Street vendors in Paris have been caught storing food in the city's sewers, local newspaper Le Parisien reported in October.
02.11.2023 - 21:39 / cntraveler.com / Julius Caesar
I picked Mimi up from school on a Friday afternoon in June. In the pitch-dark dortoir, or nap room, I located my four-year-old among the tiny bodies curled up on miniature bunk beds. She opened her eyes and smiled. It was time for our adventure.
A train and a chauffeured car ride later, Mimi and I were clinking crystal—fresh-pressed OJ and champagne, respectively—in the lobby of Coquillade, an 11th-century Provençal hamlet cum 21st-century resort surrounded by olive groves and rolling vineyards. A cypress-tree-lined path led to our palatial suite outfitted with a Finnish sauna and private terrace overlooking the lush Luberon Valley. The next morning, Mimi nodded off in a bike seat as I peddled us past Julius Caesar-era stone bridges and sun-drenched fields of lavender. When Mimi stirred, we stopped so that she could gather a bouquet as diligent bees buzzed from flower to flower. The air was warm and honey-sweet.
The Provence trip and swanky amenities were perks of my job as a travel journalist, and I readily accepted them for Mimi. She knew that things at home had recently changed, that suddenly maman and papa had separate apartments—but she didn’t grasp why. She didn’t know that we wouldn’t be traveling to New York that summer, to be with my family and her American cousins, as we had every year previously. She had no idea that, per a French judge’s decision, I required my soon-to-be ex-husband’s authorization to travel overseas with her, and that he refused to give it. If divorce tends to be hell, divorce in a foreign country with a child involved is the ninth circle, particularly when your partner plays the one card that will never be in your hand.
What Mimi did know was that she was going to be a florist when she grew up, and if that didn’t pan out, a painter. With all the things that were beyond my control, a weekend in the land of lavender and sunflowers was one thing I could give her.
I didn’t have a passport until college. One study abroad session in Salamanca, where I spent days with Cervantes and nights with cervezas in smoky discotecas, and I was hooked. I returned to Spain to live twice, in Madrid and then Bilbao, and studied abroad in Paris during grad school. It came as a surprise to no one that I ended up marrying a French-Spanish guy, or that after two years in New York, we decided to give his native city, Paris, a try. It was ironic, then, that a Quixotic spirit led me to France and ultimately, I found myself unable to leave. Although I could legally travel to New York, the idea of leaving behind my French-American daughter didn’t sit well. I discovered the bitter flavor of resentment, of feeling simultaneously pushed from the only home I had known in France and trapped in a city that
Street vendors in Paris have been caught storing food in the city's sewers, local newspaper Le Parisien reported in October.
Seven years ago, the largest civil engineering project in Europe broke ground in France. Now, it is finally taking shape. Here’s what it will mean for the City of Light.
In September, hours after landing in Paris, I headed straight to Signature Montmartre, a French-Korean bistro friends had been lavishing with praise. But already this is a series of words I find startling. I had lived and worked in Paris awhile during college; I go back when I can; until this trip, I didn't recall noticing a Korean shop or restaurant here. The bistro's lights shone from large windows like an inviting beacon, guiding me to food that was, as reported, astonishing: French cuisine shot through with distinctly Korean flavors, like tender prawn-filled perilla in a curry aioli, followed by a fig tart with jujube cream, one of the most delicate, fascinating pastries I've ever had.
Emerald Palace Group (EPG) is proud to announce a groundbreaking partnership with Raffles Branded Residences, heralding a new era of high-quality living with the unveiling of “The Contemporary Collection” of Raffles The Palm Residences & Penthouses, strategically situated on the prestigious West Crescent of The Palm Jumeirah Island in Dubai.
Temperatures may be dropping, but winter escapes are heating up, and low-cost airline French Bee is offering amazing trips from Paris to Tahiti starting as low as $387.
Minor Hotels is preparing to enter the Paris market with three four-star NH Hotels in France's capital.
Paris, the epicenter of culinary innovation, is abuzz with new dining destinations that are redefining the city's gastronomic landscape. From the opulent revival of iconic Art Nouveau bastions like Maxim's to the daring and adventurous flavors found at spots like Boubalé, showcasing the richness of Eastern European cuisine, the dining scene in the French capital has reached a fever pitch of excitement. This curated list unveils the top 10 hottest restaurants, each offering a unique blend of tradition, innovation, and a tantalizing journey through diverse culinary narratives, promising a feast for the senses and an exploration of Parisian dining at its most avant-garde.
Is there anything better than jetting off to Paris, Nice, or Milan? Yes, yes there is. Jetting off to Paris, Nice, or Milan in business class. For a limited time (and just in time for gift-giving season, cough cough), French airline La Compagnie is offering airfares as low as $2,000 round-trip for its all-business flights to those three cities in France and Italy.
As our boat glided along the Seine, the Eiffel Tower came into view, glittering against a piercing blue September sky. The captain popped a bottle of Champagne and handed me a generous pour. I leaned back against the leather seat, letting my skin drink in the sunshine before taking a sip and letting the bubbles fizz and flit across my tongue. The captain waved me toward the front of the boat, gesturing for me to pose for a photo. I raised my glass and grinned, thinking there couldn’t be a more fitting first snapshot for an American food writer visiting Paris to retrace Julia Child’s footsteps.
The opening of a new hotel, a new gallery and two compelling exhibitions in two of my favourite galleries made a pre-Christmas Eurostar dash to Paris irresistible. The draw of the 91-room Bloom House Hotel & Spa, which opened in September (new beds, new everything equals no bedbugs!), is that you can get off the Eurostar at Gare du Nord after a stress-free journey and be having lunch in their courtyard garden oasis 10 minutes later. A green-tiled pond is the focal point, a pergola strung with festoon lighting overhead – perfect for evening cocktails.
It just got cheaper to visit the City of Lights by train this summer. In celebration of the upcoming 2024 Olympic and Paralympic games in Paris, Eurostar announced an increase of train service— between London and Paris — to accommodate the spectators, participants, and travelers, at a discounted price.
Until recently, few Parisian hotels dared to distract from the classic aesthetics of the city itself. The décor of its gilded palace hotels, single-minded embassies of French heritage, was, largely, fussy and excessively impersonal, as if a misplaced streak of color could break the city’s spell. Today the capital is finally overcoming its self-seriousness, thanks in part to its vibrant post-Brexit ascendancy in the contemporary arts and culture scenes. Many of its new hotels seek to delight rather than simply impress, and often conjure other worlds, as in the Marais’s Maison Proust, a candlelit Belle Époque fantasy half-hidden behind tasseled indigo velvet curtains, or the nearby Le Grand Mazarin, fashioned by the London-based Swedish designer Martin Brudnizki from contrasting styles and eras, all in a swirl of candy colors. “It took longer than New York and London,” says the Italian architect and designer Fabrizio Casiraghi, “but Paris is at last discovering the kind of small hotel that has something to say.”