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| April 11, 2008 | to | April 13, 2008 |
| June 21, 2008 | to | June 22, 2008 |
| September 26, 2008 | to | September 28, 2008 |
The Domaine of St Jean de Beauregard (91 Essonne, Ile de France) features a fine chateau and extensive grounds and gardens. They host several major gardening events each year. The kitchen garden (potager) is a key attraction as is the pigeonnier - the largest in the Paris region with 4,500 peches for pigeons!
11-13 April 2008 its the Festival of Perennial (or Hardy) Plants (plantes vivaces).
La Fête des Plantes et des Fruits et Légumes (Festival of Plants,Fruits and Vegetables) takes place 26-28 September 2008. 21-22 June 2008 the domaine hosts a craft festival (Fete des Artisans) with over 40 artists and craftsmen showing their creations in the grounds of the domaine.
For more info see www.domsaintjeanbeauregard.com
| July 27, 2008 |
The Tour de France 2008 (21 stages, 3500 km) Stage 21, the final day is usually a gentle ride through the outskirts of Paris (the overall winner is usually known by now), but there are still points to be won for the sprints and the glory of a stage win on the Champs-Elysees - so the last 5 laps around central Paris can be very exciting. Sunday 27 July 2008 starting from Etampes (91 Essonne, Ile de France) and finishing 143 km later on the Champs Elysees (75 Paris, Ile de France)
For more on the Tour de France 2008 see www.letour.fr/
For details of coverage on ITV see www.itv.com
Frank Barrett over on TravelMail (11 Jan 08)(the online version of the Daily Mail’s travel section) has a nice little article and video showing how to do Paris in a day trip from London on Eurostar.
The ‘Big Five’ Paris attractions are reckoned to be the Pompidou Centre, the Louvre, the Musee d’Orsay, the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe. Actually, the Arc is best viewed from the other end of the Champs-Elysees; I would substitute Notre Dame.
Cannot disagree with that list, which would also allow you to enjoy the delights of the Seine , the Jardin des Tuileries and the Champs Elysees. You can see the video here.
Paris is a great city for strolling and enjoying the splendid vistas offered by the River, the axis of the Louvre - Place de la Concorde - Champs Elysees - Arc de Triomphe and the Arch of the Defense; or the panorama offered from Montmartre. But when it rains everyone heads for the art galleries and museums, which can be become clogged - and the queues to get into places like Musee d’Orsay get longer and entail queuing in the rain!!
So another strategy, which admittedly may involve a few sprints between destinations, would be to head for the arcades and galleries which offer great window shopping under cover. Places such as the Galerie Vivienne (rue Vivienne, Paris 2) - see photo above - with its marble floors is an elegant 19th century equivalent to s modern shopping mall -there are others between the rue St Marc and thre Bouilevard Montmartre.
A little less protected from the elements are the arcades around places such as the Jardin du Palais Royal, the Place des Vosges along the rue de Rivoli.
But the Parisiens have the best solution - head for a cafe/bar/brasserie, get a window seat and order a Chocolat Chaud (hot chocolate) and just watch the world go by with all the theatre and variety that Paris can offer,
The traffic in Paris is notoriously bad at any time of year so bringing a car is not a good idea. The Peripherique - Paris’ Ring Road - is often clogged, but tends to move albeit fitfully. However with the Periperhique gridlock is often the case.
Two ways of avoiding this are available - the Velib Scheme of city-wide bicycle hire (see picture) which is proving very popular. Once subscribed you can pick up a bike at any one of numerous self-service “Stations” and return it to any other for a modest charge. There are however reportedly some problems around Sacre Coeur and Montmartre which are on a hill overlooking the city - everyone seems to pick up a bike at the top of the hill to ride down, but few choose to ride up the hill resulting in a lack of bikes at the top,
UPDATE: - The Independent (16 July 2008) reports that about 3000 of the Velib bikes have been stolen, but that the scheme is still a great success and there are plans to extend it to the Paris suburbs!
The other traffic-free option is the BATOBUS, a river bus service which runs from the Eiffel Tower down to the Jardin des Plantes calling at the Musee d’Orsay, St Germain des Pres, Notre Dame, Hotel de Ville, Louvre and Champs-Elysees - just get on and off where you choose for €12 per day (or €14 for 2 days) - and get some great views of the city into the bargain.
Salons des Vins (Wine Fairs) - Vignerons Independants (Independent Wine Makers) 2007.
Open to the public, a small charge gives you access to hundreds of wines and winemakers from all over France. Here you can taste and buy wines, often at cellar door prices - as long as you can carry them. Meet the winemaker, discover new wines - enjoy!
Rennes (35 Ile-et-Villaine, Bretagne) 13-15 April 2007
Lyon (69 Rhône, Rhône-Alpes) 25-29 October 2007
Reims (51 Marne, Champagne-Ardenne) 9-12 November 2007
Lille (59 Nord, Nord Pas-de- Calais)16-19 November 2007
Paris (Porte de Versailles) 22-26 November 2007
Robert Doisneau is the photographer whose iconic black and white photos of Paris in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s captured a vision of a romantic city, conjured up the music of Edith Piaf or Charles Aznavour and swathed it all in the whiff of Gauloises cigarettes. We have several of his atmospheric prints at home, and they are very evocative of a Paris as we’d all love to imagine it.
And yet, the Paris and Parisiens that he photographed are not in the main the tourist sites or celebrities, but much more of the day-to-day almost back-street life of the city and its people. Some are quite quirky and funny, but somehow you know that they are of Paris and of real people in that era.
Perhaps his most famous image is that shown above - “Le Baiser de l’Hotel de Ville” taken in 1950 and which was sold in 2005 for €155.000.
There is an exibition of his work at the Hotel de Ville in Paris until 27 Feb 2007 (not Sundays) - for more info see http://en.parisinfo.com/
| April 7, 2006 | to | April 10, 2006 |
Coulommiers is both a cheese and a town - in 77 Seine-et-Marne, Ile de France, 40 odd miles east of Paris. The town celebrates its cheese in a grand cheese and wine festival from 7-10 April 2006 - cheese and wine tasting, competition for the best cheese, competition for the best cheese eater, concert, exhibition etc.
See www.foire-fromages-et-vins.com
Coulommiers is a soft cheese, essentially a small Brie, made from raw cow’s milk. The more one investigates the more one discovers - as there is Brie de Meaux, Brie Fermier, Brie de Melun, Brie de Coulommiers (which is not quite the same as Coulommiers), Brie de Montereau, Brie de Rungis and Brie de Provins. Brie de Meaux is widely regarded as the best, but as with all these styles of cheese, appropriate ripeness is critical.Too young and hard and so much flavour and texture is missing. Ripened too quickly the cheese separates and is lumpy. A good cheesemonger will ask when the cheese is to be eaten and choose appropriately, Getting one that has just the right amount of ooze is critical, in the short period before it gets dissolves too far into a sticky goo which smells of ammonia.
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The recently opened A77 autoroute runs from the A6 Autoroute du Soleil at Nemours (77 Seine et Marne, Ile de France) south of Paris due south towards Nevers (58 Nievre, Bourgogne) and eventually Moulins (03 Allier,Auvergne) and offers greatly improved access to the upper Loire, Sancerre, Briare (for the Pont Canal over the Loire) etc.
Most French autoroutes have names and this is known as the Autoroute des Arbres - Autoroute of the Trees. It features a delightful “Jardin des Arbres” rest area which is designed as a “shop window” in which to present a few of the remarkable species from the nearby National Arboretum at Barres. The Société des Autoroutes Paris-Rhin-Rhône, (the company which runs this motorway) then developed a more ambitious idea for the whole of the A77 autoroute: -
small groves of trees and copses have been planted all along the motorway. They are presented as arboretums to attract the attention of travellers.Their density increases then steadily decreases on both sides of the road over the whole route.
Each rest/service area has been named after the species chosen to beautify it including sephora, purple beech, cedar, gum tree, gingko, tulip tree and sequoia which succeed each other along the 101 km route.
It certainly puts the M1 and the likes of Newport Pagnall services to shame - BUT then most French autoroutes are toll roads, and they seldom have the sheer density of traffic which we have to endure in the UK.
For more information on the National Arboretum at Barres which is at Nogent-sur-Vernisson (45 Loiret, Centre) see www.arboretumdesbarres.com . - junction 18.1 off the A77 south of Montargis. The “Jardin des Arbres” rest area is just south of Junction 18.1 on the A77.
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Keywords:autoroute,france,motorway,a77,Loire,Cher,Loiret,Sancerre,Gien,Briare,Moulins,Nevers,Nemours,Vernisson,Nogent,Barres,Arboretum
The French equivalent of our “Britain in Bloom” competition is the “Villes et Villages Fleuris” and you’ll see the above sign on the approach to the winning towns and villages.
They are chosen after a rigourous selection process, based on the care they have taken with their floral decoration; the beauty of their parks and gardens; and the work they have done to improve the urban environment and provide visitors a friendly welcome.
Some of these districts are well-known cities, while others are little villages deep in the heart of the countryside - the Gold Medal winner being Le Plessis Robinson (92 Hauts de Seine, Ile de France) - really an outer suburb of Paris, about 15 miles Southwest of the city centre.
Before taking the name “Robinson”, Le Plessis was known as Plessis-Raoul, and Plessis-Piquet, and it was only in 1905 that it became Plessis-Robinson, thanks to a restaurant owner who, in 1898, had the idea of setting up little restaurants with music and dancing among the trees, reproducing the home of Robinson-Crusoë. These were enormously successful at the turn of the century, and the thousands of Parisians who came out to it every Sunday made their reputation.
The town is distinguished by its abundant greenery, alongside elegant floral displays: 1,200 original hanging displays, flowery meadows …Le Plessis-Robinson has been a green town for a long time, with a great variety of parks, gardens, woods and squares. It distinguished itself in 1919 by launching a competition for concepts which, in 1929, gave birth to the Garden City, a major event in the history of town planning. Nowadays, Le Plessis is the highest town in Hauts-de-Seine (at 170m), as well as the greenest, with 50 m2 of open spaces per head of the population, or 100 hectares of parks and woodland!
For cheap cross-channel ferry crossings see Cheap4Ferries.com
Keywords;France,Gardens,Ville,Fleuri,plessis,robinson
