Ginz (Yours truly)

Paris November '21

It's been nearly two weeks since I returned from Paris, and not surprisingly, I am already missing everything about being there. The cafes, the night walks, the heaps of autumn leaves, the list goes on. I'll have more to write soon, but here is one recent photo taken along Boulevard Pereire in the 17e.

J Ginz

Poland - Belarus Migrant Crisis

The actions of Belarussian leader Alexander Lukashenko, the last dictator in Europe and the Kremlin's closest ally, should not be a surprise. The scenes of desperate Middle Eastern migrants, including women and children, huddling in the cold in the heavy forests along the Belarussian and Polish borders are hard to witness. However, this is an entirely manufactured and cynical human trafficking ordeal that is being done for the most cynical political reasons by Alexander Lukashenko in his attempts to destabilize the EU. For all of the conflict that Poland has had with EU bureaucrats in Brussels over the past few years, it is telling that the EU is nonetheless standing behind Poland in support of the nation's own territorial integrity and border security. The days of open borders into the EU such as was essentially the case during the great migrant wave of 2015 is now over. Poland is a sovereign nation and has the right to defend itself and to ensure its own border security.

Lukashenko was behind what was in essence a state-sanctioned hijacking in May when a dissident was seized after a RyanAir flight was forced to divert to Mink, and now we are seeing state-sanctioned human trafficking on large and organized scale. I feel terribly for the innocent people caught up in this mess, but there will likely be no simple or easy solution to this crisis.

Below: Migrants warm themselves by a fire in the border region near Grodno, Belarus.

 Leonid Shcheglov BelTA, AP

Square des Batignolles

Square des Batignolles in Paris's 17th arrondissement. The square, which is more a public park than anything, is similar to Parc Monceau in its unique and traditional "English garden style."

 

Alamy

Une soirée au Pré Catelan

An Evening at Pre-Catalan by Henri Alexandre Gervex. 1909.

Painted to depict an evening scene within Paris's Bois de Boulogne. 

Wikicommons