Destination: Paris
New Immigration Museum in Paris Confronts, Celebrates a Changing French Society
by Eva Holland | 10.17.07 | 11:55 AM ET
The Museum of Immigration History in Paris seeks to tackle one of the most incendiary subjects in France, and, according to a story in The Globe and Mail, its creators certainly don’t see themselves in an impartial role. “Ever since the word ‘immigrant’ appeared in our vocabulary in the late 19th century, it has had a negative connotation—connoting a menace, an inassimilable foreigner, a potential criminal, a polygamist and now a terrorist,” Gérard Noiriel, one of the curators, told the Globe. “Our job is to change that point of view.”
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Yahoo! BuzzThe Eiffel Tower: A View From Underneath (Pig Fat Included)
by Terry Ward | 09.18.07 | 10:27 AM ET
Photo by rayced, via Flickr (Creative Commons).
A story from the always intriguing Time Zones series in the Washington Post gives a view of Paris few tourists see—and from the city’s most iconic landmark, no less. Molly Moore’s foray into the inner workings of the Eiffel Tower, as experienced alongside the head of services for the tower’s operations, one Fabrice Fevai, gives a ground-up view of Gustave Eiffel’s coup de grace. “People enter the Eiffel Tower as though it’s a monument with lots of iron,” Fevai tells Moore, while threading his way through a sea of milling tourists. “But the Eiffel Tower is like a factory—they don’t even realize what’s underneath.”
In Washington D.C. and Paris, Seduced by a Night View
by Julia Ross | 08.29.07 | 3:57 PM ET
Two recent stories on Paris and Washington D.C. after dark are a good reminder that taking in cityscapes by night can yield an entirely different travel experience than tromping around at mid-day. A Washington Post article and slide show on the patchwork system used to illuminate the monuments lining the National Mall nicely conveys the city’s nocturnal alter-ego, while a New York Times piece on ascending the Eiffel Tower at night actually made me want to brave the interminable line to try it.
Paris Mayor to Parisians: Be Nice to Tourists, S’il Vous Plait
by Michael Yessis | 07.11.07 | 8:38 AM ET
Is their reputation for rudeness catching up to Parisians? Oui, mayor Bertrand Delanoe apparently believes. Earlier this week, Paris launched a campaign to make the City of Light more tourist friendly with initiatives that include “Paris Tourist Day” and the “Charter for the Parisian and Visitor.” The AP and the Agence France-Presse, among others, have the story of the Paris “charm offensive” and the charter, which asks Parisians to “take the time to give information to visitors” and “make use of foreign language skills to reply to them in their language.” It’s probably a good thing for a country that’s seeing its most-favored nation status among tourists rapidly eroded by China.
Globespotters: IHT’s Correspondents Blog Paris, Hong Kong, Bangkok and Beyond
by Julia Ross | 06.11.07 | 8:20 AM ET
When foreign correspondents aren’t chasing down insurgents or dissidents, they’re wandering the back streets of their adopted cities, ferreting out the best croissant in Paris or bike path in Rome. A new travel blog from the International Herald Tribune—dubbed Globespotters—taps into this collective wisdom via posts from reporters in six world cities. In IHT’s words, it’s “an online resource where IHT reporters and editors (and readers too) share up-to-the-minute tips and recommendations about the cities where we live and visit.” So far, it’s a lively mix of local color and tips on things to do. My favorite: Joyce Lau’s take on the expat bacchanal that passes as Dragon Boat Festival in Hong Kong.
Photo by Harris Graber via Flickr, (Creative Commons).The World Hum Travel Zeitgeist: From Chocolate to Kaiseki
by Michael Yessis | 05.18.07 | 5:09 PM ET
Or, in other words, travelers’ interests this week range from Hershey, Pennsylvania to the streets of Japan. Here’s the Zeitgeist.
Most Popular Travel Story
Netscape (this week)
Magnificient Trees of the World
* The Lone Cypress in Pebble Beach, California (pictured) makes the list.
Most Viewed Travel Story
Los Angeles Times (current)
A Tour of Japanese Cuisine With Spago Chef Lee Hefter
* From the same writers: A look at kaiseki
Most Read Weblog Post
World Hum (this week)
Japan’s Latest Budget Accommodation: Internet Cafes
* The nation that brought us the capsule hotel has done it again.
Most E-Mailed Travel Story
USA Today (current)
Hershey Honors its Past, Looks to the Future
Most Viewed Travel Story
Telegraph (current)
Amsterdam: Telegraph Travel Guides
Most Popular Page Tagged Travel
Del.icio.us (recent)
Farecast
Most Read Feature Story
World Hum (this week)
Mark Ellingham: Rough Guides and the Ethics of Travel
“Hot This Week” Destination
Yahoo! (this week)
Playa del Carmen
The World Hum Travel Zeitgeist: Hawaii, Highways and One Hot Book
by Michael Yessis | 05.04.07 | 5:14 PM ET
‘I Used Arthur Frommer’s ‘Europe on 5 Dollars a Day’’
by Michael Yessis | 05.04.07 | 3:05 PM ET
We recently noted the 50th anniversary of the classic travel guide, Arthur Frommer’s “Europe on 5 Dollars a Day.” USA Today’s Kitty Bean Yancey pays tribute today by taking a trip to Paris in search of answers to the questions, “[D]o his budget staples survive? And can a euro-trashed tourist find satisfaction there today?” Yancey also turns back the clock, sharing a terrific journal entry—and a great photo of her hitchhiking—she wrote in 1971 while traveling in Paris with the guidance of “5 Dollars.”
Stalking the Best Boulangeries in Paris
by Jim Benning | 04.30.07 | 1:19 PM ET
I’ve never met a chocolate croissant I didn’t like, but even I, a mere croissant dilettante, recognize that some are better than others. Travel + Leisure offers a look at the best boulangeries in Paris, covering top spots for croissants, baguettes, sourdough loaves and other starchy treats. Maison Kayser in the Latin Quarter is one of the shops earning rave reviews. Among other qualities, their croissants have a “meltingly tender center,” the magazine maintains. Meanwhile, elsewhere in town, Boulangerie Bechu offers pain au chocolate orange, which the magazine calls “an addictive variation on the classic treat.”
Photo by stu_spivack via Flickr, (Creative Commons).
Chinese Traveler Spends Record 23,000 Euros in Duty-Free Spree
by Michael Yessis | 03.22.07 | 7:08 AM ET
His haul in Paris included a bottle of 1945 Chateau Mouton Rothschild, a Cotes de Rhone Hermitage la Chapelle 1978 and “a bottle of 1806 cognac that might have slipped through the fingers of Emperor Napoleon,” according to Reuters. Aeroports de Paris Shops, where the unnamed Chinese traveler made his purchases, says it has started to carry luxury items to cater to rich travelers from China, Japan and Russia. I’m sure the traveler had the good sense to avoid this mess in Miami on his way back to Beijing.
The World Hum Travel Zeitgeist: Moonwalkers, Stardust and the End of the Earth
by Michael Yessis | 03.16.07 | 8:02 AM ET
We’ve done the math: This week, travelers have professed their interest in the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, India, Venice, Antarctica and hotels with a certain “je ne sais quoi de geek.” Here’s the Zeitgeist.
Most Popular Page Tagged Travel
Del.icio.us (recent)
Best Geek Hotels in the World
* Yes, that’s an equation-covered bed cover at Boston’s Hotel @ MIT.
Most Viewed Travel Story
Los Angeles Times (current)
Hey, Sin City Top This: Grand Canyon West’s New Skywalk
* Moonwalker Buzz Aldren will take the ceremonial first walk Monday. We still ask: What Would Edward Abbey Think?
Most Viewed Travel Story
Telegraph (current)
Getting It Om In India
Most Read Weblog Post
World Hum (this week)
Stardust Blown to Dust
* Of course there’s video.
Most Blogged Travel Story
New York Times (current)
Making a Pilgrimage to Cathedrals of Commerce
* It’s all about the 19th-century shopping arcades of Paris.
Most E-Mailed Travel Story
USA Today (current)
Miss Manners’ Venice: In a Word, Civilized
Most Popular Travel Story
Netscape (this week)
Antarctica: The Crystal Desert
* More on Antarctica: A Brief and Awkward Tour of the End of the Earth
Best Selling Travel Book
Amazon.com (current)
Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert
Most Read Story
World Hum (this week)
Stephanie Elizondo Griest: ‘100 Places Every Woman Should Go’
‘Desert Louvre’ Plans Cause Uproar in France
by Michael Yessis | 03.12.07 | 7:41 AM ET
What can $1.3 billion buy? For Abu Dhabi, it’s the rights “to borrow the Louvre’s name and hundreds of its artworks, as well as treasures from the Picasso Museum, Pompidou Center, Chateau de Versailles and other French museums,” according to the Washington Post. It’s also a way for Abu Dhabi to compete with neighboring Dubai for tourists. For France, however, the transaction has brought on a heated national discussion about how to handle its renowned cultural assets.
‘Paris Syndrome’: The New York City Strain?
by Michael Yessis | 01.23.07 | 1:00 PM ET
The New York Post had some fun with a recent story about Japanese tourists in France who succumb to Paris Syndrome. The paper titled its piece Paris Leaves Japanese French Fried. Now the New Yorker’s Lauren Collins is on the case, wondering if there’s a New York City version of the syndrome that leaves travelers to the City of Light overwhelmed and in need of psychological treatment. An officer at the Japanese Consulate “does not believe in the existence of Paris syndrome, or, for that matter, a New York strain,” Collins writes, but she does report that Japanese visitors to the Big Apple do have certain traits.
R.I.P. Art Buchwald
by Jim Benning | 01.18.07 | 12:08 PM ET
The famed humorist, who died Wednesday at the age of 81, got his start writing abroad. He once wrote a column called “Paris After Dark” that featured “scraps of offbeat information about Parisian nightlife” for the New York Herald Tribune. His goodbye video (“Hi, I’m Art Buchwald, and I just died”) is up on the New York Times website.
The World Hum Travel Zeitgeist: Paris and ‘The Places in Between’
by Michael Yessis | 12.22.06 | 8:02 AM ET
It’s a week of classics—and perhaps emerging classics—here at the Zeitgeist. This week, we travelers are showing our love for Paris, Irish pubs, the Hawaiian islands, the wonders of the world and Rory Stewart’s walk across war-torn Afghanistan.
Most E-Mailed Travel Story
New York Times (current)
Paris: 36 Hours
Most Viewed Weblog Post
World Hum (this week)
Belgium has a ‘War of the Worlds’ Moment
Most Popular Travel Podcast
PodcastAlley (December)
808Talk: Hawaii’s Premier Podcast
Best Selling Travel Book
Amazon.com (current)
The Places in Between by Rory Stewart
* The New York Times selected it as one of the top-10 books of 2006, and it’s back on top after Bill Bryson’s nine-week reign.
Most Popular Page Tagged Travel
Del.icio.us (current)
SeatGuru
Most Viewed Story
World Hum (this week)
How to Down a Pint in a Real Irish Pub
Top Travel and Adventure Audiobook
iTunes (current)
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
Most Dugg “Travel” Story
Digg (current)
The World’s Top 100 Wonders: How Many Have You Seen?
Most Popular Travel Story
Netscape (current)
How to Complain Effectively
* Solid advice for holiday travelers.
Most Read Travel Story
USA Today (current)
Storm Snarls Holiday Travel
The Google “I’m Feeling Lucky” Button Travel Zeitgeist Search
And for those who, like me, will be driving for the holidays this weekend, here’s how to survive a blizzard. Safe travels and happy holidays.
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