Jan 12th, 2012 at 6:00PM:
You might have been able to guess the location of today's Photo of the Day without a title. Advanced use of scarves? Check. Frou-frou dogs? Check. Delicious-looking loaf of bread? Mais oui, it is Paris. The French have a closer relationship to their bakers than most Americans can understand, picking up a fresh baguette daily. Even with the advent of baguette vending machines, you can be sure ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
French posts
Photo of the Day: Paris bakery run
Jan 12th, 2012 at 6:00PM:
You might have been able to guess the location of today's Photo of the Day without a title. Advanced use of scarves? Check. Frou-frou dogs? Check. Delicious-looking loaf of bread? Mais oui, it is Paris. The French have a closer relationship to their bakers than most Americans can understand, picking up a fresh baguette daily. Even with the advent of baguette vending machines, you can be sure ...Video of the day: a goaty guide to pronouncing foreign cheeses
Nov 12th, 2011 at 4:00PM: The holidays are Cheese Season. At no other time of the year are cheese and specialty food shops as thronged by dairy-seeking customers. They're hungry for a fix or searching for a gift, recipe ingredient, or the makings of a cheese plate. Cheese is love, and one of the easiest, most elegant ways to kick off a cocktail party or conclude (or make) a memorable meal.
With that in mind, the folks ...
Lost and Liberated in the Dordogne
May 27th, 2011 at 9:00AM: "I'm lost. I'm late. I'm sorry," I blurted into the phone, in French.
Silence.
"So, Monsieur Manouvrier, if it's OK I would still like to meet you today."
"You are an hour late. Do you think I have nothing better to do? You Americans think you are so important?" he bellowed, barely breathing between salvos. "Do you think we are so honored to speak to an American that we will stop ...Useful foreign phrases, Part 2: how to say, "Can you write this down for me?" in 10 languages
May 5th, 2011 at 1:00PM: A post written by Chris on Tuesday reminded me of this little language series I started in March. In "Ten things Ugly Americans need to know before visiting a foreign land," Chris recommended brushing up on the local language. He joked about dashing around Venice clutching his concierge's handwritten note, "Do you have 220/110 plug converters for this stupid American who left his at home?"
...Useful foreign phrases, Part 1: how to say, "I'm just looking" in 10 languages
Mar 24th, 2011 at 12:00PM: I've frequently pimped Lonely Planet's Phrasebooks on this site, but I swear I don't get kickbacks from the company. It's just that I'm a big believer in not being a). A Tourist (although, let's face it, if I'm not at home, I am indeed A Tourist) and b). helpless.
Even if you're the biggest xenophobe on earth--which would make foreign travel a really weird and pointless pastime you might want ...Brits are worst-dressed tourists in Europe
Jun 7th, 2010 at 10:00AM: When it comes to dressing horribly, the British are the best of the worst. According to a survey conducted by TripAdvisor, Brits are the worst-dressed tourists roaming the Continent. According to the Telegraph, the Germans and Americans are next in line when it comes to fashion-challenged tourists. The survey covered several other topics, as well.
The French may be well-dressed, but they are ...Fluenz - Language learning for grownups
Feb 19th, 2010 at 12:30PM: So many language programs boast their superiority by claiming they teach you the same way you learned your native language as a child. Not Fluenz.
"Up until now, people have been limited to the 'see a picture, memorize the word' language programs that teach adults as if they were children. But, adults learn differently from children," says Carlos Lizarralde, co-founder of Fluenz. "That's why ...South by Southeast: Hit and run Hanoi
Jan 20th, 2010 at 9:00AM:
You don't just visit Hanoi. Hanoi visits you. Take a walk down any street of this fast-paced Vietnamese capital of commerce and communism and prepare to be overwhelmed by sensory delights (and annoyances). Motorbikes buzz around intersections like nests of angry hornets. Your feet trip over small plastic stools at street-side noodle shops. Vendors chase you down the street like used car ...South by Southeast: Exploring Luang Prabang
Dec 30th, 2009 at 9:00AM: Welcome back to Gadling's series on backpacking in Southeast Asia, South by Southeast. As travelers, we have a tendency to overload our trips with adventure and movement. This is especially true in Southeast Asia - as I've discovered in Thailand and Laos, there's no shortage of motorbikes to ride or zip lines to catch. But if you truly want to understand this part of the world, it's not a vigorous ...East of Africa: City of the Thousand
Dec 7th, 2009 at 9:30AM:
In Antananarivo, the French colonial influence is everywhere: spired churches sit atop the city's prominent hills. Pretty jacaranda trees line Lake Anosy, which wraps around a war memorial statue in the center of the water.
A large defunct train station sits negelected at the end of a wide boulevard. The sign below the grand clock spells the city's old French name: "Tananarive". Horse-drawn ...East of Africa: Arrival
Dec 3rd, 2009 at 9:00AM:
Adriaan and I are barreling down a small cobblestone street in a dusty 4x4. Several people narrowly miss the car's bull bars as they dash across the road, yet hardly flinch when we brush past them. I look out into the mass of people; skin tones are a mix of brown and black. Moderately well dressed people walk next to beggars with torn shirts.
The market we're passing feels as crowded and ...Madagascar: East of Africa
Nov 30th, 2009 at 10:00AM:
I have this habit of never preparing adequately for trips. The tickets get booked, the bags get packed at the last moment, and I suddenly find myself about to touch down in a foreign place.
When I found out I was going to Madagascar for work, I did some brief Wikipedia and Wikitravel skimming: fourth largest island in the world...lots of plants and animals...used to be a French ...Gadlinks for Monday 7.13.09
Jul 13th, 2009 at 6:00PM: Well, it's Monday, and it's back to the grind for most of us. I, however, am down with the flu and am writing this from bed. I hope the rest of you are having a more healthy day. Here are the latest travel stories from the world wide web.
If you've traveled in southeast Asia, then you know the craze that is Beer Lao. It's only the region's uncontested best beer! Frommers reports the popular ...French tourists voted worst in the world
Jul 10th, 2009 at 12:00PM: OUCH - If you are French, I recommend that you stop reading now, as this is bound to hurt. The French have been voted worst tourists in the world, in a survey of 40,000 tourists. The results paint a pretty bleak picture of the French, calling them "penny-pinching, rude, pushy and terrible at foreign languages". I'll leave my own opinion of the French out of this, as the survey seems to reach the ...Brits continue to self-congratulate on cleanliness
Apr 19th, 2009 at 10:00AM: Brits are the best-behaved hotel guests, according to a survey by TripAdvisor. More than 3,000 participated in the study, and the results are certain to reinforce stereotypes. Forty-three percent of hotel guests from the UK make their own beds every morning ... which is nothing compared to the 79 percent who put their clothes neatly in the closets.
But, tidiness comes with a price. Travelers from ...Group vacations - French villas are hot!
Nov 7th, 2008 at 1:30PM: Want to make all your friends swoon? Rent out a villa in the south of France for an affordable, peaceful vacation. Want to make all your friends love you? Take them along! French villas have become one of the top destinations in the great tradition of group vacations. I love group vacations; it's like an extended party. Get everyone you like together and watch them interact for a week. It's ...Expedia survey rates the world's worst tourists
Jun 25th, 2008 at 8:30AM: The French, Indians, and the Chinese have been voted as the world's worst tourists by a group of 4000 hoteliers, in a survey conducted by online travel search engine Expedia. On the other hand, the best tourists are 1) Japanese 2) British and Germans. Yup, looks like the annoying and continuous photo taking of everything in sight by the Japanese, and the drunken stag parties of the British and the ...Pirates release cruise ship hostages
Apr 11th, 2008 at 1:10PM: Call me naive and uninformed, but I honestly didn't think that pirates still operate in the world the way they do in the movies. That is obviously not the case.
According to this IHT article, the International Maritime Bureau, which tracks piracy, says that global pirate attacks rose 10 percent in 2007, marking the first increase in three years. Pirates seized more than two dozen ships off the ...Fête de la Francophonie: Celebrating the francophone world
Mar 19th, 2008 at 11:30AM: French is the native tongue of over 80 million people. But many more people interact with it on a daily basis, be it through culture, as a second language or even as a subject being learned in school. The francophone world stretches from Hanoi to Abidjan, bringing together all kinds of foods and customs that aren't always immediately associated with all things French; this isn't about baguettes ..."Le" or "la"? Even the French can't decide
Feb 29th, 2008 at 4:00PM: If you've ever dabbled in the French language, you know the difficulty of memorizing which gender goes with which noun. Why is a beard -- la barbe -- feminine? Why is a bicycle -- le vélo -- masculine? Well you shouldn't have to feel bad about your French language difficulties; turns out even the French can't agree on which gender goes with which word. A recent study conducted by Dalila ...
