Theme Week Provence – Salon-de-Provence

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

Jardin de la République © Jjpetite/cc-by-sa-3.0

Jardin de la République © Jjpetite/cc-by-sa-3.0

Salon-de-Provence is a commune in the Bouches-du-Rhône department in southern France with 43,000 inhabitants. Every Wednesday the Place Morgan is host to a Provençal market. Salon-de-Provence Air Base is the site of the French Air Force Academy, as well as the home of the French Aerial Demonstration team, the Patrouille de France.   read more…

Theme Week Provence – Aubagne

22 October 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, French Riviera Reading Time:  5 minutes

© Kremtak/cc-by-sa-3.0

© Kremtak/cc-by-sa-3.0

Aubagne is a French commune in the Bouches-du-Rhône department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region of southern France. The inhabitants of the commune are known as Aubagnais or Aubagnaises.   read more…

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…

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…

Nîmes, capital of the Gard department

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

Arènes de Nîmes © Armin Kübelbeck/cc-by-sa-3.0

Arènes de Nîmes © Armin Kübelbeck/cc-by-sa-3.0

Nîmes is a city in the Languedoc-Roussillon region of southern France. It is the capital of the Gard department. Nîmes is located between the Mediterranean Sea and the Cévennes mountains. The estimated population of Nîmes is 176,000.   read more…

Saint-Omer in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region

30 September 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  7 minutes

© Angel Aroca Escámez/cc-by-sa-3.0

© Angel Aroca Escámez/cc-by-sa-3.0

Saint-Omer is a commune in France. It is a commune and sub-prefecture of the Pas-de-Calais department 68 km (42 mi) west-northwest of Lille on the railway to Calais. The town is named after Saint Audomar, who brought Christianity to the area. The canalised portion of the river Aa begins at Saint-Omer, reaching the North Sea at Gravelines in northern France. Below its walls, the Aa connects with the Neufossé Canal, which ends at the Lys River.   read more…

Hyères in Southern France

11 September 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, French Riviera Reading Time:  7 minutes

La Tour des Templiers © RudolfSimon/cc-by-sa-3.0

La Tour des Templiers © RudolfSimon/cc-by-sa-3.0

Hyères is a commune in the Var department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region in southeastern France. Its position facing the Mediterranean to the south makes it a popular location for tourism in the winter, and facilitates the cultivation of palm trees; about 100,000 trees are exported from the area each year. As a result, the town is frequently referred to as Hyères-les-Palmiers (palmiers meaning palm trees).   read more…

Uzès in the Languedoc-Roussillon region

9 September 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  5 minutes

Chapelle des Capucins © Daniel Villafruela/cc-by-sa-3.0

Chapelle des Capucins © Daniel Villafruela/cc-by-sa-3.0

Uzès is a commune with 8.500 inhabitants in the Gard department in southern France. It lies about 25 km north-northeast of Nîmes.   read more…

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