Paris gets slammed by snow

Paris doesn't get much snow.  It seems to snow all the time, but it never actually accumulates.  On Wednesday, it started snowing.  I didn't think much of it.  Two years in Colorado will do that to you.  But as it snowed, my officemate stood by the window in quiet fascination - knowing this would be bad.

It starts to snow...

An hour later...

Another hour later...  At this point my officemate decides to go drive home.

Another hour later...
 

It's about 2 inches of snow.  No big deal, right?

I then get an email that my French class for the evening is canceled, because the road to the town is blocked... by two inches of snow.  This is a huge deal in France.  I chuckle because I remember the two feet of snow we would often get in Colorado.  But here in France, this is not trivial.  A bunch of us decide to leave before the trains all freeze in.  On the way to the RER, traffic in my little town is backed up already.

There are no plows, so the roads are pure ice.  I pass a dip in the road, where a group of 5-6 men are taking turns pushing cars up the road so that it won't be blocked.  It took me twice as long to get home just because I was walking so carefully over the sheet of ice.  And remember my officemate?  It took her 3 hours to get home (over what's a normally 20 minute trip).

It stopped snowing soon after, but the next day was worse.  See this road?  It's just ice.  And no one shovels their sidewalks like you have to in Colorado.  Plus, there are a lot more pedestrians, so the sidewalks are now nice packed ice.  Three days later, the sidewalks are still flat slick ice, after a series of meltings and freezings.  

But the sun was out, so it was pretty!

It's amazing how two inches can cripple a city (or in this case, 2/3 of the country), but I guess when no one shovels, plows, or puts salt down - this is what happens.  And since snow like this is so rare, when it does come, it's hard to mobilize.  Several people couldn't even make it home because the traffic was so bad.  Cars were abandoned.  People fell on the ice (including me).  But I made it through, and it got warm enough that 4 days later, the ice is now gone.  Now I can finally walk out of my house without fear once more.  :-)