Traveler’s Notes . . .

Incidents between bears and people, including car break-ins, at California’s Yosemite National Park dropped 54% last spring and summer after a yearlong effort to educate park visitors about bears and encourage use of bear-proof food lockers, officials said last week. In 1998 there were 1,398 bear incidents through November, compared with 639 this year. . . . Chicago’s landmark Blackstone Hotel has been shuttered after city inspectors said that the 89-year-old structure has serious safety problems, the Chicago Tribune newspaper reported. The owners were quoted as saying they hope to make repairs and reopen the hotel in several weeks. . . . The elegant Le Fouquet’s restaurant in Paris is denying entry to unaccompanied women, the French daily Le Monde reported. Restaurant director Yvan Lavaux was quoted as saying the policy was imposed “because we previously had too many undesirable clients, pimps, ladies of the night, dealers.”