in paris they use sand. but it hardly ever snows here anyway, and when it does it usually melts within a few hours, so it's not really an issue. this winter it snowed a lot and stuck for several days, long enough to get packed down into ice. that was an adventure. but still, everything is relative ; when i say "a lot" i mean in some places where it was piled up there might have been 10 or 20 cm...
