Destination: France
Missing Paris
by Nancy Kline | 08.23.10 | 10:54 AM ET
iStockPhoto Nancy Kline grieves for a city that no longer belongs to her
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Yahoo! BuzzWorld Travel Watch: Flesh Fines in France, Medical Tourism Risks in South Asia and More
by Larry Habegger | 08.18.10 | 12:22 PM ET
Larry Habegger rounds up global travel news
Chinese Developers to Recreate Salvador Dalí‘s Hometown
by Michael Yessis | 08.11.10 | 12:06 PM ET
Xiamen Bay is the new Costa Brava! From the Guardian:
Sources at the company said they had found a spot that was geographically similar to Cadaqués, with its gently sloping hills and protected bay. “Building work will start in September or October,” a spokesman said.
More than 100 acres of land will be used to build a near replica with a capacity to house some 15,000 Chinese holidaymakers who want to enjoy the Costa Brava experience without having to travel 6,500 miles.
The Chinese version will not have the sparkling Mediterranean, the madness-inducing Tramontana wind or as many jellyfish as Cadaqués, but the promoters say they will try to get as close to possible to the real thing.
The developers are following in the footsteps of Lyon in the desert and Thames Town outside of Shanghai, among other places.
Dali would surely approve. As the Guardian notes, “One of his favourite money-making habits was to sign, and sell-off, blank sheets of paper for prints and lithographs. As a result, he is one of the most frequently copied and forged artists in the world.”
Victory at the Louvre
by Erin Byrne | 08.11.10 | 10:50 AM ET
Erin Byrne never let her mask slip, until a headless, armless Greek statue taught her a lesson she couldn't ignore
Tourists in Heat
by Tom Swick | 07.22.10 | 9:54 AM ET
iStockPhoto Ten tips for how to stay cool while traveling in an increasingly hot planet. (#2: Choose countries with cold soup.)
World Travel Watch: Violence in Guadalajara, Dengue Fever in Puerto Rico and More
by Larry Habegger | 07.07.10 | 11:48 AM ET
Larry Habegger rounds up global travel news
‘It’s a Kind of Magic Place. You Go in One Door, You Go Out Another.’
by Michael Yessis | 07.06.10 | 11:56 AM ET
Those are the words of 11-year-old Adrien Venturi, an aficionado of the Paris Metro. He’s one of the sources for NPR’s lovely look at the system. “To ride it,” says Jacki Lyden, “is a visual carnival, a living history, an urban love story about the chemin de fer.”
Paris: Pedestrianizing the Seine?
by Eva Holland | 07.01.10 | 1:43 PM ET
Good news for fans of dreamy riverside strolls: Paris city councilors will vote next month on a vehicle ban along the Left Bank. The ban would apply to a mile-plus stretch of riverside real estate, from roughly the Musee d’Orsay to the Eiffel Tower, and according to This Just in, “[p]ermanent foot and cycle paths ... 35 acres of new cafés, parks, sports facilities, and floating islands” would also be part of the package.
Confessions of a Focus Group Traveler
by LiAnne Yu | 06.08.10 | 11:14 AM ET
iStockPhoto When LiAnne Yu visits other countries, she watches people from behind a one-way mirror. She now knows which cultures prefer jeans that accentuate curvy butts.
Seven Essential Breakfasts for the World Traveler
by Terry Ward | 05.20.10 | 11:57 AM ET
iStockPhoto Petit dejeuner, frühstück, desayuno -- call it what you will. Terry Ward dishes on some of the world's great breakfasts.
See the full photo slideshow »
‘The Future of the French Language is Now in Africa’
by Eva Holland | 04.26.10 | 2:53 PM ET
The New York Times has a fascinating piece on the globalization of French as a language—and, as the language diverges from its home nation, what that means for French culture. Michael Kimmelman outlines the battle between France’s cultural traditionalists and the immigrants and foreign French speakers who have adopted the language, but not necessarily the culture that has historically come with it. He writes:
French is now spoken mostly by people who aren’t French. More than 50 percent of them are African. French speakers are more likely to be Haitians and Canadians, Algerians and Senegalese, immigrants from Africa and Southeast Asia and the Caribbean who have settled in France, bringing their native cultures with them.
Which raises the question: So what does French culture signify these days when there are some 200 million French speakers in the world but only 65 million are actually French? Culture in general—and not just French culture—has become increasingly unfixed, unstable, fragmentary and elective.
Having grown up in a bilingual school system, a ten-minute drive from the Ontario-Quebec border, I’m plenty familiar with the dilemma. I can remember, at about eleven, being told firmly by my French teacher that Frenglish was “an insult” to both languages it drew on; even then, I thought that seemed limiting.
Seeing cultural and linguistic fusion as offensive is a non-starter in this globalized world of ours. There’s some amazing food, literature and music coming out of this sort of cultural cross-fertilization, around the world. Rather than viewing themselves as “under siege,” France’s cultural authorities might be better off getting out there and seeing some of it.
Paris in 26 Gigapixels
by Eva Holland | 03.18.10 | 12:16 PM ET
Zoom from a cityscape right down to street level in this amazing browsable image. (Via Kottke)
Must I Get ‘Off the Beaten Path’ When I Travel?
by Rolf Potts | 02.01.10 | 11:15 AM ET
Vagabonding traveler Rolf Potts answers your questions about travel and the world
The First Travel Photo and the Future of Photography
by Jeff Pflueger | 01.28.10 | 11:15 AM ET
Jeff Pflueger on the intersection of geography and photography
What’s That Smell?
by Paul Lynch | 01.07.10 | 4:48 PM ET
iStockPhoto Paul Lynch explores the intersection of travel and the nose