Creation Care Mom

I’m back!!!!

If I count you among my friends, you’re aware that I was away from my blog because I was traveling overseas. My brother qualified to compete in the Paris Olympics in 3 different shooting events, and I was lucky enough to be able to travel over there to watch him compete and give him family support. We had a great time! While didn’t end up coming home with any medals, the number of Olympians who do is small. I’m so proud of him and all his dedication and hard work.

Living in the United States, I write from that perspective, but I’m well aware that every country is similar and different in their awareness of climate issues and their actions to combat climate change. Today, I’m going to share with you things I saw during my time abroad.

To be fair, Paris is a large city, and an old one. It’s design and infrastructure reflect that. Cars are only one piece of transportation with similar equal weight given to sidewalks and bike lanes. (Rather than the car dominant culture of the USA) Paris’s public transportation was a key part of getting crowds of visitors around the city and to the many different venues hosting Olympic events. Their public transit includes large subway lines, small subway lines, above ground trams, and buses. It was possible to purchase passes for all day and/or multi-day use to jump on and off whatever transit was available and needed. Within the stations and inside the train/bus, were maps listing the line of stops. Venue stops were highlighted so it was easy to know which stop to get off at. Despite the occasional delay, we were successful in using the Paris public transit for all our transportation needs within the city.

A city the size of Paris doesn’t have the luxury to designate large swaths of land as parking lots. They need all available land for housing and business. There was street parking, but most parking was underground. Even their gas stations are housed underground! We did see quite a lot of EV charging stations alongside curbs and in the parking areas we saw outside of Paris. This makes sense. The American made car we saw the most? Tesla.

Compulsory composting is required throughout France, so we walked buy little green bins everywhere where food waste and other biodegradable products were being collected. But the French culture also works towards reducing food waste. As visitors, we dined out for most of our meals. Not surprisingly, portion sizes were reasonable for a single meal. This makes sense since they don’t do to-go boxes for leftovers. By eating all the food in a single meal, food waste is reduced.

We took the intercity rail line to and from Chateauroux for the shooting events. It’s about a 2.5 hour trip by rail. Easily doable. With options to store you bike onboard and a child’s play area available. Pretty cool. Along the way it was easy to see the shear number of wind turbines and solar farms producing renewable energy. Also visible, were the high voltage transmission lines carrying the electricity to where it was needed. Near the shooting venue, there was a large solar farm. The exact same land was being grazed by sheep. Producing energy and food and textiles on the same piece of land!

Even Chateauroux and the surrounding cities had public transportation via buses. We were able to catch the bus from our AirBnB down to the shuttles that would take us out to the venue. The bus hub was right next to the intercity train station making it easy for visitors to get around. It was interesting to walk around the city because the sidewalks were also the curbside parking! Tiny cars pulled up over the curb and parked carefully between trees. The remaining area was for pedestrians.

We did rent a car for a few days so that we could visit locations beyond the public transportation network. One of the places we went was ZooParc du Beauval. At around 100 acres it is probably the largest zoo I have every been to. The have hotels onsite so that you can stay and visit for multiple days! Utilizing the landscape they have created 8 different parking areas, including 150 spots for charging EVs! It’s elephant barn is cover in solar panels and they use the animal manure to create biogas burned for electricity and heat. You can read about all their sustainable development here.

Even though I know I increased my carbon footprint by flying over there. I am so thankful to have had the opportunity to witness these climate friendly practices adopted by France. It is my hope to see the growth of many of these practices in the USA.

What do you think? Let me know in the comments!