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Easy Day Trips from Paris: Lyon for More Than Just the Food

For most people, Paris is such a dream destination that the idea of leaving town sounds anticlimactic. However, even lifelong Parisiens know the value of occasionally getting out of the city. This week, we'll be looking at four daytrips—or even two-day trips—that you can take from the City of Light.

Today's destination: Lyon (Part 2). (Read Part 1)

Lyon is renowned for its food, but what to do about filling the time between meals? Museum-wise, Lyon has quite an assortment to offer. Highlights include the Museum of Decorative Arts, the African Art Museum, the Musee Lumiere (about the history of cinema, which has strong ties to a Lyonnais family), and the Museum of Lyon, which details the city’s interesting and sometimes chaotic history.

If you have more time to spend in Lyon, suck it up and opt for a guided tour. The ‘Vieux-Lyon’ or ‘Old Lyon’ part of the city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and it’s easy to see why when you first spot the mix of Gothic and Renaissance architecture.

The true gem of Lyon, though, is the traboule system. These hidden tunnels and passageways, with their eye-catching design features, date from when the city was a major Medieval trading center. Most of them are privately owned, but a few are open to the public during certain hours, and veteran Lyonnais tour guides will show you what’s hiding in plain sight.

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France Travel / Paris Travel / Day Trips from Paris / Food Travel / Lyon Travel / → All Tags

Easy Day Trips from Paris: Lyon for Bellecour and Bouchons

For most people, Paris is such a dream destination that the idea of leaving town sounds anticlimactic. However, even lifelong Parisiens know the value of occasionally getting out of the city. This week, we'll be looking at four daytrips—or even two-day trips—that you can take from the City of Light.

Today's destination: Lyon (Part 1).

Lyon is the third largest city in France after Paris and Marseille, but it remains much more free of tourists than the others. The beautiful spot at the meeting of the Rhone and the Saone is just two hours away from Paris via a high-speed train from (appropriately enough) Gare de Lyon, meaning you can stop in for the day or give it a full weekend. Lyon’s also quite conveniently located if you want to go from Paris to the south of France or continue on to Switzerland or northern Italy.

When you arrive in Lyon, begin at Bellecour, the main heart of the city, located on a small island between the two rivers. This is where everyone in Lyon comes to meet friends and hang out on nice days. You’ll see the famous Tree of Flowers sculpture here, and during warm months there are boats up and down the river banks serving as makeshift bars; simply follow the locals and do your own waterlogged pub crawl.

Bellecour is also where you’ll find Lyon’s tourist information board, so sign up here for tours or special deals. Lyon has beefed up their tourist website lately and almost everything is in English. It’s worth picking up a Lyon City Card here—the card comes in 24, 48, or 72-hour increments and covers the cost of museum admissions, guided tours, and public transit.

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Neighborhoods to Know and Go / Food Travel / Drinking Travel / Art Travel / Brooklyn Travel / New York Travel / Travel Tips / → All Tags

Neighborhoods to Know and Go: Brooklyn's Gowanus

Someone told us the other day that the word 'Brooklyn' has entered the French lexicon—as an adjective, used to describe something that's super trendy. While we think that's going overboard, nobody can deny how fashionable the borough has become over the past 10 years, and that popularity isn't likely to dwindle anytime soon.

Most tourists tend to migrate towards northern Brooklyn when they visit, and while we love us some Williamsburg and Bushwick, there's another new 'hood that's emerging as a ground zero for art, culture and lip-smackin' good eats: Gowanus.

For better or worse, the neighborhood is best known as the home of the Gowanus Canal—a.k.a. one of the most toxic bodies of water in the country—though that's all about to change, as city officials recently announced a multi-million dollar project to clean up the gunky waterway and make Gowanus a little easier on the eyes (and the nose).

This is all great news for visitors, though locals have been tuned into this spot—with its growing artillery of cool performance venues, cozy coffeeshops, and (yes) clam shacks—for quite some time.

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South Korea Travel / Seoul Travel / American Airlines Seoul Inaugural / ICN / Food Travel / Photo Gallery / Tours / → All Tags

If You Only Do One Thing in Seoul, Let It Be a Late Night Food Tour

No Seoul/jokes jokes this week, guys. We're just going to tell it like it is in celebration of American Airlines' new route to Seoul, South Korea, a city so hugely underrated and yet so majorly cool. It's a city that comes with the Jaunted seal of approval many times over and for the next several days we'll be explaining exactly why.

Bibimbap. Bulgogi. Tteokbokki. We're not going to sugarcoat things; Korean cuisine can be just as confusing as attempting to correctly pronouce the name of a dish. Now, that's no reason to spend every evening dining at Lotteria (Korea's version of McDonalds, complete with a ramen burger); in fact, all the etiquette and ingredients and ceremony of a hearty Korean meal means diving in head-first and, yes, tasting the kimchi.

For first timers to Seoul or those who need a refresher, we recommend joining an O'ngo Dining Tour. Depending on your tastes (literally), O'ngo will take you out for Korean BBQ, to nibble from street stall to street stall in bustling Myeongdong, or—what we booked—down the alleys and into the local favorites around Anguk after dark. This one tour gave us the confidence (and pronunciation help) to continue devouring only Korean cuisine for the next 7 nights of our stay. Best idea ever, really.

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How To Get Tickets To The New York City Wine & Food Festival

The schedule for the 2013 Food Network New York City Wine & Food Festival, scheduled to take place October 17- 20, has been announced and will include appearances by celebrity chefs Anne Burrell, Paula Deen, Guy Fieri, Robert Irvine, and Emeril Lagasse.

The festival, presented by Food & Wine, will benefit Food Bank For New York City and Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry campaign. This year, several festival events will take place at the Hudson Hotel, including wine and pairing seminars, while Pier 94 will be the new home of the festival’s signature Southern Wine & Spirits of New York Trade Tasting, and Pier 92 will host the fest’s Blue Moon Burger Bash hosted by Rachael Ray and the Tacos & Tequila hosted by Bobby Flay.

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Foreign Grocery Friday / Dessert Travel / Ice Cream Travel / Seoul Travel / South Korea / Travel / Street Food Travel / Food Travel / → All Tags

Foreign Grocery Friday: The Foot-Long Ice Cream Cones of Seoul, South Korea

When we travel, one of our favorite things to do is to pop into a local grocery store and check out the food products and candies we'd never find anywhere else. So we're trying out this new feature, Foreign Grocery Friday, where each week we'll feature some of our (and your) favorite overseas treats. Got a recommendation? Let us know!

Walk through the super popular shopping district of Myeungdong in Seoul, South Korea and you're bound to see them. Strolling young couples take a moment to put away their smartphones and focus on the most impressive street food south of the Cheonggyecheon: the 32cm ice cream cone.

Okay so it's not technically a grocery, but you wouldn't want to buy this at a supermarket anyway. Available in several basic flavors as well as a mix, the ice cream is served up by a few skilled workers who pull the soft serve from sun down until past midnight, depending on the strength of the crowds. The allure of the foot-high cone is simple: it's cheap, it's quick, it's cooling after a warm early summer day, it's a treat, and it's an ideal subject for photos posted to social media.

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Road Trips / Road Trip Travel / Summer Travel / iPhone Travel Apps / Travel Apps / Food Travel / Health Travel / Health / → All Tags

Find Healthy Food on Your Summer Road Trip (There's an App for That)

No more Bob's Big Boy. Pass on the Perkins. Can the Cracker Barrel.

The day has finally come that the all-American road trip can be filled with healthy choices to eat instead of fast food and Cheet-os. Thanks to Shft, a multimedia website co-founded by Adrian Grenier and Ford Motor Company, the days of eating at a greasy spoon are over with a shift to wholesome and healthy fare. Besides, who likes driving with orange fingers anyway?

The '"sustainable culture" website has teamed up with the car company to create an iPhone app called Food Tripping to help those Jacks (and Jills) hitting the road this summer in the quest to see America. All from your iPhone, you can find fresh, healthy, local food options in between seeing the largest ball of twine or Corn Palace.

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What Princess Beatrice, Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis Love About London

Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis took a royal culinary tour of London over the weekend.

The usually low key Hollywood couple was spotted hanging out with Princess Beatrice and her long-time boyfriend Dave Clark at some of the city's trendiest restaurants and bars on Saturday.

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Which Chicago Festivals Should You Hit Up This Summer?

The temperatures are warming up and that can only mean one thing for the city of Chicago; it's festival season! We don't know, but it might be that fact that the majority of the year Chicagoans are cooped up indoors to dodge the wintery weather, but very few cities around the world love their street fairs as much as Chi-town does.

Annual events like Taste of Chicago, North Halsted Street Market Days and Blues Fest will be in full effect on their respective weekends, but we've got some festival favorites. Pack some comfy shoes, sunscreen and social skills because it's time to hit the streets.

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Om Nom Nom / Airline Food / American Airlines / American Airlines Seoul Inaugural / Business Class Travel / Amazing Airline Meals / Food Travel / Korea Travel / Seoul Travel / → All Tags

Surprisingly Yummy Airline Meals: Korean Bibimbap on American Airlines

We have all had a terrible meal on a flight before. In fact, we have shown you some of the sadder trays slid in front of us. With this new series of amazing airline meals, we can revel in the airline culinary delights and give kudos to the airlines that got it right.

16 hours in the air is nothing to take lightly. That's three mealtimes, plus several naps, plus a movie or two and some general spacing-out-while-staring-at-clouds time. Thus, when it came to our nonstop in Business Class from Dallas/Ft. Worth to Seoul, South Korea yesterday on American Airlines, we knew we had plenty time to enjoy filling up on food.

AA 27 was actually the very first flight by AA to Seoul, a momentous occasion on which we'll go into deeper depth next week. Still, because it was an inaugural to South Korea, it would be the first time American has offered the Korean dish of Bibimbap on a flight. How could we pass it up?

While our seatmate tucked into his chicken order, the flight attendant presented us with a printed "How To" sheet on properly mixing the ingredients together, as bibimbap is actually rice with a plethora of colorful additions (carrot, zucchini, cucumber, shiitake, spinach, egg, tender beef bulgogi and pepper paste to taste). Even though this was an airline meal, presentation and quantity didn't suffer in the least.

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The Top 5 Must Do Attractions In Coney Island This Summer

It's one of NYC's oldest and best attractions, and on May 24th, it opens for the season. Here are all the thrills you need to experience next time you visit...

Wonder Wheel: The king of rides at Coney Island contains 24 fully enclosed passenger cars, which can each hold up to 6 people (though if you're here on a date, you can keep the whole car to yourself). Not only are the views of the Atlantic Ocean awesome, but each individual car is on an 'S'-shaped track, so as the wheel turns, there is some lurching action that's sure to make your stomach flip.

Four more after the jump!

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Foreign Grocery Friday / Peru Travel / Chocolate Travel / Food Travel / → All Tags

Foreign Grocery Friday: The Doña Pepa Cookies of Peru

When we travel, one of our favorite things to do is to pop into a local grocery store and check out the food products and candies we'd never find anywhere else. So we're trying out this new feature, Foreign Grocery Friday, where each week we'll feature some of our (and your) favorite overseas treats. Got a recommendation? Let us know!

Set foot in Lima, Peru's International Airport and even before heading through customs you'll spot Doña Pepa on display in the duty-free shops. She's not a woman exactly, but a cartoon mascot lending her name to a sprinkled cookie beloved around the country. Doña Pepa is to Peru as Twix is to the US; it's available at every corner store checkout counter and sold in large "fun size" to tourists at airports.

It even takes a cake form—"Turron de Doña Pepa"—which is a sticky, anise-heavy baked good. For easy eating and toting along on walks, we definitely prefer the cookie.

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