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Fréjus Tunnel that connects France and Italy to close this weekend
The tunnel will close for 12 hours and not the 56 hours originally announced
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TotalEnergies opens service station for electric vehicles in Paris
It is the first of its kind in the capital and has ultra-fast charging
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Conductors on French public transport will soon be able to check your address
Move is part of anti-fraud plans to prevent people from giving false information during fines including on SNCF trains
La Poste opens annual Father Christmas letter service
The French postal service has now opened the doors to its “Father Christmas secretary” service, inviting children to write in their annual present lists.
From this week until December 18, any letters addressed simply to “Père Noël” (Father Christmas) including the writer’s full name and home address, will receive a letter in return.
The letter does not even need to have a stamp; it simply needs to be posted in a normal post box, and the post office will sort it from the other letters and make sure it is counted.
Father Christmas also moves with the times, and is now accepting emails too.
The more-electronically-minded can click on the La Poste Father Christmas secretary website, and click on the “Write to me” tab.
More than simply an email service, the website is also designed to help educate children about Christmas traditions around the world.
This includes an interactive map, on which you can click a continent, followed by some global countries, and discover traditional elements of Christmas abroad - including well-known food and recipes, and unusual traditions (such as Japan’s kurisumasu keki cake, and Ukraine’s tendency to see spiders as good-luck omens).
There is also a section for telling Christmas tales, and discovering the seasonal stories of other children.
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