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La Voie Bleue: European Cycle Route of the Year is in France
700km bike path linking Luxembourg and Lyon has been crowned winner of the 2026 title
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Before and after: Garonne river floods in south-west France
Satellite images show extent of flooding from back-to-back storms in February
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Home insurance increases expected in France after floods
Compensation costs for the recent storms and flooding across the west and south-west is estimated to be in the billions of euros
Reversible wind farms form shield
Future wind turbine projects will reduce nuclear dependence, while 'blow' option will repel radioactive clouds
NEXT generation wind farms will not only reduce France's dependence on nuclear power, but protect it from radiation, the Environment Ministry has announced.
Farms of several hundred turbines will be built offshore, along France's Atlantic coast, the English Channel and the Mediterranean, and along inland borders.
In the event of nuclear accidents abroad, the turbines will turn to face the wind, switch to blow, and repel the approaching radioactive cloud.
A secret trial of the technology in the 1980s proved a success, when in 1986 French weather forecasters announced that an area of high-pressure over the country had spared the country, pushing radiation from the Chernobyl nuclear power station north to Britain and south to Corsica.
The project was scrapped by President Mitterrand, who believed it would be interpreted as an apology to Greenpeace, but was reinstated by Nicolas Sarkozy last week.
