Rue Crémieux in Paris

24 February 2020 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Paris / Île-de-France Reading Time:  5 minutes

© flickr.com - Arthur Weidmann/cc-by-sa-2.0

© flickr.com – Arthur Weidmann/cc-by-sa-2.0

Rue Crémieux is a one-block pedestrian street in the 12th arrondissement of Paris, originally built as workers’ housing. The street has been widely recommended to tourists for its quaint painted housefronts, and has become a popular destination for filming and for social media photos.   read more…

Portrait: Creative director, fashion designer, artist, photographer, and caricaturist Karl Lagerfeld

23 October 2019 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: Design & Products, Hamburg, Paris / Île-de-France, Portrait Reading Time:  17 minutes

© Georges Biard/cc-by-sa-3.0

© Georges Biard/cc-by-sa-3.0

Karl Otto Lagerfeld was a German creative director, fashion designer, artist, photographer, and caricaturist who lived in Paris. He was known as the creative director of the French fashion house Chanel, a position held from 1983 until his death, and was also creative director of the Italian fur and leather goods fashion house Fendi, and of his own eponymous fashion label. He collaborated on a variety of fashion and art-related projects. Lagerfeld was recognized for his signature white hair, black sunglasses, fingerless gloves, and high, starched, detachable collars.   read more…

Hôtel de Crillon in Paris

14 June 2019 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Hotels, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks, Paris / Île-de-France Reading Time:  9 minutes

© flickr.com - Julien Ricard/cc-by-3.0

© flickr.com – Julien Ricard/cc-by-3.0

The Hôtel de Crillon is a historic luxury hotel in Paris which opened in 1909 in a building dating to 1758. Located at the foot of the Champs-Élysées, the Crillon along with the Hôtel de la Marine is one of two identical stone palaces on the Place de la Concorde. It has been listed since 1900 as a monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture.   read more…

The 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup in France: The venues

8 June 2019 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Paris / Île-de-France, Sport Reading Time:  13 minutes

© 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup

© 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup

The 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup is the eighth edition of the FIFA Women’s World Cup, the quadrennial international football championship contested by the women’s national teams of the member associations of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) between 7 June and 7 July 2019. In March 2015, France won the right to host the event; the first time the country is hosting the tournament, and the third time by a European nation. Matches are planned for nine cities across France. The United States enters the competition as defending champions. It is also the first Women’s World Cup to use the video assistant referee (VAR) system. The semi-finals and final will be played in the Lyon, while the opening match will be played in Paris. This are the venues:   read more…

Place de la Bastille in Paris

14 December 2018 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Paris / Île-de-France Reading Time:  12 minutes

Place de la Bastille © Kaihsu Tai

Place de la Bastille © Kaihsu Tai

The Place de la Bastille is a square in Paris where the Bastille prison stood until the storming of the Bastille and its subsequent physical destruction between 14 July 1789 and 14 July 1790 during the French Revolution. No vestige of the prison remains. The square straddles 3 arrondissements of Paris, namely the 4th, 11th and 12th. The square and its surrounding areas are normally called simply Bastille.   read more…

The European Union: Bon voyage!

10 November 2018 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Berlin, French Riviera, Editorial, EU blog post series, European Union, Bon voyage, Hamburg, London, Paris / Île-de-France, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  386 minutes

Past posts of the EU series have focused on the EU as such, its different political fields and institutions, and culinary aspects. In this post, the EU and its federal states can be experienced at first hand. The EU supports this by, among other things, the annual title of the European Capital of Culture (The Guardian, 5 March 2020: 10 smaller European Capitals of Culture you may not have heard of). The title creates a window in the cultural and social life of the respective city / region as well as the entire federal state, but no rule without exception: In the year 2000 Reykjavík in Iceland was the first city which country is EFTA member and not in the EU. In the year 2010 Istanbul in Turkey was the first city of a candidate for membership of the European Union. In addition there are cultural routes in the individual federal states and the Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe. According to the World Economic Forum, 5 of the TOP10 destinations in the world are EU states. These are Spain (1), France (2), Germany (3), United Kingdom (5) and Italy (8). The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) also sees 5 of the top 10 destinations of the world in the EU, but in a different order: France (1), Spain (3), Italy (5), Germany (7) and United Kingdom (9). Today we are doing a small tour through the federal states, which might inspire you to experience the European Union on site. Enjoy! :-)   read more…

The Sorbonne in Paris

24 September 2018 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Architecture, Paris / Île-de-France, Universities, Colleges, Academies Reading Time:  11 minutes

© François Trazzi/cc-by-sa-3.0

© François Trazzi/cc-by-sa-3.0

The Sorbonne is an edifice of the Latin Quarter (5th arrondissement), in Paris, which was the historical house of the former University of Paris. Today, it houses part or all of several higher education and research institutions such as Panthéon-Sorbonne University, Sorbonne Nouvelle University, Paris Descartes University, École pratique des hautes études, and Sorbonne University. Despite being a highly valued brand, the Sorbonne universities did not register their names as trademarks until the 1990s. Over the following years, they established partnerships, merging projects and associated institutions with the name Sorbonne, sometimes triggering conflicts over the usage and ownership of the name.   read more…

Belleville in Paris

18 June 2018 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Paris / Île-de-France Reading Time:  6 minutes

Street art by Ben Vautier in Belleville © Cadaverexquisito/cc-by-sa-3.0

Street art by Ben Vautier in Belleville © Cadaverexquisito/cc-by-sa-3.0

Belleville is a neighbourhood of Paris, parts of which lie in four different arrondissements. The major portion of Belleville straddles the borderline between the 20th arrondissement and the 19th along its main street, the Rue de Belleville. The remainder lies in the 10th and 11th arrondissements. It was once the independent commune (municipality) of Belleville which was annexed by the City of Paris in 1860 and divided between two arrondissements Geographically, the neighborhood is situated on and around a hill which vies with Montmartre as the highest in Paris. The name Belleville literally means “beautiful town”.   read more…

Les Invalides in Paris

14 March 2018 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Museums, Exhibitions, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks, Paris / Île-de-France Reading Time:  13 minutes

Hôtel des Invalides, as seen from the Tour Montparnasse © Jens Peter Clausen/cc-by-sa-3.0

Hôtel des Invalides, as seen from the Tour Montparnasse © Jens Peter Clausen/cc-by-sa-3.0

Les Invalides, commonly known as Hôtel national des Invalides (The National Residence of the Invalids), or also as Hôtel des Invalides, is a complex of buildings in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, containing museums and monuments, all relating to the military history of France, as well as a hospital and a retirement home for war veterans, the building’s original purpose. The buildings house the Musée de l’Armée, the military museum of the Army of France, the Musée des Plans-Reliefs, and the Musée d’Histoire Contemporaine, as well as the Dôme des Invalides, a large church with the tombs of some of France’s war heroes, most notably Napoleon Bonaparte.   read more…

Return to TopReturn to Top