In France, celebrating the New Year near the Arc de Triomphe on the Champs-Élysées in Paris.
Having a champagne toast at the Jardins du Trocadéro near the Eiffel Tower.
This goes to show ya that the City of Lights is still the City of Love… vive l’amour!
BMD
Toledo station (Line 1) on the Naples Metro (Metropolitana di Napoli). Line 1 is known as “Il Metrò dell’Arte” (The Art Metro) by Metronapoli; eight stations exhibit works of art. Napoli (Napoli Province. Campania Region) ITALY
Komsomolskaya station (Koltsevaya Line) on the Moscow Metro. Opened in 1952, it’s part of the busiest Moscow transport hub, Komsomolskaya Square, which serves Leningradsky,Yaroslavsky and Kazansky railway terminals. The station is one of the most-used in the system. Moscow (Krasnoselsky Raion. Central Administrative Okrug. Federal City of Moscow. Central Federal District) RF
Solna centrum station (T11 Line) on the Stockholm Metro. This station opened in 1975, and has a shopping mall with 120 outlets attached to it. Metropolitan Stockholm (Solna Municipality. Stockholm Län) SWEDEN
Westminster Station (Circle, District, and Jubilee Lines) on the London Underground. This is both one of the oldest and newest stations on the Underground. The deep station on the Jubilee Line only dates from 1999, but the other part of the station is one of the oldest in the system, dating back to 1868. This, obviously, is from the new section, which has a definite Blade Runner feel to it… doesn’t it look like Darth Vader designed it? London (City of Westminster. Greater London Region. England) UK
Pushkinskaya station (Tagansko-Krasnopresnenskaya Line) on the Moscow Metro. Opened in 1975, it linked the Zhdanovskaya and Krasnopresnenskaya Lines. Many beleive this to be the most aethestically-balanced station in the whole system. Moscow (Tverskoy Raion. Central Administrative Okrug. Federal City of Moscow. Central Federal District) RF
Avtovo station (Kirovsko-Vyborgskaya Line) on the St Petersburg Metro. Opened in 1955, this station has a 1930s feel to it, perhaps, due to the special ornamental glass used in its decoration. St Petersburg (Avtovo Okrug. Kirovsky Raion. Federal City of St Petersburg. Northwestern Federal District) RF
Station on the Warsaw Metro. This service has a single north-south line that links central Warsaw with its northern and southern suburbs. It opened in 1995… note that the cars look like those of the Moscow Metro (of course with a different paint job). Warsaw (Masovian Voivodeship) POLAND
Stadion station (T14 Line) on the Stockholm Metro. Opened in 1973, this station serves the wealthiest and most chi-chi part of Stockholm. Metropolitan Stockholm (Östermalm Borough. Stockholm Län) SWEDEN
Auber station (Line A) of the RER. It’s not technically on the Paris Métro, even though it’s one of the largest underground stations in the world (it was the largest underground facility at its 1971 opening). It does connect with the Opéra, Havre-Caumartin, and Saint-Lazare Métro stations, as well as with the Haussmann-Saint-Lazare station on RER Line E. Paris (2nd arrondissement of Paris. Région Île-de-France) FRANCE
Materdei station (Line 1) on the Naples Metro (Metropolitana di Napoli). Napoli (Napoli Province. Campania Region) ITALY
Heidelberger Platz station on the Berlin U-Bahn (Line U-3). Built in 1913, it’s a typically grandiose Wilhelminian construct. It’s so overdone in a ponderous Teutonic manner that it’s a bit campy today. Berlin (Bezirke Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf. Freistadt Berlin) GERMANY
Slavyansky Bulvar station (Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya Line) on the Moscow Metro. Opened in 2008, it serves the residential suburbs (in Moscow, the workers live in the burbs, the bosses live in the city… go figure). Moscow (Kuntsevo Raion. Western Administrative Okrug. Federal City of Moscow. Central Federal District) RF
Kievskaya station (Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya, Filyovskaya, and Koltsevaya Lines.) on the Moscow Metro. The entrance to the station is in the Kievsky Rail Terminal. The three main halls were built at different times, the above image is of the Koltsevaya Line hall, built in the early 1950s. Moscow (Dorogomilovo Raion. Western Administrative Okrug. Federal City of Moscow. Central Federal District) RF
T-Centralen station on the Stockholm Metro. This is actually two stations; it’s the heart of the Stockholm Metro system. The first station, opened in 1957, serves Lines 17–19 (Green Line) and 13–14 (Red Line); the second, opened in 1975, serves Lines 10 and 11 (Blue Line). Metropolitan Stockholm (Norrmalm Borough. Stockholm Län) SWEDEN
North Greenwich station (Jubilee Line) on the London Underground. Built in 1993, it services The O2 (formerly the Millennium Dome). London (Borough of Greenwich. Greater London Region. England) UK
These transport lines are the arteries of our major cities… without them, our modern world would die. Make no mistake on it, for all the noise about bucolic rural living, the magalopolis is where most people live today. For people to live successfully and peacefully under such conditions, cooperation, not “rugged individualism” is necessary. That’s why the so-called Free Market is a dinosaur. People need means of cooperation, not means of domination… the great metro systems are a technical expression of the former… not the latter (whose symbol is choked motorways full of fumes, dirt, and confusion).
BMD
On 14 July, France celebrates its most important national holiday… Bastille Day. {Only Anglophone sources employ the usage “Bastille Day”… in Francophone circles, it’s simply “the French National Holiday”, or, “the 14th of July”: Editor}
On 14 July 1789, Parisian sans-culottes stormed, and later burned to the ground, the hated Bastille fortress, which the royal government had long used as a prison… ironically, it only held seven prisoners at the time.
The resolution formalising the actual day of celebration of the beginning of the French Revolution was made almost 140 years ago, on 6 July 1880.
In the presence of President Nicolas Sarkozy, cabinet ministers, and numerous official guests, a military parade rumbled past on the Avenue des Champs Élysées, some 7,000 soldiers, along with 300 AFVs and artillery pieces, passed in review. {The 14th of July Parade is the largest military parade in Western Europe, the equal of the Russian Victory Day extravaganza… yet, the Western press condemns the Russian affair and praises the French march-past… go figure…: Editor}
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For the first time in the history of the Fifth Republic, some of the units in the parade on the Champs Élysées sang their marching songs. Previously, only la Légion étrangère (Foreign Legion) units did so.
In the skies over Paris, aircraft and helicopters of military aviation flew past. As in years past, French units returning from ”hot spots”, particularly Afghanistan and Côte d’Ivoire, marched past for presidential review.
Planners expect that 700,000 people will gather for a large concert on the Champ de Mars, in front of the Eiffel Tower.
In recent years, the parades have become a centrepiece of the national holiday. The current parade, on the 222nd anniversary of the fall of the Bastille, on the orders of the President of France, was devoted to units stationed in French overseas territories, which are, according to President Sarkozy, “the most important component in protecting the sovereignty of France”.
However, losses suffered by French forces in Afghanistan overshadowed this year’s holiday, where a bomb explosion killed five soldiers and wounded four others. Before the parade, French President Sarkozy visited seriously wounded soldiers in a hospital near Paris.
As in past years, the Parisian parade used a “red” level plan to combat potential terrorist threats. To ensure order and security, some 15,000 police, gendarmerie, and soldiers patrolled the city. On the other hand, the French Defence Ministry had to abandon plans to use unmanned aerial reconnaissance vehicles to monitor the situation in the area of the parade as they were was rushed to military units engaged in military operations in Libya.
During the 14th of July Holiday, the Office of National Landmarks will provide free access for 24 hours to all sites under its control to all comers, so that people will be able to hold “republican picnics”. As per tradition, the Paris City government Paris intends broadcasting the fireworks display live over the Internet. Last year, so many people tried to log onto the site at once in order to see this spectacle that it crashed for the first few minutes.
14 July 2011
Voice of Russia World Service
Voices From Russia, Too 
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