PARIS, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- In 2023, France's tourism industry has recovered strongly, with a total of 6.318 million tourists visiting the Eiffel Tower in a year. According to the Eiffel Tower Operating Company (Sete) in a press release, this figure represents an increase of 8% compared to 2022. Although the figure of 6.3 million is still well below the record of 7 million in 2014, it is already the highest level since 2015.
[French tourism recovers strongly]
The Eiffel Tower is the third most visited tourist attraction in France in terms of the number of visitors (after the Louvre and the Palace of Versailles), the Louvre received more than 8 million visitors last year, and the Palace of Versailles received 7 million visitors. 2023 is a special year for the Eiffel Tower, with a number of events to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Gustave Eiffel's death.
Since its construction in 1889, the Eiffel Tower has been one of the main attractions of Paris, and has been attracting a large number of tourists. The most visited Eiffel Tower in 2023 are French tourists (18.9%), followed by North American tourists (18%) and especially from the United States (13.2%). European tourists account for 44% of the total number of tourists, nearly half, and an increase of 4 percentage points from before the pandemic.
Sete said there was a slight increase in tourists from Oceania, particularly from Australia and New Zealand, as a result of the Rugby World Cup hosting in Paris 2023. The company said it has reason to expect more visitors to the tower at the 2024 Olympics.
In 2023, Sete not only held exhibitions and events to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the death of Eiffel, the tower's designer, but also issued commemorative stamps and coins in partnership with institutions such as La Poste and La Monnaie de Paris, the French numismatic museum. The company also said it will set up an online store in 2024 to sell tower-related goods online.
In addition, the company reminded visitors that the tower will not be open to visitors from January 8 to February 9 this year. During this time, the Eiffel Tower undergoes renovation and maintenance work.
[The price of daily necessities in France has risen by more than 20%]
Since January 2022, Le Parisien's journalists have tracked the prices of twenty everyday consumer goods. The results of the survey show that almost all products have increased in price by more than ten percent. There are big differences between different brands.
Over the past two years, the amount of receipts for French supermarket purchases has skyrocketed week by week. According to the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Research (INSEE), the amount of receipts for supermarket purchases by the French has increased by more than 20%. This increase is also reflected in the shopping basket selected by Le Parisien consisting of items that serve as markers for price comparison.
To understand the impact of inflation on household shopping budgets, Le Parisien has been tracking the prices of 20 best-selling FMCG brand items since January 2022, including products such as the best-selling Cristaline drinking water and the 1-kilogram Nutella jar of hazelnut paste.
Le Parisien's price analysis is based on the interactive supermarket pick-up price map provided by the UFC-Que choisir consumer association, which records the prices of the products sold in the group's stores on a daily basis.
Comparisons show that over the past 24 months, a number of commodities have risen impressively, with Président soft butter up 41.9%, Lotus toilet paper up 33.3% and Danone plain yoghurt up 32.9%.
In January 2022, the total price of the shopping basket consisting of the selected 20 items was 64.78 euros, while it is now 78.05 euros, a price that refers to the sales prices of all the major supermarket chains in France (excluding Lidl), weighted by the market share of each supermarket.
Grégory Caret, director of the UFC-Que choisir Consumer Observatory, explains, "There are economic reasons for the price increases, such as skyrocketing prices for certain raw materials and energy. However, the strategy of certain manufacturers and supermarkets to take advantage of the profiteering should also be criticized".
At the end of May 2023, the total price of the "shopping basket" as a price reference peaks, with the purchase of all 20 items costing 80.07 euros. Since then, the price has been slowly decreasing. The decrease in the total price is due to the repeated price reductions of Panzani pasta and sunflower oil, as well as strong promotions in some supermarkets.
It is worth noting that the total price of the shopping basket varies greatly from one supermarket chain to another. The E. Leclerc supermarket, as advertised, is still the cheapest, with 20 items for only 77.15 euros, almost 6 euros cheaper than the Carrefour supermarket. Prices in the Intermarché and Système U supermarkets are not far behind, almost catching up with their competitors. The total price of the shopping baskets in the two supermarkets has fallen faster since the summer.
In an inflationary environment, French consumers have had to make a choice to shop in supermarkets with better prices, and the lower the supermarket prices, the more attractive they will be. Leclerc was the biggest winner, with a market share of 23.5 percent more than a year ago, according to Kantar. The second-ranked Les Mousquetaires group is far behind with a market share of 16.1%, but its Intermarché supermarket has managed to attract nearly 600,000 new customers.
At present, the major supermarket groups in France are negotiating prices with suppliers, and the negotiation atmosphere between some supermarkets and several multinational companies is tense. It is expected that after this negotiation, there will also be some price reductions for some products, especially biscuits and other foods.
[The temperature rises by 20 degrees!]
After a few days of snowfall, bitter cold weather will continue in many parts of France this weekend. Sub-zero temperatures will keep freezing conditions in parts until Sunday, followed by the long-awaited thaw across France.
Happily, temperatures will pick up across France next week, with highs of 15°C in the north and more than 20°C in the south, with a mild winter returning.
For several days, France has been enveloped in a cold atmosphere due to a large amount of cold air and humid weather. On Wednesday 17 and Thursday 18 January, snow and freezing rain fell in many parts of France, with the coldest weather in the north and north-east of France. Thankfully, temperatures will pick up next week, returning from cold to "warm winter", with highs of 10 degrees Celsius above the season's normal!
Early next week, a warm current from the Azores will affect the south of France, while cold air will be pushed back into the British Isles, meaning that temperatures will become quite mild across most of France, even well above seasonal normals.
Until the temperature warms up, the theme of this weekend's weather remains "bitterly cold". This Saturday, the minimum temperatures in Haute-Normandy, Hauts-de-France and the Grand Est and Nord departments could drop to minus 9 degrees Celsius or even minus 10 degrees Celsius. Frost will be widespread in all areas except the Mediterranean coast. At that time, the temperature will be between minus 10 and minus 3 degrees Celsius in the northern region and between minus 9 and minus 2 degrees Celsius in the southern region.
The weather will start to warm up on Sunday, with temperatures reaching or exceeding 10°C along the English Channel, Brittany and Atlantic coasts. Mild weather will be more pronounced on Monday morning, with freezing occurring only in the central hills and the eastern border areas. Temperatures will pick up significantly in the western regions of France on Monday afternoon, with highs of 14°C likely between Brittany and the Loire Valley.
From Tuesday to Wednesday, minimum temperatures across France will rise to between 6 and 12°C on average, and the morning freeze will disappear completely.
The second half of January is normally the coldest period of winter in France, so the mild weather next week is an anomaly.
On Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons, the maximum temperature will reach 10°C or more! Temperatures will even reach 15°C locally in the northwest and around 20°C in the southwest, which is 5 to 10°C above normal, which means that in a short period of time, the temperature in France will fluctuate significantly. Wake up this weekend with lows as low as minus 10 degrees Celsius, while on Tuesday or Wednesday the morning can sometimes exceed 10 degrees Celsius when you wake up, with temperatures rising by 15 to 20 degrees Celsius in just a few days. In much of northern France, rising temperatures are often accompanied by increased humidity, but with temperatures at a critical point between rain and snowfall, it is not always possible to expect the large amount of snowfall that people are waiting for.
In the second half of next week, morning temperatures will drop a few degrees from the first half, while highs are likely to pick up, with temperatures in some places approaching the normal average for the last ten days of January. After the morning fog clears, most areas will usher in sunny and spring-like days. Judging by the current forecast, there is no sign of another significant drop in temperature over the next 10 days.
[Caption]
On Saturday, French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal visited the Rhône region, during which he discussed and listened to some 150 French citizens. This form of communication is reminiscent of the "Great Debate" initiated by President Macron after the "Yellow Vest" event.
According to FranceInfo, the water pollution of the Seine River in Paris remains high and has reached levels that can affect the health of athletes. Although the mayor of Paris, Hidalgo, recently vowed that "in July 2024, I will swim in the Seine!" Samples showed that bacteria such as E. coli in the Seine River water exceeded the standard, and athletes swimming in the Seine River could contract gastroenteritis.
On Friday and Saturday nights, a train from Paris to Clermont-Ferrand was delayed for seven hours. The train left Paris at 7 p.m. for Clermont-Ferrand, but arrived at its destination on Saturday morning. Passengers were stranded in the countryside after problems with the train, spending three hours in the cold, with no lights or heating, toilets on board that were out of order, and not enough food and drinking water. When the train then stopped at the station, members of the Red Cross brought blankets and drinking water to the people on board.
【International】
- Protests by German farmers continued over the weekend after the German government, made up of Social Democrats, Greens and Liberals, announced the abolition of tax exemptions for agricultural vehicles and diesel vehicles before Christmas. In Germany, as in many other industrial countries, the suicide rate among peasants is unusually high. Since the early 90s of the 20th century, one out of every two farms in Germany has gone out of business. Few of the children of farmers want to inherit the family business, and many farmers die alone because they cannot find a partner who is willing to run the farm with them.
- Courier company DPD shut down some of its AI live chatbot services due to AI customer service being used by customers to curse the company. Ashley Beecham, a 30-year-old musician who lost his package and couldn't get any help from an AI agent, decided to "have some fun" by asking the chatbot to tell him a joke and then asking the AI agent to write a poem criticizing DPD.
- With the European Union on the verge of phasing out amalgam fillings, dentists in Northern Ireland are starting to worry about the supply of filling fillings in the future. The EU ban includes a ban on the export of the product from the EU, while the majority of Northern Ireland's amalgam supply comes from Germany, and there are fears that the supply of fillings for the UK's National Health Insurance system will dry up. Northern Ireland is the least efficient region in the UK for health services, with the longest wait times and the highest rate of amalgam filling.