PARIS (AP) – Workers at the Eiffel Tower used a torch to melt the ice that had accumulated on their surfaces and snow was blocking roads and stopping trains and school buses on Wednesday in northern France.
Amid a cold wave in Europe, areas in Normandy and Brittany unaccustomed to such icy conditions were closing highways for lack of snow removal equipment. In parts of the Paris region, local authorities stopped school buses and asked parents to keep their children at home.
Snow covered the French capital and froze the Eiffel Tower.
“When the negative temperatures return, my floor is partially covered with ice! To get rid of it, we need to use a torch because the ice control salt is too corrosive for the metal, ”tweeted the monument, which has been closed to the public for months because of coronavirus restrictions.
Parts of central and northern Europe, as well as Britain, have been dominated by cold weather since the weekend. The heavy snowstorm confused traffic and arrested drivers in Germany and the Czech Republic.
Some took advantage of the cold climates. Cross-country skiers glided across the Charles Bridge in Prague, children sled in the usually snowless parks of Belgium’s capital, Brussels, and the intense winter cold sparked the Dutch national obsession with skating on frozen canals.
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