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Stena Line to end popular France-Ireland ferry crossing
Rival operators will continue to serve Cherbourg port as passenger numbers on route increase
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Red heatwave alerts continue as storms sweep across France
South-west and Brittany are the only areas likely to avoid storms this evening after several temperature records were broken in the south yesterday
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Air traffic controllers’ strike: Paris and south of France airports to face major disruption
Half of flights in Nice and Corsica, and a quarter in Paris are cancelled on July 3. Disruption is also expected on July 4 just before the French school holidays begin
La Poste opens annual Father Christmas letter service
The French postal service has now opened the doors to its “Father Christmas secretary” service, inviting children to write in their annual present lists.

From this week until December 18, any letters addressed simply to “Père Noël” (Father Christmas) including the writer’s full name and home address, will receive a letter in return.
The letter does not even need to have a stamp; it simply needs to be posted in a normal post box, and the post office will sort it from the other letters and make sure it is counted.
Father Christmas also moves with the times, and is now accepting emails too.
The more-electronically-minded can click on the , and click on the tab.
More than simply an email service, the website is also designed to help educate children about Christmas traditions around the world.
This includes an interactive map, on which you can click a continent, followed by some global countries, and discover traditional elements of Christmas abroad - including well-known food and recipes, and unusual traditions (such as Japan’s kurisumasu keki cake, and Ukraine’s tendency to see spiders as good-luck omens).
There is also a section for telling Christmas tales, and discovering the seasonal stories of other children.
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