While many athletes are busy training for the Olympic Games in Paris this summer, there is another race that is affectionately dear to Parisians—that of the annual Waiter's Race—and it is also making a comeback in 2024.
The Waiter's Race (La course de garçons de café) was first held in 1914 and involves carrying a tray holding a croissant, a coffee and a glass of water, over a 2km distance (1.24 miles) as fast as possible, without running, and without spilling a drop.
The route is through the cobbled streets of the Marais district, known for its lively bars, sumptuous 17th century mansions, plus numerous antique dealers and design shops. Le Marais is also home to the oldest covered market in Paris dating from 1615, Le marché des Enfants Rouges (named after the red dresses that the girls used to wear in the nearby orphanage that closed in 1772).
It was once the Jewish quarter—La rue des Rosiers is a street still famed for its kosher food and delicious falafel eateries—and since the 1980s Le Marais has been loved for its vibrant LGBTQ-friendly nightlife. Most of all, it's home to many beloved bar and cafe terraces, perfect to watch with a coffee in hand as the waiters race by.
It hasn't happened since 2011 because race organisers couldn't find a sponsor, but then the City Hall stepped in to help, and Paris' water authority Eau de Paris is offering the €100,000 necessary to sponsor the race (providing trays, aprons, and the necessary drinks and croissant for the participants to carry). It will now be called the Courses des Cafés (Cafe Race) and organisers are expecting about 200 entrants who will all be dressed in the traditional black bottoms and white shirts that Paris waiting staff wear.
Nicolas Bonnet-Oulaldj, a Paris deputy mayor responsible for business said that the race was started to highlight the French style of service and the Parisian way of life. Similar races take place in other French cities, notably Nantes, Grenoble and Dijon.
Aside from the shops, restaurants and bars, Le Marais is also home to lots of Parisian landmarks. Head to Le square du Temple, headquarters of the Knights Templar in the 13th century and later, a prison in the French Revolution—Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette were held captive in its tower before their execution.
Renowned French writer Victor Hugo's house is nearby (author of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame and Les Misérables) and there's also the Musée national Paris-Picasso that holds over 5,000 works (paintings, sculptures, drawings) and 200,000 archive items by the 20th-century artist.
La bibliothèque Forney/Hôtel de Sens was finished in 1507 for the archbishop of Sens and offers a glimpse into medieval life with the special turrets and mullioned windows of the
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If you’re in the market for a pop-of-color suitcase that will set your luggage apart from all the other black cases at baggage claim, look no further than the just-launched luggage collection from Delsey Paris. Made in collaboration with Italian sportswear brand, Benetton, the three-piece collection is an explosion of springy color, with cases in Easter egg pastels like Robin’s egg blue, grassy green, and peony pink, in addition to camellia red, and classic black with a distinctive preppy green Benetton stripe.
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For those looking to visit Sicily and experience it in a new way, a good place to start is the Villa Igiea in Palermo. A cherished landmark, the villa is testament to a great Italian dynasty, theFlorios, who were widely chronicled in Europe for both their business acumen and social prowess, as the Astors and Vanderbilts were in the U.S., during the Belle Epoque. Designed in neo-Gothic and Art Nouveau styles, Villa Igiea was purchased by the Florios to be used as a health retreat for an ailing daughter. Instead they turned it into a hotel, which would come to be known for a glittering guest list that included kings and emperors and film-world royalty like Roberto Rossellini and Sophia Loren. In 2019, Rocco Forte Hotels purchased the historic property and initiated a multi-year refurbishment overseen by Olga Polizzi, director of design and deputy chairman of RFH.
As the world prepares for the 2024 Summer Olympics from Paris between July 26 and August 11, Air France is expanding service to the United States and North America to support the increased demand.
Paris is called the City of Light, possibly because of its early adoption of gas street lighting. But that would not explain why, as I approach Gare du Nord on Eurostar during daytime, I experience a soft dazzle, similar to when I see a pebbly beach. This is not a meteorological phenomenon; the weather in Paris is only slightly better than London’s. Instead, the luminosity owes something to the buff or light-grey limestone of the older buildings (including the Sacré Coeur, rearing like a great ghost to my right), its pallor perpetuated by the whitewashed exteriors of newer buildings.
‘Every day I’m here, the sky and the sea are different,” says Anastasia Kharchenko, as an incessant drizzle patters on our umbrellas. “Sometimes you can’t even see the horizon because it’s so foggy, but in certain months the colours are just breathtaking.”
Wego, the largest online travel marketplace in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), partnered with Visit Qatar to enrich traveler engagement and amplify the allure of Qatar’s tourism offerings. This co-marketing collaboration seeks to leverage Wego’s extensive reach and innovative marketing capabilities to drive more travelers to experience the wonders of Qatar.
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Some call it a war, others a capture operation or an exile effort. In any case, an excess of wild rabbits in Paris has convinced the authorities to lose them.
If you’re a sakura - or cherry blossom - lover, you’ll likely have Japan and Washington DC on your travel bucket lists. But did you know there are countless places across Europe with equally impressive pink blooms to take in this spring?
The ground-breaking opening ceremony planned for this summer’s Paris Olympics on the Seine River has been scaled back once again, with the previously announced 600,000 free tickets available to the general public, now being cut in half to about 300,000 by invite-only. Though tickets for the momentous July 26 event were initially intended for the general public through an open registration, the nation’s Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin announced last week that 104,000 seats on the lower riverbank will be paid tickets, while 222,000 upper banks seats will remain free, but distributed via a quota system, The Associated Press reported. “To manage crowd movement, we can’t tell everyone to come,” Darmanin said. “For security reasons that everyone understands, notably the terrorist threat of recent weeks, we are obliged to make it free but contained.” No specific plots have been identified, but there are certainly heightened threats, he noted.
In Paris, the splendid 1728 mansion of an American and French war hero is now Lafayette’s restaurant helmed by Michelin star chef Mory Sacko, where he is twisting brasserie staples with his signature Senegalese flair.