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Top Attractions in Paris, France
The city of Paris has always been a city filled with a myriad of spectacles from engineering marvels to outstanding cuisines. Along with the physical attractions is a great atmosphere. With this, Paris has become one of the most famous and frequently-visited cities in France and all over the world.
Aside from the Eiffel Tower, there are many other structures in the city that are definitely worth the visit. Here is a little Paris travel guide for you:
Musee du Louvre
Commonly known as The Louvre, this museum, located in the right bank of the Seine, is one of the largest and most popular of its kind in the world. With a sophisticated structure and over 35,000 items on display, visitors will have a blast seeing rare and very old artifacts like the famous painting of Leonardo da Vinci, Mona Lisa. Over 35,000 items are also on display for the history enthusiasts.
Musee d'Orsay
The second museum on the list, the Musee d'Orsay is unique in a way because it known to house the best impressionist paintings in the entire world. The interior of the museum, which is an old railway station, is a fine piece of art as well. Visitors will never find it hard to fall in love with this structure and the collection it holds.
Le Jardin du Luxembourg
For those who want a relaxing sight-seeing in the park, this place is exactly what you need. Its classy fountains, beautiful sculptures, and colorful gardens are perfect for couples searching for a romantic setting and parents looking for a fun time with their children.
Cruise at River Seine
A visit in Paris will never be complete without cruising at the Seine. Sailing along at night where the lights are bright and coupled with a bottle of champagne is, arguably, the ultimate lovers' fantasy. To further brighten the mood, on board candlelit dinners and live music are also available. Romance aside, architectural splendors on both banks also surrounds the river.
Arc de Triomphe
The Arc de Triomphe is a monument symbolizing French pride as the country's top generals and major victories are etched on this impressive eye-candy. This is also one of the largest of its kind that links the old and new Paris. Though it is surrounded by roads and heavy traffic, the Arc de Triomphe is among the top must-sees in the city of Paris.
Notre Dame Cathedral
It is one of the lasting structures that symbolize Paris. The cathedral is famous as it symbolizes the epitome of Gothic because of the delicate archways, flamboyant spires, irreplaceable gargoyles, and many more. It is made ten times more popular because of the classic Disney character, Quasimodo. The Notre Dame Cathedral is certainly part of the list.
About the Author
My name is Sandy Allain. This top Paris attrations guide with help you with the places you must see in Paris. I am the owner of the simply travel guide only specialize to make your travel more simple and enjoying when traveling abroad.
Fashion Street, Paris (France) - Travel Guide
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Lyon - with its Gallo-Roman ruins, its 300 Renaissance merchant houses and its gastronomic reputation - is awash in a nearly Mediterranean light, under which its ochre, gold and rose buildings fairly glow.
In 1998, Lyon became one of only a few urban centres on the UNESCO World Heritage List. And France's third-largest city (after Paris and Marseilles) is intent on keeping its privileged position: over the last decade, Lyon has restored and replanted some 100 public spaces. The warehouses along the River Saône, for example, have been transformed into galleries for the Biennial of Contemporary Art.
Sightseeing
The Basilica of Fourvière (Basilique de Notre Dame de Fourvière) dominates Lyon as Sacré Coeur does Paris. It's a steep walk up the Fourvière Hill to the dazzlingly white church, but there's also a funicular. The adjoining esplanade gives a panoramic view of Lyon's different quarters. Nearby is the Museum of Gallo-Roman Civilization (17, rue Cléberg; www.musees-gallo-romains.com) for a quick archaeology lesson. One of the museum's most prized possessions is the Claudius Tablet, which contains fragments of a speech made by Emperor Claudius in front of the Roman Senate.
If you drop by the Romanesque-Gothic St.-Jean cathedral, situated at the foot of the Fourvière Hill, at noon, you can see the 14th-century astronomical clock do its cuckoo-like re-enactment of the Annunciation.
In Vieux Lyon, the largest Renaissance quarter in France. duck into the many traboules, covered passageways originally used by Renaissance silk weavers, or canuts, anxious to avoid exposing their delicate handiwork to rain showers, and which later became escape routes for the French Resistance during World War II.
Lyon's Musée des Beaux-Arts (20, place des Terreaux) is known affectionately as the "little Louvre". The museum offers a complete retrospective of Ancient Greek and Egyptian arts and civilisations, as well as sculptures and paintings from the Middle Ages to the present day.
The massive red-sand-covered Place Bellecour, to the east of the Rhone and Saone rivers, is an impressive 18th-century architectural ensemble in its own right, but the Lyonnais know it best as the city's ultimate rendez-vous point; friends will arrange to meet "under the horse's tail,"? a reference to the equestrian statue of Louis XIV that dominates one end of the square.
Getting Around
The Lyon City Card (valid for one, two or three days) allows free and unlimited use of city transport (bus, metro, funicular and tramway lines), free access to the main museums, temporary exhibitions and the Biennial of Contemporary Art. It also includes guided tours, an unusual visit to the rooftops of the Fourvière Basilica and river cruises (from April to October), as well as short noon concerts at the Lyon National Opera or at the Auditorium de Lyon
Fooling the Eye
In Lyon, the walls tell stories. This is the kingdom of trompe l'oeil paintings, with more than 150 large-scale murs peints (murals) scattered around the city. One of the most popular, at the corner of quai St-Vincent and rue de la Martinière, memorializes dozens of native Lyonnais who have left their mark both on the city and on world culture, history and science. You may recognize Emperor Claude, Laurent Mourguet, (creator of the beloved Guignol puppets), the Lumière brothers (inventor of the movie camera), filmmaker Bertrand Tavernier, Antoine de St-Exupéry (author of The Little Prince), and Michelin-starred chef Paul Bocuse.
Bocuse or Bouchons?
Though Lyon is most often associated with Paul Bocuse's temple of gastronomy L'Auberge du Pont du Collonges (40, quai de la Plage, Collonges-au-Mont-d'Or, +33 (0)4 72 42 90 90), no visit to Lyon is complete without a meal (or two or three) at one of the city's bouchons. Bouchons are bistros of a sort, but with even more limited menus. Their decor tends to be modest to the point of austerity, and they specialize in the classic cuisine mère (mother's cooking) of Lyon of days gone by. Here are two to try:
Chez Georges
A jolly, cluttered little place where about twenty-five customers can sit elbow-to-elbow to devour classic Lyonnais cold hors d'oeuvres on the order of museau de boeuf, a salad of pressed calf's muzzle; cold chicken liver salad; or pink, unsmoked cervelas sausages served with lentils dressed with a tart vinaigrette-followed by gratinéed tripe or by andouillettes (sausages here made from both tripe and veal intestines).
La Meunière
Proprietor Maurice Débrosse used to be Paul Bocuse's maître d'hôtel and specializes in classic dishes like lentils with a spoonful of cervelle de canut ("silk weaver's brain"), an herbed cream cheese that was once a favorite dish of the silk weavers who helped make Lyon rich.
Where to Shop
Chez Disagn' Cardelli
Lyon is the birthplace of Guignol, the marionette that has been entertaining audiences for centuries. You can find him and a wide selection of his descendants, including a jolly French waiter here. There are puppet shows, too.
Bernachon
The shop's master chocolatiers are renowned for their palets d'or - small disks of bittersweet chocolate flecked with real gold leaf.
Soierie Vivante
The area of Croix-Rousse was the center of Lyon's silk industry; you can discover the last authentic family silk weaving workshops (and their stunning wares) with Soierie Vivante (twww.soierie-vivante.asso.fr).
La Halle de la Part-Dieu
Butchers, bakers, sausage makers and the occasional oyster bar line the aisles at the 1971 covered market where the city's best chefs shop. Cheese lovers shouldn't miss a pilgrimage to la Mère Richard's stall, where Renée Richard displays her spectacularly unctuous St-Marcellin, three-inch disks of creamy goat's- and cow's-milk cheese rumored to have been Louis XI's favorite.
The "Other" Lyon
Lyon's charm can have intriguing repercussions: a Dubai businessman, captivated by the city on a vist last October, has even decided to build a miniature version of Lyon back home in Dubai. The project, temporarily called Lyon-Dubai City, will include a university; small versions of Lyon's main museums; housing, hotel and office space; cafes, restaurants, pedestrian malls, town squares, courtyards, a film center, even a church, all inspired by Lyon.
About the Author
BCD Travel is your all inclusive corporate travel agency offering competitive ongoing corporate travel management solutions to companies across Australia. We do more than simply organise your corporate travel, we also coordinate conferences and incentives and assist staff with personal holiday planning to any destination worldwide.
Top 5 Attractions, Marseille (France) - Travel Guide
Seeing Greece online is not the same with having Holiday Travel in Greece. Holiday Travel in Greece I most cases means going back into the time, not for years and decades only, but even millenniums. Sited in the south part of Balkan's peninsula today Greece is one of most visited and well know tourist destinations in all Holiday Travel Guidebooks.
Tourist for his Holiday Travel might come into the Greece by land, air and sea. At the north Greece has frontiers with Macedonia, Albania and Bulgaria, from the east side is a Turkey and at south Greece is opened to the Mediterranean by the Aegean sea.
In Holiday Travel Guidebooks stands that, accessing from the north the first big city is Thessaloniki with almost million habitants. It is big economic, cultural and education center. Holiday Travel Guide worldwide will not recommend north area of the Greece as a travel destination. Big harbors as Thessaloniki, Pieria with big overseas ships make big pollution in this area which is not pretty much attractive. Traveling to south by E75 highway, the landscape begun most attractive. Many monuments from the Hellenic period have pretty much to say about ancient Greece. Ancient Greece was a place full of recreation of sorts. From socializing to the Olympics, the Greeks had numerous ways of keeping themselves busy. Your Holiday Travel Guide will tell you that the ancient Greeks were the originators of recreation. They had many of the same sports and recreation activities that we use today. Every city-state had at least one gym. There you could do a combination of activities such as, run track, visit the lecture hall and park. There was also a bathing facility, where you could go after a workout.
Traveling deep back in the time with your Holiday Travel Guide you will that two major city-states in ancient Greece were Athens and Sparta, and these two cities had different social systems and concentrated on perfecting different aspects of life. The ancient Greeks developed a social system that reflected their geography and climate. The city-state was the name given to the early kingdoms built around a small city, with the largest political unit being the city itself. In time, city-states would join together to form larger political units, creating larger kingdoms and eventually empires stretching across much of a continent or other large area. For the people, the city-state was the basic political unit, and the major ones were Athens and Sparta. The leadership in Athens was democratic, while that in Sparta was based more on strong military leaders. Present day democracy and some funds of today science even come from those old ancient times.
Archimedes, Pythagoras, Diogenes, Homer and many know people from that time had deep contribution for Greece to become top tourist destination in most of the Holiday Travel Guide tours today. Greek's Islands are different stories one by one. Lot of information's might be found in Holiday Travel Guide sites online that will describe and picture them exactly as they are. The only one way to fill them is to go there.
Dubai is the jewel in the crown of the United Arab Emirates, and a truly unique destination. It is an opulent playground built upon a philosophy with boundary pushing architecture and innovation at its core. What is most astounding about Dubai is the fact that for the most part it is brand new: to the extent that over the course of less than a decade, the Emirate has been transformed from a sparsely populated desert land into one of the most desirable locations on earth. It is a place of great wealth, great power and above all: of great times!
Dubai as a holiday destination appeals to a broad spectrum of people, of all ages. The chances are, that if you think you might be interested in visiting Dubai then you will almost certainly enjoy a trip there. It is home to the world's tallest building, the world's first seven star hotel and many other world firsts alongside a wealth of shopping, dining, relaxation and diverse experiences. There are very few other places on earth where you can go from 5 star luxury hotel facilities to a Jeep safari in the desert and back again within a matter of hours.
Although it is very similar to Europe and the USA in many cultural aspects, there are however some differences and it is imperative that local laws and cultural issues are respected and adhered to, similarly it must not be forgotten that temperatures can reach very high levels. The following points should be carefully noted but by no means be a cause for concern:
The Climate
Dubai has an arid, sub-tropical climate (which is hardly surprising given that it is located with the Northern desert belt). As such temperatures can reach uncomfortable levels during certain months, between June and September for instance, the average temperature is between 39 and 41 degrees C. As such, the peak holiday season is between December and March when average temperatures are between 23 and 27 degrees: which is considerably more palatable for many Brits! If however you aren't fazed by high temperatures, then it is worth bearing in mind that there are often incredibly good deals to be had on trips taken between June and September and the vast majority of hotels, restaurants, malls and other indoor areas are fully air conditioned.
Cultural Differences
Despite the high temperatures it is strongly recommended that you dress conservatively when out in public in Dubai, it is for instance never acceptable to wander the streets in swimwear (for men or women) and women are not permitted to go topless, even on the beach or at the pool. Revealing clothing should always be avoided to avoid causing offence to the resident, Muslim population. Public displays of affection are frowned upon in Dubai, as has been highlighted in the news recently. The cases which have been brought to the attention of the world by the press are however extreme examples and by exercising common sense and restraint you will not encounter any trouble.
The Impact of Islam
Dubai is a predominantly Muslim place and as such Islamic customs are adhered to. One of the most prevalent repercussions of this fact is the impact of Ramadan upon the Emirate. Ramadan is a month long period of fast and it does have a bearing upon the opening hours of bars and restaurants whilst also bringing with it some other restrictions. Ramadan occurs over different dates each year; as such it is worth finding out when it takes place before booking a trip. Although visiting Dubai during Ramadan is still a thoroughly enjoyable experience and unlikely to negatively impact upon your visit, it is generally advised to avoid visiting during the religious festival if possible.
All in all, Dubai is truly incredible holiday destination which offers a perfect hybrid of Middle-Eastern and Western Cultures. The factors listed above should in no way be viewed negatively, but should simply be considered when booking or packing for what promises to be an incredible trip.
Vincent de Paul, The saint of charitable societies, was born in Pouy, Gascony, France around 1580. His parents Jean de Paul and Bertrande de Moras were farmers who raised four sons and two daughters. Vincent was very intelligent at a young age when his father decided to send him away to the Cordelier Brothers at Dax. He attended the school for four years when he tutored the children of a lawyer. Vincent was able to continue his studies without any expenses to bother his parents with. He then attended the Spanish University of Saragossa to further his education, and later decided to return to France and attend the University of Toulouse where he got the degree of Theology.
Vincent was traveling on a boat when pirates who were menace of all Mediterranean shipping attacked them with arrows after refusing to strike their flag. He was wounded and taken captive to Tunis, Africa and there sold as a slave. This was a major life turning point in his life. He was purchased by a fisherman and then sold again to a Moslem. He grew to enjoy the presence of his slave. Vincent prayed for protection and especially for intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary. He was terrified of his faith becoming corrupted while in the alien environment.
Continuing standing firm in his faith, Vincent also continued living with his slave owner until he died, when then he had a new owner, the master's nephew. He yet again was sold to a Mohammedanism who had three wives. Among the wives was a Turkish woman. She often came around the slave while he was at work. She would ask him to sing songs in praise of his heavenly father out of curiosity. The woman would go to her husband and ask what the reasoning was behind turning away from his religion. She eventually made the slave owner return to his original religion while staying with hers. He repented and he and Vincent escaped Africa together. They made their way across the Mediterranean safely and landed eventually near Marseilles in June of 1607. The both of them ventured to Rome and became apart of the Brothers of St. John of God and served in hospitals.
Returning to France, Vincent became the almoner of Queen Marguerite of Valois. He roomed in the same house of a lawyer, who was robbed and convicted him of the crime. Vincent did nothing but deny the charge and quoted, "God knows the truth." Finally after a long hard six years of slander the actual thief confessed of the crime. This became a testimony of his, proving that patience, silence, and resignation was the only way to defend the innocent.
Later he became a pastor of a neglected and abandoned church. He started a regular worship and brought life back into the run down church. He converted a popular amount of aristocrats from their lifestyles to those of God. While doing this it still didn't complete the passion he had with helping the suffering. He began to help the sick in everyway he could. The Ladies of Charity helped him in many ways, to collect money and also to help him attend for the sick. This they did very well.
