May 13th, 2013 at 5:00PM:
The first flyable Airbus A350 emerged from a hangar in southwestern France earlier today, showing off a freshly painted livery stamped with the Airbus logo. But the significance of this morning's roll out goes beyond just a few layers of paint; according to Airbus, the plane has passed a number of milestones, including flight-test-instrument (FTI) verification, and should be ready for its ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
France posts
An Airplane Is Born: Airbus A350 Shows Off Paint Job, Ready For Test Flights
May 13th, 2013 at 5:00PM:
The first flyable Airbus A350 emerged from a hangar in southwestern France earlier today, showing off a freshly painted livery stamped with the Airbus logo. But the significance of this morning's roll out goes beyond just a few layers of paint; according to Airbus, the plane has passed a number of milestones, including flight-test-instrument (FTI) verification, and should be ready for its ...Mayotte's Zam-Zam: Restaurant And Launchpad
May 11th, 2013 at 10:00AM: Last month I visited Mayotte, an island located between Madagascar and Mozambique in the Mozambique Channel. Mayotte is part of the Comoros archipelago, but unlike the rest of the Comoros, it is part of France.
In 1975, when the rest of the Comoros became independent, Mayotte elected to remain with France. In 2011, the association got even tighter when Mayotte became an overseas department of ...Northern Lights Best Viewed At Sea, On A Yacht, French Style
May 4th, 2013 at 4:00PM: Considering a trip to see the Northern Lights? This year may very well be the best time to go. 2013 is the height of the 11-year solar cycle. September and October offer peak activity. They can be seen in Alaska, Norway, Finland and Canada on a clear night. Better yet, try viewing on a ship at sea.
Common tips for viewing the Northern Lights say to go North, inside the Arctic circle, bring ...Postcards From Carcassonne: Exploring A Medieval French Village
May 1st, 2013 at 11:00AM:
While on a film production in southern France (no really, for this), we were cruising along the autoroute between Toulouse and Narbonne. I was in the driver's seat, which, for the record, is not the spot you want to be in while driving through this part of France. You get the occasional glimpse at the countryside, but as the sun shines and the southern landscape passes by, you definitely want ...In Praise Of Travel Lists
Apr 30th, 2013 at 1:00PM: Travel lists get a lot of grief. I've overheard many fellow travel writers offer the opinion that lists of various sorts are deeply inferior to any and all narrative travel writing. Others have suggested that lists are slowly crowding out real travel writing entirely.
C'mon now.
Let's agree for a few provisional minutes that the purpose of travel writing is, very generally, to inspire people ...Louvre Shut Due To Violent Gang Of Pickpockets
Apr 11th, 2013 at 12:30PM:
The Louvre temporarily closed on Wednesday due to a strike protesting trouble with violent pickpockets.
The Guardian reports more than a hundred staff walked out on Wednesday in protest over "increasingly aggressive" gangs of pickpockets that harass both visitors and staff. Staff members who have tried to stop the criminals have been kicked and spat at. The strikers are demanding extra ...Paris Redux: Classic Parisian Neighborhoods As Seen Through Typography
Apr 10th, 2013 at 2:00PM:
Design geeks and French lovers beware: this video was made for you.
Using some of Paris' most iconic neighborhoods and coming up with simple visual representations of them, the video was made as a holiday greeting card by global design agency Havas Worldwide.
My favorite is Canal St Martin, an area most tourists recognize from the "Amélie" stone-skipping scene and nowadays with ...Video Of The Day: Quiet Time In France
Apr 8th, 2013 at 6:00PM:
The words "city" and "quiet" don't usually go hand in hand. Cities are, by their very nature, synonymous with hustle and bustle. But in the short film above, Andrew Julian challenges this notion. He offers a glimpse of Paris that shows the exact opposite of a metropolis – in fact, people rarely appear in the video, and when they do they're seen taking in their surroundings instead of ...
International Adventure Guide 2013: Paris, France
Apr 5th, 2013 at 11:00AM:
An adventure guide to Paris? Yes.
At first glance, Paris probably isn't the go-to city for outdoor enthusiasts. Metros, brasseries and the Champs Elysées don't really make the top of the list of an adventurer's itinerary. But being the diverse and ever-changing big city that it is, there are plenty of opportunities for those travelers that like to blend their urban tours with a ...Video Of The Day: French Street Performer Spreads Love Of Cats
Apr 1st, 2013 at 7:00PM:
Street performers, or buskers, are found in every corner of the world, and practice of performing in public places for gratuities dates back to antiquity. Performers are constantly coming up with wild and wacky ways to impress passersby and entice them into donating their spare change. This short documentary by Paul Trillo follows one of those unique characters: a cat-loving street performer ...
No Bones About The Wonders Of Vézelay
Mar 31st, 2013 at 9:00AM:
Once upon a time, in the days of gluttonous yore - the 1980s - the celebrated Burgundian hill town of Vézelay, crowned by the Basilica of Mary Magdalene, was known as "a site of gastronomic pilgrimage." Rarely did anyone evoke Magdalene's relics or her UNESCO World Heritage Site shrine. Rarely did gastronomes notice the strangely attired pilgrims trudging up the looping, lichen-frosted ...Photo Of The Day: Framing The Louvre
Mar 28th, 2013 at 6:00PM:
It's not easy to frame a scene perfectly for a photograph, especially at a popular spot full of tourists. But Flickr user Kumakulanui did it twice for today's Photo of the Day. Taken at Paris' famed Louvre museum, he captures both the larger scene of people and architecture, as well as the close-up his travel companion is shooting on her camera. The result is a very clever double take, giving ...#OnTheRoad On Instagram: Reunion
Mar 25th, 2013 at 7:00AM:
This week on Instagram, Gadling is off to the Indian Ocean island of Reunion.
The Indian Ocean bridges Africa in the west and Southeast Asia and Australia in the east. Much less familiar to Americans than Europeans, the region's islands challenge the Caribbean for the attention of upscale Europeans, and can lay claim to some of the world's dreamiest properties. Some of its countries, like ...Fabled Sunstone Discovered In English Shipwreck
Mar 7th, 2013 at 4:00PM:
A team of French archaeologists believe they have found a sunstone, a strange crystal that was said to help mariners locate the sun even on overcast days.
Some of the medieval Norse Sagas mention this device. In "Rauðúlfs þáttr," King Olaf asks the hero Sigurður to point out the sun in the middle of a snowstorm. Sigurður points to where it is behind the gray ...Conservatives, Pack Your Bags! Liberal-Free Travel Has Arrived
Mar 6th, 2013 at 9:00AM: Some people like risks when they travel. Others don't want to take any chances that their entire hard-earned vacation will be ruined by angry, bitter, close-minded companions - you know, liberals.
That's the philosophy behind Conservative Tours, a Boston-based company not to be confused with conservation-related tourism. It's led by political pundit Ken Chase, a 2006 Republican candidate for ...France Launches New Low Cost, High-Speed Train Service
Feb 21st, 2013 at 12:00PM:
Low cost isn't just for the skies anymore. This week, French rail service SNCF launched its new low cost service Ouigo, a no-frills option for the traveler that wants a more moderately priced ticket but wants to take advantage of the high-speed service that France is known for. The new train service will link Paris and Lyon to Marseille and Montpellier on the southern coast of France.
...Naughty Place Names You Never Noticed In Your Atlas
Feb 16th, 2013 at 2:00PM:
If geography has always seemed like a rather boring subject to you, chances are you've just been looking at the wrong kind of maps. Because one man has put together an online atlas that provides hours of giggle-inducing, snigger-triggering, head-scratching fun.
Londoner Gary Gale created a website where he brings together hundreds of rude place names located across the globe. Towns, ...Budget Travel In The Midst Of Luxury: Exploring Monaco In One Afternoon
Feb 8th, 2013 at 9:00AM:
"I have a crazy idea ... lunch in Monaco?"
It was the end of a two-week documentary film production in France and we were spending the last night in Nice, so our director deemed it only fitting to grab lunch in the world of casinos and Formula One racing. When in Nice, drive to Monaco.
Opting for the scenic Basse Corniche route as opposed to the autoroute, we drove along the coastline ...Good News, Ladies! Now You Can Wear Pants In Paris
Feb 5th, 2013 at 3:00PM:
Are you a woman planning a trip to Paris? Well, now you can pack a pair of pants without fear of running afoul of the law. The BBC reports that it is now legal for women to wear pants in the City of Love.
The city government has finally struck a law off the books dating back to 1800 that required women to get police permission before "dressing like a man." Around the turn of the past century, ...A Winter Wonderland In Paris? Mais Oui!
Jan 28th, 2013 at 10:00AM:
The first fat flakes clustered along my sleeve as I stood facing the Luxembourg Garden on the icy Left Bank. A grumpy street sweeper from the south side of the Sahara scattered salt and scowled. Then he looked up and batted his clotted eyelashes. Snow! In Paris? What a forgotten thrill! ...
