Lady Gaga "hates the snow" but still "loves the French"

It must surely have been enough to send Stefani Germanotta as her stage name might suggest, completely Lady Gaga.

For the second time the 24-year-old had to postpone one her Paris concerts, and the Lady certainly wasn't amused.

Lady Gaga (source Wikipedia, author John Robert Charlton aka Bobby Charlton of Gateshead, Tyne & Wear, England)

In fact she was steamingly irate as she let all those following her on Twitter know.

"I'm furious and devastated," she wrote after the trucks carrying her set had been been prevented from arriving at Paris Bercy, the venue where she was due to play two concerts.

"It's unfair to my fans and me."

The reason of course was the bad weather that hit many parts of France over the weekend and the decision by the authorities to stop all heavy goods vehicles from entering Paris or even circulating in the surrounding Ile de France region.

It was a measure taken to allow snowploughs and gritters easier access to major routes in and out of the French capital and to avoid the kind of mess that occurred a couple of weeks ago when snow brought the city to a near standstill - or not as the interior minister, Brice Hortefeux, insisted at the time.

That was little consolation to Lady Gaga though who had been forced to postpone the Paris leg of her Monster Ball tour back in October and reschedule for Sunday and Monday.

Then it was nationwide strikes (that French pastime) and protests against government plans to raise the retirement age which caused fuel and transportation problems throughout France and had stopped her set making it to Bercy.

Now it was the weather - or more precisely, the snow.

Still the thaw arrived, the embargo on lorries was lifted and all 28 of those carrying the set and props managed the final few kilometres in time for Monday night's bash.

And it'll be third time lucky for fans who had tickets to the previous evening's concert as the "show will most definitely go on" with an extra date scheduled for Tuesday evening.

No wonder the pop princess "hates the snow".

Brrr and baa - the tale of Moïse the sheep's rescue

It has been cold here in France recently, just as it has throughout much of Europe.

Many parts of the country are bracing themselves for more snow on Thursday with daytime temperatures hovering around zero degrees Celsius or barely creeping above.

So what's needed perhaps is a cheerful animal tale guaranteed to warm the cockles of the heart is nothing else.

And here's one concerning a sheep named "Moïse" (or Moses in English) - a not entirely inappropriate name she was given (as will become clearer as you continue reading) following her "little adventure".

Image from Wikipedia, author Andreas Cappell from Erlangen, Germany

Moïse usually does her "ruminating" in the fields just outside the town of Bar-sur-Aube in eastern France.

Now sheep, you'll probably agree, are not blessed with the reputation of being the smartest of creatures when it comes to thinking for themselves.

In fact it could be fair to say that they're pretty low down on the IQ scale of things, with a strong instinct to "follow the leader" and go where the food is.

And if there's no fellow flock member around to follow then what is a sheep to do but stay put?

That's exactly what happened to Moïse who proved herself to be the quintessential ewe when she became separated from the rest of the flock by a couple of dogs at the weekend.

According to the regional newspaper, Libération Champagne, Moïse took refuge on a little island surrounded by shallow water in the middle of a field.

The only problem was that while she was there the mercury dipped well below zero, the water froze and Moïse was to all intents and purposes bleatingly-well stranded.

"Firefighters to the rescue" as a local unit from a nearby station was called in on Tuesday morning to help.

The ice was apparently only thin (perhaps Moïse hadn't realised) which meant the rescuers could approach in a small boat (see the picture accompanying the original report).

But as they inched forwards, getting ever closer, Moïse did what any self-respecting sheep would do and panicked, jumping into the icy water and managing to get herself stuck in the silt.

The lifeboat did a round of the island and by the time it had returned to the spot where Moïse had "taken the plunge" there she was, back where she had started.

Their second rescue attempt met with success and together - two men and a sheep in a boat - they headed across the ice to the safety of terra firma, where Moïse was given the once over to check that she was healthy, before "gambolling" off to join the rest of the flock.

Brrr and baa!

Hortefeux says heavy snowfall in Paris made travel "complicated"

Perhaps France's interior minister Brice Hortefeux was living on a different planet on Wednesday.

Or maybe he just hadn't seen a news report or stuck his nose out of the window.

Because at four o'clock in the afternoon, after snow had been falling in the French capital and its suburbs for a couple of hours, Hortefeux held a press conference.

Or should that be a "I haven't got a clue what I'm talking about but I'm going to say something because it's my job" session?

Using what can surely only be termed as political pussyfooting, and thereby denying any responsibility for the authorities having been ill-prepared, Hortefeux told the assembled hacks that getting in and around Paris and the surrounding region of Ile de France was "complicated" but not a "mess".

Brice Hortefeux "There isn't a mess" during press conference (screenshot TF1 news)

Just a slight error in the minister's description of the situation though as anyone in the French capital at the time could have told him.

It was indeed already a "mess", had been for many for several hours and would continue to be so for the rest of the afternoon, evening and through the night.

Just half an hour before Hortefeux made his statement, flights at Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport had been suspended (they resumed a couple of hours later), heavy goods vehicles had been banned from the motorways in Ile de France, and only a handful of buses were running.

The snow was falling thick and fast (11 centimetres in total according to Météo France) and tailbacks were already beginning on each of the major axes in and out of Paris.

As television news reports in the evening showed, many motorists were well and truly stuck and would remain in their cars for most of the night.

Tailbacks measuring in total (a record) 394 kilometres were reported at one point, special reception areas were opened for those who were stranded, and even those who tried getting around on foot were having problems.

Extra police were deployed to help out but still the situation in Paris and its suburbs wasn't a "mess" because the interior minister had said so.

Interviewed later on Europe 1 radio, Hortefeux insisted that he hadn't been trying to deny that there had been problems but simply that the situation had worsened very quickly.

And he was backed up by the environment minister Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet who said (and here there's a bit of paraphrasing going on) that even though the region had been put on alert beforehand, the real problem had been the amount of snow that had fallen.

Ergo even though all the evidence at the time pointed to the contrary and Paris was indeed paralysed for several hours, as far as officialdom was concerned the situation was not a "mess".

Reflecting maybe on the reality of the situation, Hortefeux released a press statement on Thursday morning calling on motorists to avoid Paris and its suburbs.

Of course this isn't the first time recently that a government minister has managed to put a rather rose-tinted spin on what is actually happening.

When oil refinery workers went on strike in October, the then environment minister Jean-Louis Borloo urged French motorists to remain calm and reassured them that there was no risk of a fuel shortage.

A statement which unhappily proved to be far removed from what happened.

"Pagaille" : les autorités se défendent