Snow in Paris

Many people ask me, "Does it snow in Paris?" The answer is, yes, it can. Last year it didn't at all. This year, however, it most certainly did. We've had a few flurries which melted upon reaching the ground.  It got really cold this week, though (20s) and last night the snow stuck.  It is beautiful!  The whole city is covered in a couple of inches of snow. It is all white. I have yet to see a snowplow anywhere. Last night, the cars were skidding and sliding around, barely able to stay moving forward. Luckily, they were going slowly so I didn't see any accidents. I did see one motorcyclist who couldn't move forward on his bike so he had to get off it and walk it. 

I went out at 8:00 this morning and found that not a single sidewalk had been shoveled. The snow was now mostly packed down by people walking on it and it was slippery. I was so surprised. Every morning in this city, the street cleaners drive by in their little mini-trucks, hosing off the sidewalks. Why wouldn't they pick up the snow?  Was it just because it was Saturday?  Could a couple of inches of snow really stop this bustling city of lights?  I won't know the answer to that question, except for second hand, because I am on the Eurostar to London. I can say that the train has been delayed by 80 minutes due to snow that caused reduced speed limits on all high speed trains in northern France. That also surprised me. How could a couple of inches of snow affect a giant body of steel, moving at 200 mph?  It seems that they take safety very seriously on the TGV, requiring the tracks to be perfectly clean to run trains at high speeds.  Well, I'd certainly rather be safe than sorry.