Destination: Paris
The World Hum Travel Zeitgeist: Great Wall, Good Grief!
by Michael Yessis | 12.01.06 | 8:50 AM ET
Is the world falling apart? Travelers this week seem concerned that it is, as crumbling attractions in China, England and Cambodia have grabbed our attention. Don’t worry. A man in India has some duct tape, and if he can fix a plane with it, surely he could be handy with it elsewhere. Here’s your Zeitgeist.
Most Viewed Weblog Post
World Hum (this week)
The Great Wall, Siem Reap, Stonehenge Getting Too Much Love
Most Blogged Travel Story
New York Times (current)
Saving the Great Wall From Being Loved to Death
Most E-Mailed Travel Story
USA Today (current)
Ski Europe: The Best of the Alps
Most Popular Page Tagged Travel
Del.icio.us (current)
Paris by Night
* A slow-loading but spectacular panorama of the City of Light.
No. 1 World Music Album
iTunes (current)
Loreena McKennitt’s An Ancient Muse
Most Dugg “Travel” Story
Digg (current)
Why Americans Should Never Be Allowed To Travel
* A collection of ridiculous things travel agents have heard from travelers. How ridiculous? This ridiculous: “I had someone ask for an aisle seats so that his or her hair wouldn’t get messed up by being near the window.”
Most Popular Travel Podcast
PodcastAlley (November)
808Talk: Hawaii’s Premier Podcast
Email to friend
del.icio.us
Digg
Facebook
Furl
Ma.gnolia
Mixx
Reddit
StumbleUpon
Yahoo! BuzzPotts: “I Resolved to Explore the Louvre by Seeking Out Every Baby Jesus in the Building”
by Michael Yessis | 11.07.06 | 7:58 AM ET
“Silly as this may sound,” Rolf Potts writes in his latest Traveling Light column on Yahoo!, “it was a fascinating way to ponder the idiosyncrasies of world-class art.” And an alternative to the usual way of seeing the Louvre: making a beeline to the Mona Lisa.
The World Hum Travel Zeitgeist: Skimpy Skirts and Thunderbolts
by Michael Yessis | 10.27.06 | 11:30 AM ET
There’s a hint of fear in the air, but, as always, we’re still hitting the road. This week the Zeitgeist leads to Paris, Dubai, Iowa, Mexico City and the most scenic toilet in the world. Let’s go.
Most Read Weblog Post
World Hum (this week)
Japanese Tourists Succumb to “Paris Syndrome”
* I’ve seen a bit of coverage of this story this week, and the New York Post gets the best headline award: Paris Leaves Japanese French Fried.
World’s Least Favorite Airline
TripAdvisor (survey)
Ryanair
Most Blogged Travel Story
New York Times (current)
Beyond Skimpy Skirts, a Rare Debate on Identity
* Hassan M. Fattah’s story explores the limits of multiculturalism in Dubai.
Best Selling Travel Book
Amazon.com (current)
The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir
* Two weeks in a row at the top for Bryson’s memoir of growing up in 1950s Iowa.
Most E-Mailed Travel Story
USA Today (current)
Hotels Ditch Imposing Desks for Friendly ‘Pods’
* Three reasons why: To lure younger customers, to improve employee productivity and, of course, to increase revenue.
Most Popular Page Tagged Travel
Del.icio.us (current)
Farecast
Most Dugg “Travel” Story
Digg (current)
Apple’s Gift to Travelers: Magsafe Airline Power Adapter
Japanese Tourists Succumb to ‘Paris Syndrome’
by Michael Yessis | 10.24.06 | 8:09 AM ET
Or, as the New York Post headline goes, “Paris Leaves Japanese French Fried.” Funny headline for an amusing story—amusing, at least, for everyone but the Japanese travelers who get “Paris Syndrome.” The Post and Reuters, among others, are relaying a story from the French newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche, which claims that “a dozen Japanese tourists a year need psychological treatment after visiting Paris as the reality of unfriendly locals and scruffy streets clashes with their expectations.” Paris Syndrome was first reported in 2004 in a psychiatric journal. According to AA Gill, there is a cure. He writes in the Times: “The cure is called Rome, though there are side effects: it’s very addictive.”
Inside David Sedaris’s Paris: An Audio Tour
by Michael Yessis | 08.27.06 | 2:46 PM ET
On this weekend’s broadcast of This American Life, host Ira Glass visits writer and radio commentator David Sedaris in Paris. I caught part of the show in my car yesterday and Sedaris, who has been living in the City of Light for several years, gives Glass a tour of his favorite Paris spots which include, among other places, his local hardware store. The 10 minutes I heard were typical Sedaris—insightful, neurotic and funny. This American Life doesn’t stream audio from its Web site during the weekend the show is being broadcast around the country, but you can still catch it later tonight on individual stations. Find a station here or try KPCC at 7 p.m. PT Sunday night. Update: It can now be heard at This American Life’s Web site.
Trouble in the Paris Travel Blogosphere?
by Jim Benning | 05.09.06 | 10:40 AM ET
It seems some aren’t too happy with Los Angeles Times travel writer Susan Spano’s ongoing blog from Paris. While I find Spano’s newspaper columns to be a cut above most material in newspaper travel sections—we link to them occasionally here—I’ve never found her blog to be terribly compelling. I don’t often read it. Kevin Roderick at LA Observed sums up the recent flap, which centers on a remark Spano made in her blog next to a photo of tents provided for the homeless along the Seine.
Oslo Tops List of World’s Most Expensive Cities
by Michael Yessis | 02.01.06 | 10:59 AM ET
Norway’s capital unseated Tokyo, Japan, which had been number one on the Economist Intelligence Unit’s biannual survey for 14 years. Reykjavik, Iceland ranked third on the list, with Osaka, Japan and Paris, France rounding out the top five. The AP has a report on the survey.
Photo by Sarah Schmelling.
JT Leroy Unmasked: He’s a She
by Michael Yessis | 01.08.06 | 5:20 PM ET
He/she is Savannah Knoop, according to a story by Warren St. John posted this afternoon on The New York Times Web site. St. John reports that Knoop plays Leroy in public, but the author of the works attributed to him/her is still unknown. “A photograph of Ms. Knoop at a 2003 opening for a clothing store in San Francisco was discovered online,” St. John writes. “Five intimates of Mr. Leroy’s, including his literary agent, his business manager and the producer of a coming movie based on one of his books, were shown the photograph and identified Ms. Knoop as the person they have known as JT Leroy.”
Jessica Smith of MTV’s “Laguna Beach” Named Let’s Go Spokesperson*
by Michael Yessis | 12.02.05 | 11:59 AM ET
It’s a sweet gig for the reality TV star. Smith will take trips to locales of her choosing, blog about her experiences and make personal appearances for Let’s Go. According to a Brandweek report (scroll to bottom), “Smith was seen as a good fit for the young-skewing budget-travel guides because, unlike some of the party-oriented and privileged Paris Hilton types chronicled on the series, she’s a more down-to-earth student.”
New York Times Kills JT LeRoy Travel Story Because JT LeRoy May Not Exist
by Michael Yessis | 11.15.05 | 5:02 AM ET
Adam Gopnik Profiled
by Jim Benning | 11.10.05 | 1:33 PM ET
The Paris to the Moon author has just published a children’s book, “The King in the Window,” and is profiled in the San Francisco Chronicle. “For 10 years, Gopnik has been in the unusual position of explaining the French and French culture to Americans, in his New Yorker dispatches and ‘Paris to the Moon,’ then in the stellar anthology he edited, ‘Americans in Paris,’” the paper reports. “‘The King in the Window’” may be his last book on the City of Light.”
Touring “Paris, Paris”
by Jim Benning | 09.12.05 | 4:14 AM ET
Travel writer David Downie is touring the U.S. in support of his new book, Paris, Paris: Journey into the City of Light. The book features a collection of Downie’s stories about the city. He couldn’t have asked for a better review: Jan Morris called it, “Perhaps the most evocative American book about Paris since ‘A Movable Feast.’” Downie will appear in Portland, Oregon on Tuesday and in Seattle on Friday and Saturday. Information about other dates is available here.
Update: The San Francisco Chronicle features a story by Downie about Paris’ Marais district in Sunday’s paper.
“Let Your Passions Guide You. They Are Unique…Let Them Subsume You.”
by Jim Benning | 07.27.05 | 11:38 AM ET
That was the message that writer Jeffrey Tayler delivered to students enrolled in Rolf Potts’ writing course in Paris earlier this month. His lecture has been published on Potts’ weblog, and aspiring writers and fans of Tayler’s work will find it both inspiring and instructive.
In addition to offering advice, Tayler recounts his own path to the writing life, emphasizing the importance that passions played along the way. “I mean passions for subjects that fascinate and thrill you the way a good novel or poem or even movie does,” he told them. “These passions drove me to acquire knowledge and accomplish the things I would write about. Most of all, they focused my energy.” Tayler, of course, is an Atlantic Monthly correspondent and the author of a number of books, including “Facing the Congo” and his latest, Angry Wind: Through Muslim Black Africa by Truck, Bus, Boat and Camel.
Checking Off the Mona Lisa
by Jim Benning | 11.18.04 | 9:06 PM ET
Most first-time Paris visitors insist on seeing the Mona Lisa—so many, in fact, that on most days a crowd is gathered around the painting by 10 a.m. The Guardian recently featured a terrific overview of the phenomenon, from the crush of tourists to the complicated psychology of a Mona Lisa visit. “To doubt that the Mona Lisa is worth seeing is a bit like asking whether it’s worth coming to Paris at all,” Amelia Gentleman writes. “The Mona Lisa is a key part of the Paris package, and one of the reasons why you come to France, why you come to Europe. For most tourists this moment will be a critical part of their memory of France as a whole. To come here and not be amazed or delighted is in some way to admit that the whole Paris experience is somehow not as great as it’s cracked up to be. Most people know this is illogical, and yet they buy into it anyway.”
Woke Up This Morning and I Got Myself a Beer, Which I Brought to the Lizard King
by Michael Yessis | 02.09.04 | 9:22 PM ET
Why do so many travelers visit Jim Morrison’s grave at the Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris? Undying love for The Doors? A chance to show off graffiti skills? Time to kill before the nearby hostel opens? Mark Neumann has been exploring the subject for the last seven years by recording interviews with pilgrims. He’s gathered highlights into a piece for public radio’s The Savvy Traveler, which aired this weekend.