France

Oscar Nominated Films That Inspire Travel

waipio valley ©paul (dex) Unless you’ve managed to avoid tv, internet and newspapers over the past couple of days, you’ve probably heard that the nominations for the 84th Academy Awards were announced on Tuesday. And while all the award buzz may be about the actors, directors, writers and producers of the nominated movies, travelers may [...]

Napoleonland Theme Park Planned in France

Napoleon’s hat © quinet For those who want a heaping serving of chintz with their French history, soon there may be an epic rival to Euro Disney. “Napoleonland”, the brainchild of former French minister and history buff Yves Jégo, is being touted as a rival to Disneyland…The plan is to build the unlikely amusement park [...]

France Proposing Napoleon Bonaparte Theme Park

Napoleon Bonaparte © huffingtonpost.com A uniquely French theme park has been proposed, with hopes of competing with Disneyland Paris–a park that celebrates the life of Napoleon Bonaparte. Yves Jégo, a former French minister and history buff is the brainchild behind the park, assuming the funds can be raised (approximately $280 million). If the funds are [...]

Cupid’s Arrow Strikes Panda Pair at French Zoo

Pandas Huan Huan and Yuan Zi © Reuters A few days into their new home at the ZooParc de Beauval in the Loire Valley, pandas Huan Huan and Yuan Zi, are creating quite a stir. The pair is already showing interest in each other and giving hope to zookeepers that cubs could be in their future. [...]

Temporary Apartment Furnished by IKEA, Opens in Paris Metro

IKEA’s temporary apartment in the Paris Metro © IKEA France Facebook.com Last week, the Auber station in the Paris Metro was transformed into a 3-D version of an IKEA catalog. With just 581 square feet to work with, the company wanted to demonstrate how a confined space could be furnished. Five tenants lived in the space [...]

High Demand of European Truffles Spawns Black Market, Criminal Activity

European Black Truffles © trufflehunter.co.uk European truffle farmers (or “trufflers”) in Italy and France, are seeing their harvests reduced due to climate change. With a scarce supply of truffles, and marked up prices, the demand has spawned a black market in Europe, along with organized crime. Truffles are being stolen from restaurant pantries and truffle farms, [...]

Historic French Monks’ Brew a Hit at Trendy Bars

Chartreuse ©ephoz A mysterious green liquor is making a comeback in New York’s hippest bars and elsewhere in the United States. Chartreuse, a french liquor made by monks, is enjoying renewed popularity due in part to a growing “mixology” scene in the US, where ultra-competitive bartenders are constantly in search of new signature cocktail recipes. [...]

Beggars Banned From Paris’s Tourist Hotspots

Paris in Wintertime ©laverrue With the French economy in deep recession, the poor and homeless are crowding Paris’s doorways and metro entrances. In reaction to the rise of beggars outside Paris’s great landmarks, France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy has launched a war against the homeless in the city, setting himself against Paris’s very popular mayor. The [...]

Photo of the Moment: A Rare Snowbow in the Jura Mountains, France

DaVinci Code Finally Cracked?

Mona Lisa ©Oh Paris A 37 year-old oil painter and graphic designer claims to have finally cracked the mystery of Leonardo DaVinci’s elusive Mona Lisa. According to decoder, Ron Piccirillo, the coy Mona is disguising a menagerie of animal allegories. Piccirillo, discovered four lion heads, an ape and a buffalo hovering in the air after [...]

Eiffel Tower Won’t Go “Green”

Eiffel Tower ©Omarukai French authorities have denied reports that the tower will be transformed into the world’s largest tree. The denial comes on the tails of a story published by France’s Le Figaro newspaper reporting that the iconic Eiffel tower was considering a 72 million euro ($A96.09 million) project that would see 600,000 plants hung [...]

Paris’s Hidden Museums

The Wine Museum ©Nico Paix The Louvre. Musee d’Orsay. The Pompidou Center. Paris certainly packs a punch when it come to world-class museums, but if you are a traveler looking to explore a museum off a beaten path Paris certainly doesn’t disappoint. in an article for Gadling David Farley writes about the hidden museums of [...]

Beaujolais Nouveau Day: France’s Secret National Holiday

On a brisk fall day so many years ago I’m embarrassed to say, a friend of mine invited me to lunch at Café des Artistes, a hoity-toity restaurant on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. We’d been to the restaurant before, which is why we were a bit surprised when the waiter asked if we wanted a [...]

Exploring the Moment One First Emerges from the Paris Subway [Video]

This is the continuation of a series that explores that moment of uncertainty and magic that happens when you emerge from the depths of the [Paris] subway system. Lovely. (Also, check out Sub City New York.)

Travel Along With France’s Metro Wine Map

Paris Metro Map ©AnnieGreenSprings Dr. David Gissen, an architectural historian and wine buff has designed a graphically interesting way to view the various wine regions of France. Inspired by the style of metro and subway charts, the Metro Wine Map of France collects France’s various wine regions into “lines” and then designates popular cities as [...]

Inside David Lynch’s New Paris Nightclub

Inspired by the deeply strange Club Silencio in Mulholland Drive, the film director has opened a nightclub in the French capital. There were no dwarves. No dancing men. No one talked backwards – until the daquiries kicked in – and with the exception of the Japanese cowboy who turned out to be a fashion designer, [...]

Tipsy Travel: Favorite Drinks from Around the World

Hawaiian Mai Tai © Sarah_Ackerman As a traveler you can explore a new country in a variety of ways. You can delve into its history and art at museums. You can taste the local flavors at markets and restaurants. … or you can get straight down to business and pull up a stool at the [...]

Paris Airport Introduces Holograph Boarding Agents

Orly Airport ©nozomiiqel Yahoo News reports that travelers at Paris’s Orly airport will be greeted by holographic boarding agents. The holograms’ main duty is to welcome passengers and provide accurate flight information. Since the “virtual” agents are merely projections of real life agents, they will not be able to talk back to passengers. The good [...]

Undead Destinations

Bran Castle © Horia Varlan The recent pop culture obsession with vampires has led to a surge in fang tourism. Lonely Planet has compiled a list of the best places around the world to delve into the mystery of the undead. Explore ancient legends of beautiful Pontianaks– Indonesia’s version of a vampire–in their namesake city [...]

Absinthe Ban Repealed in France

Absinthe Rig © ChrisDag Thanks to the repeal of a century long ban, you can now enjoy a glass of absinthe on your next vacation to France. The mysterious green liquor was popularized in the 19th century by artists and writers like Van Gogh and Rimbaud. Unfortunately, because of perceived side effects like hallucinations, madness [...]

Paris Airport Tests Virtual Boarding Agents

Paris Orly Airport © nozomiiqel In Paris, travelers are now encountering “virtual boarding agents” who pop up seemingly out of nowhere. From MSNBC: The pilot project at Paris’ Orly airport began last month, and has so far been met with a mix of amusement and surprise by travelers, who frequently try to touch and speak [...]

French Actor Pees on Carpet During Flight

Aisle © eyeliam First came the U.S. Olympic ski team member peeing on an 11 year-old girl during a Jet Blue flight. Now comes legendary and indeed iconic French actor Gerard Depardieu urinating directly into the aisle, apparently quite calmly and deliberately, aboard an Air France flight. From CBS in New York: When the flight [...]

Photo of the Moment: High Above La Chapelle Sous Brancion, Burgundy

Masked Men Rob Train in Wild West French Rail Heist

French Train © KOKONIS In a scene taken straight out of an American Wild West movie, masked men robbed a freight train in southern France on Thursday night after blocking the railway tracks with shopping carts and metal beams. Next week pirates plunder yachts off the French Riviera. Get the rest of the story at [...]

Learn Travel Writing from Rolf Potts

In case you missed it, the inimitable Rolf Potts will be teaching a travel writer’s workshop this summer: Aspiring travel writers looking to hone their skills can learn from one of the best – Rolf Potts – at the Paris Writing Workshop, July 1 – 29, 2011. Join Rolf and other successful fiction and nonfiction [...]

Photo of the Moment: Sparkling in the Rain, Bordeaux

French Mayor ‘Removes Statue Because Its Breasts Are Too Big’

The mayor of a town in France has thrown a patriotic female statue out of his town hall because its breasts were too big. The artist said she gave it outsized breasts deliberately, ‘to symbolise the generosity of the Republic’. The terracotta bust of Marianne – the traditional female embodiment of the French Republic in [...]

Paris in 2,000 Images [Video]

Composed of just over 2,000 images, strung together in a complex time-lapse manner, it’s clear a lot went into the making of this visually stunning project. Indeed. Get the full video and an interview with its creator at Intelligent Travel Blog.

Paris Catacombs: Exploring the Urban Underbelly

Paris has a deeper and stranger connection to its underground than almost any city, and that underground is one of the richest. The arteries and intestines of Paris, the hundreds of miles of tunnels that make up some of the oldest and densest subway and sewer networks in the world, are just the start of [...]