As you stroll down the exhilarating Boulevard Saint Germain on the Left Bank in Paris, make sure to pay your respects to the three sacred “temples” of Parisian café society near the church of Saint-German-des-Près: the Café des Deux Magots, the Café de Flor (next door) and the Brasserie Lipp (across the road).  In the 1930s, this trio of charismatic establishments became the bohemian crossroads of Europe, when successful artists like Picasso, André Breton, Salvador Dali and Marcel Duchamp descended on them, bringing an entourage of writers, celebrities and fashionistas in their wake.

Under German occupation, the intellectual power couple Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir set up shop in the Flore, having been driven out of their old haunts by Nazi officers on r-and-r.  Since the couple was living in a cheap hotel at the time, they preferred to spend all day in the café.  Sartre later recorded their rigid daily working routine – writing from 9 a.m. until 12 p.m.; lunch until 2 p.m.; chatting with friends until 4 p.m.; more writing until 8 p.m.; dinner until 10 p.m.; then late night business meetings in the cafe.  “It may seem strange, all this,” Sartre wrote, “but the Flore was like home to us…even when the air-raid alarm sounded, we would merely pretend to leave and then climb up to the first floor and go on working…”

Today, these famous cafes are still great places to do a little philosophizing as you watch the world go by.  At the Deux Magots, guests don’t sit at tables so much as antique wooden writing desks, and the menu suggests that this is the “rendez-vous of the intellectual elite.” The small square in front is now called the Place Sartres-Beauvoir, in honor of the passionate couple.

One of the prettiest spots in Paris today was also once the bloodiest.  The elegant Place de Concorde now has an uplifting view across peaceful parkland to the broad Champs Elysée and the gracefully curving River Seine.  But during the French Revolution, this was where the dreaded guillotine was erected – specifically, on a spot halfway between the Egyptian obelisk and the Tuilleries Gardens (which then contained a royal palace).

Every day, wagons filled with unlucky victims would rattle along the Rue St. Honoré from the Conciergerie Prison (which survives as a museum on the Île de la Cité) to this notorious plaza, which had been renamed the Place de la Revolution.  Bleachers were erected to allow the Parisian mob a better view of the executions, with a carnival atmosphere prevailing and food vendors working the crowd.  But while low-lifes and tourists filled the audience, many more sensitive Parisians simply turned their backs on the bloodshed.

Read the rest of this entry »

Continuing our post from Wednesday, here are 6 more French hot spots to make your Paris, France vacation more memorable.

Les Égouts de Paris
Deep in the shadows of the Eiffel Tower is another historic feat of engineering. The 1,304 miles of underground canals form a “city beneath the city” that handles the proper flow of everything the Parisians prefer to keep below the surface.

Sacré-Coeur
This pristine, white-stone church was proposed as a memorial to the soldiers killed in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, but was not completed until the end of World War I. The church features one of the world’s largest mosaics, which depicts Christ with outstretched arms, and a massive 19-ton church bell.

Paradis Latin
Le PARADIS LATIN, designed by Gustave Eiffel and one of the city’s oldest theatres, is located on the Left Bank. Enjoy dinner, wine, champagne, and a very French revue.

Moulin Rouge
An exciting evening at the world-renowned Parisian cabaret. Dinner with half a bottle of wine is served during the show. A glass of champagne completes your evening in style.

Versailles
A short journey from Paris with your local guide to the lavish 17th-century baroque palace built by Sun King Louis XIV, with its magnificent STATE APARTMENTS, Hall of Mirrors, and the Royal Chapel. Time to stroll through parts of the elegant 250-acre GARDENS. Note: This excursion is not available on Mondays and public holidays.

Claude Monet’s Giverny
Drive along the Seine Valley to the HOME OF CLAUDE MONET, leader of the Impressionist School. Admire the collection of Japanese engravings and stroll through the garden, a famous source of inspiration for many celebrated artists.

We hope that these Paris must-see sights will help you get more vacation from your vacation.  Make your trip even more unique and use our travel planning resources to help get your dream vacation underway.

Sipping coffee at a Parisian cafe or taking in the masterpieces at the Louvre are French experiences that can’t be missed.  While traveling in Paris take some time to get off the beaten path by visiting this must-see sites on your Paris vacation.

Canal Saint Martin
Should the mood strike for a romantic stroll, make your way to this little-touristed canal. Its shaded towpaths are dappled with sunlight that filters through the plane trees. Enjoy.

Maison Prunier
For exquisite seafood dishes, give this venerable dining room a try. The fare is traditional French. The atmosphere, Art Deco.

Shakespeare and Company Bookstore
In the Roaring 20s, this quirky bookstore in the bohemian Left Bank was the meeting place for some of literature’s greats-Hemingway, Fitzgerald and Joyce to name a few. It still serves as a refuge for struggling writers and visitors alike.

Rue Cler
This bustling pedestrian street is teeming with edible objets d’art-from the rainbow of fresh fruit, to the soft palette of French baguettes and the colossal wheels of cheese. And when you’re ready for dessert, specialty stores abound-from tarts and pastries to crêpes and, of course, chocolate. Bon Appétit!

Sainte-Chapelle
One look at the upstairs chapel, and you’ll understand how Paris earned the moniker “City of Light.” Fifteen intricately designed panels of stained glass, commissioned by Louis IX, depict 1100 story-telling scenes.

Sephora
The importance of a delicate nose in French society is apparent at this aromatic wonderland. Follow your nose to the store’s “wheel of scents,” which are arranged from fresh scents like sea breeze to stronger ones like leather, chocolate and even civette-eau de cow pie.

Check back on Friday for Part #2 of our Paris, France not-to-be-missed sights.  Start planning your France vacation today!

A day spent sightseeing in Paris is filled with artworks, fresh baked treats and colorful markets.  When the sun goes down, Paris magically transforms into the “City of Light.”

On your vacation in Paris, see the Eiffel Tower illuminate the sky while you dine on French cuisine and enjoy a fine glass of wine.  France is filled with beauty and romance.

No trip to Paris, France is complete without a tour of the Louvre to see the famous Mona Lisa.

Today, a thick pane of bullet-proof security glass keeps artlovers a safe distance from the most famous painting in the world, Leonardo da Vinci’s “Portrait of Lisa Gherardini, Wife of Francesco Giacondo,” known in French as “La Joconde” and English as the “Mona Lisa.”  But back in 1911, it was simply hung on the walls of the Musée du Louvre like any other canvas.  That was until a former museum employee named Vincenzo Perrugia strolled into the gallery before opening hours on August 21, noticed the room was empty, took down the Mona Lisa and walked out of the Louvre with it under a painting smock.

When the loss was finally noticed, the police were mystified. For two years, the whereabouts of the masterpiece was unknown, while French detectives made various wild guesses.  (It had been stolen by the Germans.  By anarchists.  By evil geniuses.  By lunatics.)  They actually arrested the country’s top art critic, Guillame Apollinaire, then let him free.

Then, out of the blue in 1913, an Italian art dealer in Florence was contacted by a man calling himself “Leonardo” who claimed to have the Mona Lisa and wanted to see it hang in the Uffizi, Italy’s top art museum.  Although he found it hard to believe that the thief could be so reckless, the dealer tipped off the police and agreed to meet the strange Leonardo in a Milan hotel room.  There, the nondescript fellow opened his suitcase, emptied out his socks and underwear, opened up a false bottom in the case to reveal the Mona Lisa – and was immediately arrested.

It turned out that Perrugia was no criminal mastermind trying to make a fortune but a sentimental Italian nationalist who had stolen the canvas on impulse and merely wanted to see it returned to its land of origin.  (The Mona Lisa was purchased by France’s King Francis I in the 1530s.)  The recovery was greeted with exultation in France, and the famed canvas safely shipped to its home in the Louvre.  Back in Italy, however, the thief Peruggia was hailed as a patriotic hero in Italy and served only a short prison sentence.

Bienvenue, or welcome, to our series of posts on Paris, France.

We invite you to travel with us over the next month to the City of Love.  Spend a lazy afternoon in a café, wander through the Louvre and learn the history of Leonardo da Vinci’s “Portrait of Lisa Gherardini, Wife of Francesco Giacondo” and explore one of the most evocative sites in Paris, the Place de la Bastille.

Escape with us on our journey as we go off the beaten path and discover the must-see gems of this great French city.

The Australian Outback’s stunning landscapes are sure to inspire you.  Enjoy the breathtaking view of Uluru or Ayers Rock.  The famous landmark made of sandstone rock is about 280 miles south west of Alice Springs.  The area is home to many springs, waterholes, rock caves and ancient Aboriginal painings.

When vacatioing in Australia and visiting Ayers Rock make sure to take in the sunset where the formation will briefly glow red – truly a remarkable sight!

Nothing sums up the sheer enormity of Australia like the Outback, a sun-scorched expanse that dwarfs even the American plains.  On its lonely highways, cars pass so rarely that drivers will always salute each another with a laconic finger raised from the wheel.

Today, the Red Center’s main urban center is Alice Springs – a former telegraph outpost that has expanded into a vibrant city, where crusty characters with names like Stumpy, Wooky and Trots mingle happily in the pubs along with tourists as they enjoy their barbecues and beer.  Even the jillaroos (female versions of jackaroos – cattle ranch workers) are perched on the bar stools drinking rum-and-coke from pint-sized mugs.  But in order to experience the harsh Outback of myth, you have to leave the town limits in a 4WD vehicle.  Beyond Alice lie wide dirt roads with corrugations that shake the fillings out of teeth.  The rust-colored horizon seems to loom then dissolve, while mini-tornadoes called willie-willies sail through the haunted scrub.  These long, straight roads pass by formations that seem almost like hallucinogenic visions: tea-brown rivers glimmering in the distance, cliffs that turn blood red in the sunset, meteor craters blasted 145 million years ago, natural galleries of Aboriginal art.  At night, the crystal clear sky bursts with brilliant southern stars.  (It’s not uncommon to see three shooting stars at once).  And hidden in the remotest valleys are lush oases of 75-foot-tall livistona mariae palms, full of marsupials, fish and exotic bird life.

It’s no wonder the first British explorers who staggered into these secret groves thought they were dreaming.

Aussies may celebrate the foundation of their country every January 26th with sophisticated fireworks displays and picnics, but the actual event was an more dubious and chaotic affair.  On that day in 1788, some 700 shady characters from Britain’s most miserable slums were offloaded from eleven reeking transport ships – today honored as the “the First Fleet” – onto the shores of Sydney Cove.

Unlike other new immigrant societies, the pioneer settlers of Australia happened to be petty criminals and their guards, and they had been sent to a virtually unknown land: the east coast of Australia had only been visited by a single European explorer beforehand, Captain James Cook, in 1770.  To the new arrivals, they may as well have been sent to colonize Mars.

After eight grueling months at sea, the prisoners landed dazed and confused on the hot, bush-fringed sands, watched in amazement by groups of Eora Aborigines circling about in their bark canoes.  The last to land were the female prisoners.  This was when the extreme emotions of the moment came to a head, as soldiers and felons alike contemplated the strange, hostile landscape that was to be their new home. 

The result was Australia’s first and wildest beach party.  Carried away by the women’s presence, the convicts and marines broke into the fleet’s rum supplies.  The debauch was not even dulled by a thunderstorm at dusk: Revelers roared back at the sky and broke into bawdy songs.  The next day, officers regained control and punished a few of the worst offenders.  But the bad behavior was largely forgotten as they tackled the job at hand: Creating a new world in the far south.