Jul 7th, 2011 at 12:30PM:
From an island microslum in Colombia to a haute enclave in central Paris, the ten most crowded islands in the world bear scant similarities in class or culture. In fact, every entry in the top ten comes from a different country. But being islands, each shares the common thread of scarcity - whether it be land, resources, or housing. In general, these islands are prophetical microcosms for an ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
france posts
Top ten most crowded islands in the world
Jul 7th, 2011 at 12:30PM:
From an island microslum in Colombia to a haute enclave in central Paris, the ten most crowded islands in the world bear scant similarities in class or culture. In fact, every entry in the top ten comes from a different country. But being islands, each shares the common thread of scarcity - whether it be land, resources, or housing. In general, these islands are prophetical microcosms for an ...Video of the Day - Summer in the Alps
Jul 5th, 2011 at 6:30PM:
If you could capture your favorite snippets of summer, what would they be? Backyard barbecues? Ambitious road trips? A visit to your favorite lake?
Today's Video of the Day is a gorgeous montage of summer moments from the French & Italian Alps, compiled by French filmmaker and mountain guide Sebastien Montaz-Rosset. Sebastien writes that he "filmed and edited what I personally ...
Paris: where Picasso got his inspiration
Jul 2nd, 2011 at 10:00AM: Sometimes stereotypes live up to expectations. Paris has long been known as a city of artists, where aspiring painters/poets/writers go to light the spark of creativity that will make them famous. Of course most of them fail, but some succeed, and that feeds the legend. Pablo Picasso was one of the success stories.
Picasso went to Paris in 1900, when he he was 19, unknown, and striving to find ...Extreme seagull steals GoPro camera in Cannes, treats us to bird's eye view
Jun 25th, 2011 at 3:30PM:
Seagulls are annoying bird brained creatures - beach vagrants with a tendency to pilfer picnics and poop on heads. This seagull in Cannes, France goes one step further, making off with some electronics and filming his proud heist. The enterprising seagull thieves a GoPro video camera and absconds with it to his secret hideout. The comedic shouts of an enraged human fades as the bird takes ...
Cockpit Chronicles: A farewell to Boston
Jun 17th, 2011 at 7:30PM: April was my last month flying from Boston. It was also the month that our company chose to eliminate the last remaining non-stop flights from Santo Domingo and San Juan to New England. These were markets where we'd flown for decades.
Fittingly, on the 2nd and 4th of April, I flew the very last flights from SDQ and SJU-not exactly something worthy of a celebration, but noteworthy, nevertheless. ...Exploring the tunnels under the Western Front
Jun 10th, 2011 at 11:00AM: The common image of the Western Front in World War One is of muddy trenches and artillery barrages. That was certainly the experience of most soldiers. But while huge armies slugged it out in the mud and ruin of France and Belgium, another war was going on underground. Sappers from both sides dug tunnels under enemy trenches, packed them with explosives, and blew them up.
The explosions were ...Images of Paris in La Belle Époque
Jun 7th, 2011 at 9:00AM: Paris has always captured the imagination with its architectural beauty and interesting inhabitants. La Belle Époque from the late 19th century to the start of World War One is considered a high point of Parisian life, and this life was captured by an eccentric photographer named Eugène Atget.
Atget started taking photographs of Paris in the 1890s. Working in the early hours of ...Politics and people: an immigrant's impressions of Spain's Basque region
Jun 3rd, 2011 at 3:00PM: One downside to being an immigrant is that you have to learn a whole new set of politics and social divisions. Since moving to Madrid six years ago, I've heard a lot of people talking about Spain's Basque region. Everyone has an opinion about it but most haven't actually been there.
I've recently returned from six days hiking in the Basque region with a group of Americans and two Basque guides. ...Hiking in France's Basque Region
May 31st, 2011 at 2:00PM:
The Basque region straddles the border between northeastern Spain and southwestern France. For the past five days I've been hiking in Spain's Basque region, and today I and my group are crossing the border into France.
One of our Basque guides, Josu, says the culture on the other side of the border isn't as strong. While only 28% of Spanish Basques can speak Basque (Euskara), that number goes ...Normandy's 1100th birthday: how to celebrate
May 30th, 2011 at 2:30PM:
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In honor of the birth of Normandy, over 200 events are being held through October of this year, ranging from medieval fairs to concerts to special exhibitions. Normandy's rich ...Hiking the Basque coastline
May 27th, 2011 at 2:00PM:
While the Sierra de Toloño offers some amazing trails and views, the most alluring sights I've seen in the Basque region are along its coastline.
The coast of northeast Spain and southwest France along the Bay of Biscay is part of the Basque heartland. Inland villages played a key role in keeping Basque culture alive, but it's the ports--Bilbao, San Sebastian, and many smaller ...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 ...Video of the Day: Riding a bike through Paris
May 23rd, 2011 at 6:30PM:
Seeing a city by bike is an entirely different experience than just walking around. Even here in New York, I discover new things every time I take my bike out for a spin. That's why we're enjoying this bike tour through Paris today. Through narrow streets, wide boulevards and past countless Parisians, the rider experienced a wonderful day in Paris.
Whether you've been to the top of the ...
Hiking through Spain's Basque region
May 19th, 2011 at 1:30PM:
Most tourists who visit Spain stick to the central and southern parts of the country--Madrid, Granada, Seville, Barcelona, and the Costa del Sol. They generally skip the greener, more temperate north. If they head north at all, it's to stop in Bilbao in Spain's Basque region to see the Guggenheim.
Yet the Basque region has much more to offer. In Spain, it's an Autonomous Community, something ...Photo of the day - Lyon metro
May 6th, 2011 at 5:00PM:
Every now and then an image shows up in the Flickr Gadling group pool that knocks my socks off. This is one such photo, snapped by Flickr user baby_mongster. It depicts a short woman in a light raincoat against the straight-forward 1970s modernism of the Lyon metro system. This composition, reduced to black-and-white simplicity, is starkly beautiful.
A modern setting that also looks ...Photo of the day - snail's pace
May 5th, 2011 at 5:00PM:
Today's Photo of the Day, shot near Giverny, France by Flickr user Bryson Gilbert, forces a reorientation of space and perspective. This snail is traveling with intent, possibly to get away from a human with what look like very large feet, and it is extremely tiny.
Among other observations forced by this image: snails are not pretty. The photographer's laser-like focus on the snail reminds ...Lost travel friends
May 5th, 2011 at 1:45PM: Before Facebook--hell, before mobile telephones and email--it wasn't all that easy to keep in touch with people you might meet on the road.
You could exchange addresses and telephone numbers, of course, but by the time you were in a position to make a call or scribble a letter, the immediacy of the connection you'd shared while staying up all night on that Sardinian beach would probably be ...Five great European thermal baths
May 3rd, 2011 at 3:30PM: Before the spa revolution saw most upscale hotels offering spa services to guests, there was the venerable European spa town tradition, centered on thermal baths built around natural hot springs. The water on offer for bathing at these sites has historically been thought to possess therapeutic qualities. The tradition of taking a "cure" remains an enthusiastic habit across Europe today, in ...Summer Travel: Seven great luxury beach getaways
Apr 27th, 2011 at 2:00PM:
The weather is warming and we're itching to hit the sand (after a few more weeks in the gym, naturally). Summer travel stories are often full of suggestions for budget and family-friendly getaways ... but what if you just want to splurge? Economy be damned. Play up the "luxe" factor at these great summer beach destinations for those seeking to see and be seen, enjoy world-class restaurants ...The world's ten creepiest abandoned cities
Apr 27th, 2011 at 11:00AM:
Some cities die. The people leave, the streets go quiet, and the isolation takes on the macabre shape of a forlorn ghost-town - crumbling with haunting neglect and urban decay. From Taiwan to the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains, these abandoned cities lurk in the shadows of civilization. Their histories are carried in hushed whispers and futures stillborn from the day of their ...
