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"Pollution à Paris" has been shared to the blog from the French reading exercises section of the learning library where you can find a large selection of interactive texts to help you with your reading skills. This article also has audio for you to practice your French listening skills; you can find many more listening activities in the French listening practice section.
Air pollution is a problem all over the world, and the capital of France is no exception. Fortunately, the mayor of Paris is taking steps to reduce it.
Click any phrase to see the English translation along with links to related grammar lessons.
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Pollution à Paris
La Ville Lumière brille moins fort à cause de la pollution. En Île-de-France, les polluants comme le dioxyde d'azote (produit par les voitures), l'ozone et les particules fines dépassent les seuils définis par la réglementation européenne depuis des années. Peu attrayant, le salissement de l'air est également nocif, et pour réduire le problème, le maire Anne Hidalgo vise les automobilistes.
La première « Journée sans voitures » a eu lieu l'année dernière dans certains secteurs de Paris et sera élargie à la ville entière le 25 septembre 2016.
De surcroît, en février le Conseil de Paris a voté la piétonnisation de l'avenue des Champs-Élysées le premier dimanche de chaque mois, à partir du mois de mai. (Cependant, comme le premier dimanche de mai 2016 était le jour de la fête du Travail, l'événement a été reporté au 8 mai.)
Reste à savoir si la fermeture d'un seul boulevard aux voitures une fois par mois suffira pour réduire de manière significative les polluants, ou s'il faudra élargir la zone piétonne et/ou fermer les Champs plus souvent. (Pourquoi pas chaque dimanche, par exemple ?) De toute façon, on sera chanceux d'être à Paris le premier dimanche du mois, jour où beaucoup de musées sont gratuits.
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Laura is a French expert and Kwiziq's Head of Quality Control. Online educator since '99, Laura is passionate about language, travel, and cooking. She's American by birth and a permanent ex-pat by choice - freelancing made it possible for her to travel extensively and live in several countries before settling permanently in Guadeloupe. Laura is the author of Lawless French, Lawless Spanish, and other websites and books on French, Spanish, Italian, English, and vegetarianism. She spends most of her spare time reading, playing with food, and enjoying water sports.
Aurélie is our resident French Expert. She has created most of the wonderful content you see on the site and is usually the person answering your tricky help questions. She comes from a small village near Chartres in Central France, country of cereal fields and not much else. She left (in a hurry) to study English at the world-famous Sorbonne in Paris, before leaving France in 2007 to experience the “London lifestyle” - and never looked back! She's worked as a professional French teacher, translator and linguist in the UK since. She loves to share her love of languages and is a self-professed cinema and literature geek!