paris Travel Guide
6/30/2008 at 11:15 AM
Tags: Festivals, Summer Travel, Food Travel, Paris Travel, Boats (all tags)
If you're over hot dogs, burgers and beer for the Fourth of July, go all out this year and jet to Paris for Gastronomy by the Seine, which kicks off Friday on various yachts dotting the river.
The festival is brand new, and this year's theme is New American Cuisine. Each day of the weekend offers roundtables with industry bigwigs like Gael Greene, Michael Batterberry and Jean-Luc Naret, as well as cooking demos, tastings and tours of related Parisian museums (like the Musée Baccarat) and outdoor food markets (like rue Mouffetard and Place Monge). On the 4th, you can toast to the US with an evening cruise down the Seine aboard Le Paquebot, with a five-course menu celebrating American food.
As you might have guessed, gastromony isn't cheap: Day passes start at about $221, and the dinner cruise will set you back $379. Still, five amazing courses while floating down the Seine sounds like the perfect excuse for a summer splurge.
Related Stories:
· Gastronomy by the Seine [Official Site]
· Datebook: Paris [NYT]
· Fourth of July coverage [Jaunted]
[Photo: f0t0grafr]
by sedona
6/12/2008 at 11:20 AM
Tags: Paris Travel, Music Festivals, Music Travel, Live Music (all tags)
Summer music festivals are a dime a dozen but we haven't come across many that also pack pro-social punch. Paris' Solidays Festival does. The anti-AIDS event held over 4th of July weekend is part fundraiser, part concert and, this year, part anniversary: It's the festival's 10th birthday.
Last summer, artists as diverse as Lily Allen, Lauryn Hill and Sum 41 joined in solidarity at Longchamp racetrack to support HIV awareness. This year the top billers will be reggae masters Toots and the Maytals along with Asian Dub Foundation, Cesaria Evora, Yael Naim and 200 other performers.
Staying for the full three days is a no-brainer, as passes are cheap ($70) and days are jam-packed with anniversary events. Fireworks, mimes, circus performers and AIDS lecturers will help you pass the time, plus, it's Paris.
Related Stories:
· Solidays Festival [Official Site]
· Music Festivals coverage [Jaunted]
· Paris Travel coverage [Jaunted]
[Photo: Osislash]
by CourtScott
6/11/2008 at 12:30 PM
Tags: Paris Travel, Bars, Nightlife (all tags)
We think cave dwelling is tres cool, particularly when it involves excessive amounts of vin rouge and loyal Parisians dancing on tables to old French and Hebrew songs. You'll find it at Chez George, one of Paris' oldest wine bars in the relatively tourist-free Mabillon section.
Legend has it that "the house of George" was once a hiding place for Jews during the Nazi occupation. Be it an old barman's tale or accurate fact, we loved the cavern's dimly lit narrow passageways and smoky underground crannies. We also liked that the doorman thought twice before letting us Americans in, a sure sign that we were entering a "locals only" zone.
Related Stories:
· Chez George one of the World's 10 Best Bars? [Parisist]
· Paris Travel coverage [Jaunted]
· Bars coverage [Jaunted]
by CourtScott
6/10/2008 at 10:32 AM
Tags: Paris Travel, Coffee, Coffee Shops (all tags)
What do raw mushrooms, inflatable palm trees, Gorgonzola and coffee have in common? That's what we were asking ourselves Saturday when we made a caffeine pit stop at the Louvre's underground Starbucks--and found a full-fledged free-sampling luau in action.
Apparently the bizarre celebration was a promotion for a new Hawaiian coffee flavor which, according to Parisian baristas, goes exquisitely well with two of Hawaii's delicacies, raw mushrooms and pungent cheese. Huh?
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by CourtScott
6/06/2008 at 2:00 PM
Tags: Paris Travel, Active Travel, Velib Bikes, Biking, Outdoor Travel (all tags)
Yes, Velib bikes will get you around Paris, but unless you're familiar with the city, you may be too distracted by trying to read rue signs to see the sights. Before you know it your 30 Velib minutes are up and you're racing to find the nearest bike rack.
Enter Fat Tire Bike Tours, the best four hours (and $37) you might spend in Paris. Run by a group of young, in-the-know Americans, they've got a laid back attitude and effortless cool that makes for a surprisingly refreshing guided tour experience.
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by CourtScott
6/05/2008 at 12:02 PM
Tags: Fashion Travel, Yves Saint Laurent, Paris Travel, Naomi Campbell, Fashion, Carla Bruni (all tags)
Paris' famed Rue Saint-Honore will be a catwalk of condolences today as fashion's elite gather at the Église Saint-Roch to pay tribute to the late Yves Saint Laurent. Christian Lacroix, Jean Paul Gaultier, John Galliano and Valentino have RSVP'd to the invite-only funeral service along with celeb friends Claudia Schiffer and model-turned-first-lady, Carla Bruni.
Notably absent will be Karl Lagerfeld who is conveniently "away on business," presumably still underlining the errors in Alice Drake's recent joint biography of Lagerfeld and YSL.
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by CourtScott
6/05/2008 at 9:32 AM
Tags: Paris Travel, Weird, Tourist Attractions, Landmarks, Attractions (all tags)
If you have any yearning to marry a famous landmark, you'd better get your pre-nups signed before they're all spoken for. We already told you that the Berlin Wall has been married to a Swedish woman for decades, and another celebrity landmark wedding just happened.
This time it was a woman from San Francisco whose new name is Erika La Tour Eiffel. Although she also admits a fondness for the Berlin Wall, she decided to take the Eiffel Tower as her husband.
We're wondering which tourist attraction we'd want to marry: An ancient pyramid would make a loyal bedfellow, but a really tall building might make for some extra excitement. For a stable marriage, maybe a particular leaning tower deserves a second look?
Related Stories:
· Woman Weds Eiffel Tower [Ananova]
· Wedding Travel: Hooking up with Your Favorite Tourist Attraction [Jaunted]
[Photo: webbmb]
by amandak
6/03/2008 at 1:19 PM
Tags: Jean Nouvel, Norman Foster, Architecture, Daniel Libeskind, Buildings (all tags)
Architect Jean Nouvel just won a contest to build a new skyscraper in La Défense, a district of Paris. Nouvel's design beat out plans from British Gherkin mastermind Norman Foster and Daniel Libeskind--who came up with the atrocious original design for New York's "Freedom Tower."
At 71 stories, Nouvel's building will be seventy-five feet shorter than the Eiffel Tower, but in a city where skyscrapers are few and far between, Nouvel's "Signal Tower" is sure to have a dramatic effect on the skyline. Echoing this sentiment, one of the jurors who selected the design said it would be the
Most important architectural act since the Eiffel Tower.
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by Hunter Walker
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