PARIS – Eiffel Tower workers used a blowtorch to melt the ice on its surfaces, and snow blocked roads and stopped trains and school buses in northern France on Wednesday.
Amid a European cold, areas in Normandy and Brittany that are not used for such icy conditions were closing highways due to lack of snow cleaning equipment. In parts of the Paris region, local authorities stopped school buses and urged parents to keep their children at home.
Snow covered the French capital and froze the Eiffel Tower.
‘When negative temperatures return, my floors are partially covered with ice! To get rid of it, we have to use a blowtorch, because ice control salt is too corrosive to the metal, ‘tweeted the monument, which has been closed to the public for months due to coronavirus restrictions.
Parts of Central and Northern Europe as well as Britain have been gripped by a cold weather front since the weekend. Heavy snowfall has congested traffic and stranded drivers in Germany and the Czech Republic.
Some took advantage of the icy climatic features. Cross-country skiers slipped over the Charles Bridge in Prague, children slipped into the usually snowless parks of the Belgian capital in Brussels, and the deep winter freeze revived the Dutch obsession with skating on frozen canals.