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Celeb Travel
Posh Spice Just Finished "The Da Vinci Code"
October 10, 2007 at 8:49 AM | 0 Comments
Non-spoiler alert: At the end of The Da Vinci Code, detective Robert Langdon meets the Mona Lisa who has been transformed into a fembot with very large shoulder pads. Just kidding! That's Victoria Beckham posing for a fashion shoot outside the Louvre in Paris this week, just like one of those statues who move for coins.
We hear she's doing the shoot for Gilles Bensimon, the fashion photographer, Elle creative director, and sometimes America's Next Top Model judge — we remember only because Tyra butchers the pronunciation of his name every time.
If you're more into viewing non-plastic works of art, check out the Louvre's fall exhibit inside. It's called Masterpieces of Islamic Art and the critics are raving.
Related Stories:
· Paris Hotel Reviews [HotelChatter]
· Celeb Travel coverage [Jaunted]
· Musée du Louvre [Official Site]
[Photo: The Superficial]
Paris
Jaunted Embedded Travel Guide: Paris Lingerie
July 11, 2007 at 2:50 PM | 1 Comment
Just got back from a dirty weekend in the countryside. Not with that prissy English boyfriend of mine, who dumped me after I called him prissy in the last Embedded piece. With my new French Fry.
I'd like to call him my new French hotpants, like my trendy friend Viia from Fashion Magazine but unfortunately I can't. He was wearing Y-Fronts.
Paris
Jaunted Embedded Travel Guides: Paris Etiquette
July 9, 2007 at 3:42 PM | 1 Comment
If you Google French etiquette or similar terms, you'll think you've reached the rules and regulations page of a Russian Cold War prison.
Most of the search pages are written by people who have Googled French etiquette.
I decided I owed it to you to try out the rules myself, sans Google.
Paris
Jaunted Embedded Travel Guides: Paris Wine
July 6, 2007 at 11:25 AM | 1 Comment
I was trying to find a good quote to start this piece off, but couldn't find one that was tacky enough.
In vino veritas? Well, there's some truth in that.
"Get drunk and stay drunk forever." That's Baudelaire, the 1960s poet, and his fatherly advice to budding poets. Not so poetic, really.
So how about some philosophy? Fernand Desnoyer, the French philosopher, says "This is our night! Drink is the real pleasure! There's nothing after! Nothing except to drink again! While we wait for the dawn to rise!" Hmmmm, very philosophical.
Paris
Jaunted Embedded Travel Guide: Smoking in Paris
July 2, 2007 at 2:21 PM | 1 Comment
In half of Europe, and many states and cities in the US, smoking in public places is illegal. In most bars and cafes in Paris, on the other hand, it is still obligatory. Refusing a proferred cigarette is like refusing a slice of birthday cake on the grounds that cake makes you fat.
Asking some hottie of the opposite sex for a light is a precursor to wild and extravagant sex in the toilets. Well, it usually works for me. And I've never visited a prostitute, but I'm told it's standard practice for the girls to offer the customer a post-shag fag in the hope of a bigger tip.
Airlines
Airline Report: Elysair Reborn
December 6, 2006 at 2:05 PM | 0 Comments
We sure were looking forward to the Blind Melon MIDI that would inevitably wind up on Elysair's homepage, but it turns out Elysair's homepage is no more. In fact, the company itself is no more; the airline formerly known as Elysair has been re-branded as L'Avion, and its new website isn't nearly as vintage. The English version, to which you're re-directed from the old Elysair.com, isn't finished yet, but the French one is.
Do any of y'all speak French? We don't, but from what we can gather from the French-language site, special promotional prices for the launch will start at €1000 r/t. There aren't any good pictures of the seating up on the appropriate section yet, but based on a quick Google translation, we're guessing that with a 140-degree recline, seats will be more MAXjet than Eos. Also according to the Google translation, the seats' color scheme will lend itself to "sobriety and the appeasing." You can get sober and appeased between Paris and Newark starting on December 27.
Related Stories:
· Budget airline offers Paris-NY with French frills [Reuters]
· Elysair Parties Like It's 1995 [Jaunted]
Paris
New Eiffel Tower Has Double Skin
December 1, 2006 at 9:27 AM | 0 Comments
Paris needs another big monument. Having the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame Cathedral, the Arc de Triomphe, the Louvre's pyramid and la Grande Arche (need we go on) is simply not enough. Enter the new skyscraper in the La Defense district, whose design was recently chosen from ten proposals.
This new building will look taller than the Eiffel Tower (in fact it's 24 meters shorter, but that's counting the Eiffel's antennas) and will feature a few odd curves and twists to make it stand out from the average skyscraper. Architect Thom Mayne describes it like this:
There's a fluidity, a sensuousness, a softness to the form as it reaches to the skySounds good enough to eat. It's also striving to be environmentally sound (thumbs up to that), with its own wind farm on top to heat and cool it for almost half the year, and a "movable double skin" to insulate cleverly against heat from sunlight. You won't be able to see the finished product until 2012, but we know you'll be waiting for it.
[Photo: dezeen via Gridskipper]
Related Stories:
· Curving Skyscraper to Soar Over Paris [MSN]
· Paris Skyscraper to Rival Tower [BBC]
Disneyland
Singing Happy Birthday All Year Long
November 10, 2006 at 9:25 AM | 0 Comments
It seems that Euro Disney in Paris is putting recent sex scandals behind them and moving full steam ahead to celebrating their fifteenth birthday. What's more, they're stretching the birthday celebration out to a full 363 days, with special offers and entertainment running from today until November 8 next year: that's one heck of a birthday party, and kind of cheating on the marketing side, we think.
During the birthday fun, Crush's Coaster (courtesy of Finding Nemo) and Cars Race Rally attractions will open up, and Extra Magic Hours will allow visitors staying in the on-site hotels to get access to some parts of Disneyland for an extra two hours. And the final and tackiest addition will be Candlelabration (it doesn't really flow off our tongues, but maybe for the French it will) with birthday singing, dancing and candles to celebrate the big 1-5 in front of Cinderella's castle. Just wait to see what catastrophes await us for Disneyland Paris's 20th birthday in just under five years.
[Photo: rmen]
Related Stories:
· Mickey Doesn't Love Minnie [Jaunted]
Paris
Paris Stresses Japanese Tourists
October 26, 2006 at 11:10 AM | 0 Comments
The sad fact of Japanese working life is they're lucky to string together a week's holiday every few years, so when the good people of Japan get the chance to travel, they want it to be good (and photographically memorable). Many Japanese dream of romantic holidays in Paris but have their dreams shattered when it doesn't quite meet their high expectations.
And that's why Paris syndrome exists. At the moment, about a dozen Japanese a year are struck by this psychological reaction to their less-than-perfect experiences in Paris. Some of the problems arise because:
People using public transport all look stern, and handbag snatchers increase the ill feeling.The worst cases of psychological scarring have included a pair of women who thought their rooms were bugged, and another who was certain she was being attacked by microwaves. All this when some French are making a big effort to make friends with foreigners. Of course the best way to avoid this syndrome is simply to stay home, or at least to travel with lower expectations. So anyone headed to Paris soon: the Eiffel Tower's only 2 storeys high and genuine croissants taste terrible. Now you're well prepared.
[Photo: mindync]
Related Stories:
· Paris Leaves Japanese Tourists Ill [The Australian]
· Makin' French Mates [Jaunted]
France
Makin' French Mates
October 16, 2006 at 8:34 AM | 0 Comments
A culturally-sensitive way to travel is, of course, to meet and mingle with the locals. But say you're traveling through France and you want to meet real French people: should you just walk up to local people in a Parisian supermarket and tell them you want to be friends?
Of course not, and that's why someone came up with the idea of Meeting the French. This website can set you up with a host (matching your age and interests, naturally) who will invite you into their home for a meal. Your side of the deal is to choose the menu (ranging in prices), foot the bill in exchange for the hospitality, and the agency delivers the food to the happy (English-speaking) hosts. You can preview some of the available hosts, one of whom has the admirable goal of wanting "to demonstrate that french people are not so haughty and unbearable." Next time you're dropping through Paris, test out the haughtiness level yourself.
[Photo: digital_trash]
Related stories:
· Meeting the French [Official Site]
· Makin' German Mates [Jaunted]
Disneyland
Mickey Doesn't Love Minnie
October 13, 2006 at 9:42 AM | 0 Comments
Disneyland's gone all erotic, again. Last month it was employees in Hong Kong Disneyland who were fired for frolicking naked in the changerooms, after the boss saw them on the security video. Now the Disneyland Paris employees have had to take it one step further: they've filmed themselves, in costume, simulating sex acts.
We've always known, deep down, that Mickey's not really a match for Minnie, or they'd be sharing a house by now. But what you might not be ready to know is that, according to the video made by EuroDisney staff, Mickey's in fact in a gay relationship with a snowman. We're very sorry if you read it here first.
Video from The Sun linked below.
Related Stories:
· Mickey, Minnie and Goofy in Orgy [Daily Mail]
· Do you fancy a Donald Duck? [The Sun]
· Disneyland Not Always Good Clean Fun [Jaunted]
animals
Bunnies and Airports
June 20, 2006 at 9:34 AM | 0 Comments
Flying into Charles de Gaulle last week, our thoughts were already turning to Parisian bunnies--like the ones we might see at the Moulin Rouge--when we suddenly saw live ones hopping around next to our runway. Apparently they're a well-documented phenomenon there, and a safety problem: Rabbit droppings attract mice, who in turn attract birds, who present a danger to planes. "Operation Rabbit" (or lapin á la moutarde, in the original French) began to capture them and return them to the countryside. Or so they say.
But unusual encounters were the theme of the day, as we turned a corner and nearly walked right into the waiting hall "home" of the man who inspired the Hanks/Spielberg film The Terminal. A mix-up of refugee applications had Merhan "Alfred" Karimi Nasseri arrive in Paris CDG from Iran in 1988. In the ensuing confusion, courts ruled he arrived legally in the airport, but he wasn't allowed to enter France. With no passport or diplomatic status, he also wasn't allowed to enter another country and stayed in the airport. Since 1999 he's been allowed to leave, but the consensus is that his mental state, after 11 years camped in the airport, doesn't allow it.
While we spend too much of our life trying to get out of airports, but it seems the rabbits and Alfred can't get enough of them. What are we missing? Maybe those hard plastic chairs and that blinding artificial light are better than we think. We guess they really buy into the axiom that the purpose is the journey.
Related stories:
Stranded at the Airport [Snopes.com]
Runway Rabbits Wreak Havoc [USA Today]
