 | France General Tips | Tips 1 - 10 of 1058 |  |
Popular General Tips | Other General Tips Tips | All Tips (1,058) 'AMELIE' has to be one of the best and most enjoyable French films I've seen in a long time!!
It's a collage-like blend of surreal images, and good-natured, quirky charm that is both visually and emotionally intoxicating. The film's pleasures are simple, but, because it is done with such amazing cinematic virtuosity and imagination, I felt like I was walking on clouds after seeing it. (I have since bought the DVD to add to my collection of BEST FILMS!!)
Audrey Tautou as 'AMELIE' is as endearing and effortlessly charming as the movie itself. I loved her as much as I loved the movie!! When Am?lie turns to the camera and smiles, you'll find it impossible to not smile back!! :o) Leave a Comment
|
Visiting France?
Read reviews about France Hotels
Real Reviews from Real VirtualTourist Members.
We were fortunate to visit this marvel of a cathedral on a sunny day. The nearly two hundred stained glass windows turned the interior into a prism of colors emanating from every side. It was an enchanting sight. It wasn't until we gazed for sometime at all the sections of windows that we took an interest in the thousands of sculptures that fill every nook and cranny, inside and out, of this cathedral. The Chartres Cathedral is but an hour by train from Paris and can be visited in one day - don't miss it.
This magnificent medieval Gothic cathedral is located in the town of Chartres southwest of Paris. I'ts built of limestone and stands some 112 feet (34 metres) high and is 427 feet (130 metres) long. It ranked as one of the three chief examples of French architecture (along with Amiens Cathedral and Reims Cathedral), it is noted not only for its architectural innovations but also for its numerous sculptures and its much-celebrated stained glass. Leave a Comment
|
 | |  |
Edith PIAF was one of France's most beloved singers. Her music reflected her tragic life, with her specialty being the poignant ballad presented with a heartbreaking voice.
She was born in Paris, France; her mother worked as a cafe singer and her father was a travelling acrobat. Abandoned by her mother, she was raised by her paternal grandmother, who ran a brothel in Normandy.
From age 3 to 7, she was blind. And, as part of Piaf's legend, she allegedly recovered her sight after her grandmother's prostitutes went on a pilgrimage.
Later she lived for a while with her alcoholic father, whom she left at age 15 to become a street singer in Paris.
In 1935, Édith was discovered by the nightclub owner Louis Leplée.
She wrote her signature song, 'La Vie en Rose', in the middle of the German occupation in World War II.
Singing for high-ranking Germans at the "One Two Two Club" earned Piaf the right to pose for photos with French prisoners of war. Once in possession of their celebrity photos, prisoners were able to cut out their own images and use them in forged papers as part of escape plans. Today, Piaf's association with the French Resistance is well known and many owe their lives to her.
After the war, Piaf toured Europe, the U.S.A, and S. America, becoming an international star.
Piaf died of cancer in Cannes on October 11, 1963, the same day as her friend Jean Cocteau.
She was buried in the Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris.
Although forbidden a Mass by the Roman Catholic archbishop of Paris (because of her lifestyle), her funeral procession drew hundreds of thousands of mourners onto the streets of Paris and the cemetery was jammed with more than forty thousand fans.
Piaf's funeral procession was the only time, since the end of World War II, that Parisian traffic came to a complete stop. Leave a Comment
|
| | |
This story begins in the small town of Lansquenet , where life has not changed for the last 100 years. (Which, up to this day, is not unusual in the more isolated towns and hamlets in France.)
As the North Wind blows through a seemingly tranquil town, it carries with it a traveler also, Vianne Rocher (Juliette Binoche) and her daughter Anouk (Victoire Thivisol), who open up a 'Chocolaterie' filled with irresistable confections that awakens the townspeople's hidden "appetites".
What is magical is Vianne's ability to perceive the villager's private desires, and satisfy them with just the right confection.
Vianne consequently develops a reputation...and an enemy, the righteous nobleman Comte de Reynaud (Alfred Molina), who is convinced these chocolate temptations will wreak havoc and undermine the town's strict code of morality.
A confrontation soon develops between the two opposing characters.
Along the way, Vianne meets a collection of various townspeople with their own set of problems, but the most interesting, outside of the character that Judi Dench plays is the riverboat traveler Roux (Johhny Depp) who awakens Vianne's own secret desire:
to truly belong. Leave a Comment
|
| | |
I went into several pharmacies and drugstores all over France and found them a lot different from what I'm used to in Canada. Where I live, the drugstores are huge and there are several aisles of anything you want to find. You choose the product you want, bring it to the counter and pay for it
In France however, the pharmacies are very small and there isn't a lot of stock available for you to just choose on your own. You have to go up the counter and tell the people what you're looking for. They have everything stocked behind the counter! So my suggestion: any embarassing hygenial products you may have - bring them with you in your cosmetic bag! Leave a Comment
|
Visiting France?
Read reviews about France Hotels
Real Reviews from Real VirtualTourist Members.
Known as 'La Poste', French post offices are easy to find, just look for the bright yellow sign or signs on the outside. Mailboxes are also a bright yellow.
Post offices can be found by following sings marked "Bureau de Poste".
Most post offices are open from 8 am to 5 pm; in smaller towns and villages some might be closed for lunch - 12 pm to 2 pm.
One nice thing about post offices in France is that most have automated stamp machines marked 'Affranchissment' that allow you to buy your postage without having to stand in line or mumble through in French - these machines let you choose your language, weigh your letter or package, and then prints out a stamp - but they only accept coins.
Most post offices will also have signs in the entranceway that tell you when their busiest time is.
The web site for the French postal system is http://www.laposte.fr, parts of the site are in English.
Also helpful is a French-English postal dictionary. Leave a Comment
|
| | |
The late 19th & early 20th century saw the reinvention of painting in France: first, a shift of subject matter to everyday life, and then a radical change in technique.
Impressionism found its beginnings in the mid-19th century with Rousseau (1812-1867) and Millet (1814-1875) who were leaders of the 'Ecole de Barbizon', a group of artists who painted nature for its own sake.
Landscape painting capturing a "slice of life" paved the way for Realism.
The Realists were led by Gustave Courbet (1819-1877) who focused on everyday subjects but portrayed them larger-than-life on tremendous canvases.
Edouard Manet (1832-1883) facilitated the transition from the Realism of Courbet to what we now consider Impressionism; when in the 1860s, he began to shift the focus of his work to color and texture.
Manet's 'Déjeuner sur l'Herbe' was refused by the Salon of 1863 due to its naughty Naked Lunch theme (two suited men and a naked woman are shown picnicking in the forest) and its revolutionary technique.
It was later shown proudly at the 'Salon des Refusés', along with 7000 other rejected salon works.
By the late 1860s Manet's new aesthetic had set the stage for Claude Monet (1840-1926), Camille Pissarro (1830-1903), and Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), who began to further explore Impressionist techniques. They strove to attain a sense of immediacy; colors were used to capture visual impressions as they appeared to the eye, and light became the subject matter.
In 1874, these revolutionary artists had their first group exhibition, and a critic snidely labeled the group "Impressionists".
The artists themselves found the label accurate, and their Impressionists' Show became an annual event for the next seven years.
In the late 1880s, the members of the group inspired Edgar Degas (1834-1917), Gustave Caillebotte (1848-1894), Berthe Morisot (1841-1895), Henri Fantin-Latour (1836-1904), and 'Water Lilies' by Monet in the early 1900s. Leave a Comment
|
| | |
Based upon what you want to see and do in France, decide just how long your trip will be. Don't try to squeeze too much into a week or ten days. A minimum of two weeks, with three weeks being ideal is recommended.
Determine preferred dates of travel, and then make your airline reservations.
Be flexible if you cannot get your first choice.
After deciding how long you want to be in France, use a calendar or date book that provides enough room to write down what you want to do and see each day and where you will spend the night (in pencil to allow you to make adjustments as you plan). Or, you can create a calendar on your computer for even easier editing.
If you are flying into or out of Paris, allow a full day there to rest after arrival and before departure home.
A few days in Paris at the beginning and end of a trip, with visits to the countryside sandwiched in between would be the best strategy.
Select one or two regions in the countryside to visit. Don't try to see Normandy, the Loire, the Alps and Provence in one 10-day visit! Three or four days in a region should be the minimum ~ longer if you can.
Get a good, current map of France.
Spread it out on the kitchen table, and look at the specific places you wish to visit.
If those areas are far from Paris, consider flying directly into a secondary city from home such as Nice or Bordeaux.
Or, if you plan to spend a few days in Paris, consider taking a train from there to cover long distances and save time. Leave a Comment
|
| | |
PLANE trees -- platanes -- are ubiquitous in France, they seem to line every main road with the apparent purpose of assuring that drivers who fall asleep at the wheel pay the ultimate price.
~ About 200 years ago, Napoleon started a project to plant trees along both sides of some of the major roads through France. His idea was that the trees would eventually provide shade for his army troops as they marched through the countryside on their various endeavors.
Many of those trees, now magnificent and huge, still line the roads of France today.
~ Unfortunately due to disease, expansion, and the tree cover being so dense in some places that people kept crashing into each other in the midday dark, some have been cut down.
I do so hope that too many of these monumental beauties aren't lost to the woodcutter's saw.
This would be such a shame and a tragedy !!!
.....and would really take away a special kind of uniqueness and natural beauty that makes France France. Leave a Comment
|
| | |
Eze is a medieval village perched like an eagles nest on a narrow rocky peak overlooking the Mediterranean sea. The ancient fortified village is still crowned with the ruins of its 12th-century fortified castle (torn down in 1706), sitting on a narrow rocky peak. The castle grounds host the well-known Jardin Exotique, and from the top (429 m) you'll have an good view of the coast (it will cost you, though). Eze (also known as Eze-Village) is accessible via the Moyenne (Middle) N7 Corniche road. Signs are positioned along the coastal road indicating the direction motorists should take to reach this hamlet. You'll be charmed by the winding streets and tiny picturesque alley ways where people live and where little shops display fine art and crafts. Leave a Comment
|
Best France Travel Deals Chateau Hotel Savigny
Luxury Chateau in the Loire Valley. Tranquil, peaceful and affordable. Paris Hotels
New in Paris: All Seasons hotel. Wifi and breakfast included. Hotels
Save Up To 50% On Hotels And Vacation Packages at Orbitz.com! Sponsored Links |
|
on October 17, 2004
on June 13, 2004
on June 20, 2005
