Theme Week Provence – Orange

21 October 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, French Riviera Reading Time:  7 minutes

© theatre-antique.com - Culturespaces/Les chorégies/cc-by-sa-3.0

© theatre-antique.com – Culturespaces/Les chorégies/cc-by-sa-3.0

Orange is a commune in the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region in southeastern France. It is located about 21 kilometres (13 miles) north of Avignon. It has a primarily agricultural economy.   read more…

Theme Week Provence

20 October 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, French Riviera, Bon voyage, Theme Weeks Reading Time:  14 minutes

Moustiers Sainte Marie © Nepomuk

Moustiers Sainte Marie © Nepomuk

Provence is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which extends from the left bank of the lower Rhône River on the west to the Italian border on the east, and is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea on the south. It largely corresponds with the modern administrative région of Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, and includes the départements of Var, Bouches-du-Rhône, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence and parts of Alpes-Maritimes and Vaucluse. The Romans made the region into the first Roman province beyond the Alps and called it Provincia Romana, which evolved into the present name. It was ruled by the Counts of Provence from their capital in Aix-en-Provence until 1481, when it became a province of the Kings of France. While it has been part of France for more than five hundred years, it still retains a distinct cultural and linguistic identity, particularly in the interior of the region. The original Roman province was called Gallia Transalpina, then Gallia Narbonensis, or simply Provincia Nostra (‘Our Province’) or Provincia. It extended from the Alps to the Pyrenees and north to the Vaucluse, with its capital in Narbo Martius (present-day Narbonne). In the 1940s, Provence underwent a cultural renewal, with the founding of the Avignon Festival of theatre (1947), the reopening of the Cannes Film Festival (begun in 1939), and many other major events. With the building of new highways, particularly the Paris Marseille autoroute which opened in 1970, Provence became destination for mass tourism from all over Europe. Many Europeans, particularly from Britain, bought summer houses in Provence. The arrival of the TGV high-speed trains shortened the trip from Paris to Marseille to less than four hours. Most of Provence has a Mediterranean climate, characterised by hot, dry summers, mild winters, little snow, and abundant sunshine. Within Provence there are micro-climates and local variations, ranging from the Alpine climate inland from Nice to the continental climate in the northern Vaucluse. The winds of Provence are an important feature of the climate, particularly the mistral, a cold, dry wind which, especially in the winter, blows down the Rhône Valley to the Bouches-du-Rhône and the Var Departments, and often reaches over one hundred kilometres an hour.   read more…

Tasmania in the Indian Ocean

20 October 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  5 minutes

Hobart © Aaroncrick/cc-by-sa-3.0

Hobart © Aaroncrick/cc-by-sa-3.0

Tasmania is an island state, part of the Commonwealth of Australia, located 240 kilometres (150 mi) to the south of the Australian continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania, the 26th largest island in the world, and the surrounding 334 islands. The state has a population of 508,000, of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart precinct. Tasmania’s area is 68,401 square kilometres (26,410 sq mi), of which the main island covers 64,519 square kilometres (24,911 sq mi).   read more…

Jönköping in southern Sweden

18 October 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  5 minutes

Jönköping Collage © jonkopingsambassaden.se - Citronlemonad

Jönköping Collage © jonkopingsambassaden.se – Citronlemonad

Jönköping is a city in southern Sweden with 62,000 inhabitants. Jönköping is situated by the southern end of Sweden’s second largest lake, Vättern. The original town Jönköping has grown together with twin city Huskvarna (population 23,000) and suburb Norrahammar-Hovslätt (population 9,000), forming a contiguous urban area, with 94,000 inhabitants in 2013.   read more…

Varosha on Cyprus

18 October 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  6 minutes

© Yolanda Demetriou/cc-by-sa-1.0

© Yolanda Demetriou/cc-by-sa-1.0

Varosha is a quarter in the Cypriot city of Famagusta. By law it belongs to the Republic of Cyprus, but is located within Northern Cyprus. Prior to the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974, it was the modern tourist area of Famagusta. Its inhabitants fled during the invasion, and it has remained abandoned ever since.   read more…

Lake George in New York

17 October 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  7 minutes

Lake George from village beach © Daniel Case/cc-by-sa-3.0

Lake George from village beach © Daniel Case/cc-by-sa-3.0

Lake George, nicknamed the Queen of American Lakes, is a long, narrow lake located at the southeast base of the Adirondack Mountains, in the northeastern portion of the U.S. state of New York. It lies within the upper region of the Great Appalachian Valley and drains northward into Lake Champlain and the St. Lawrence River drainage basin. The lake is situated along the historical natural (Amerindian) path between the valley of the Hudson River and that of the St. Lawrence, so lies on the direct land route between Albany, New York and Montreal, Canada. The lake extends about 32.2 mi (51.8 km) on a north-south axis, is quite deep, and varies from 1 to 3 miles (1.7 to 5 km) in width, presenting a significant barrier to east-west travel. Although the year-round population of the Lake George region is relatively small, the summertime population can swell to over 50,000 residents, many in the Village of Lake George region at the southern end of the lake.   read more…

Novi Sad in Serbia

16 October 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, European Union, European Capital of Culture Reading Time:  6 minutes

Dunavska street © Micki/cc-by-sa-3.0

Dunavska street © Micki/cc-by-sa-3.0

Novi Sad is the second largest city in Serbia, the administrative seat of the province of Vojvodina and of the South Bačka District. It is located in the southern part of Pannonian Plain, on the border of the Bačka and Syrmia regions, on the banks of the Danube river, facing the northern slopes of Fruška Gora mountain.   read more…

Musée Nissim de Camondo in Paris

15 October 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Museums, Exhibitions, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks, Paris / Île-de-France Reading Time:  6 minutes

Musée Nissim de Camondo ©  Daderot

Musée Nissim de Camondo © Daderot

The Musée Nissim de Camondo is an elegant house museum of French decorative arts located in the Hôtel Camondo, 63, rue de Monceau, at the edge of the Parc Monceau, in the 8th arrondissement of Paris.   read more…

The fashionable seaside resort of Forte dei Marmi

14 October 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  7 minutes

Forte dei Marmi © flickr.com - Thomas Hawk/cc-by-sa-2.0

Forte dei Marmi © flickr.com – Thomas Hawk/cc-by-sa-2.0

Forte dei Marmi is a sea town and comune in the province of Lucca, in northern Tuscany. The population of the town, amounting to some 7,700, nearly triples during the summer, because of the hundreds of tourist. It is the birthplace of Paola Ruffo di Calabria, Queen of the Belgians from 1993 to 2013.   read more…

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