Tag Archives: Tourism

Travel Guide: The 16 Best Places To Visit In Norway

touropia (August 11, 2023) – A travel guide to the top 16 places to visit in Norway including:

  1. Geirangerfjord
  2. Lofoten Islands
  3. Bergen
  4. Jotunheimen National Park
  5. Svalbard
  6. Stavanger
  7. Sognefjord
  8. Oslo
  9. Trondheim
  10. Tromso

Norway is a Scandinavian country encompassing mountains, glaciers and deep coastal fjords. Oslo, the capital, is a city of green spaces and museums. Preserved 9th-century Viking ships are displayed at Oslo’s Viking Ship Museum. Bergen, with colorful wooden houses, is the starting point for cruises to the dramatic Sognefjord. Norway is also known for fishing, hiking and skiing, notably at Lillehammer’s Olympic resort. 

Views: Discover Germany Switzerland & Germany Magazine – July 2023

Fashion Finds: July 2023 | Discover Germany

Discover Germany, Switzerland and Austria – The top three hikes in the Alps; garden season highlights; a special focus on Alta Badia, a cyclist’s paradise; an interview with actor Peter Ketnath; top Riesling wines for long summer evenings; Switzerland’s best agencies and more… 

TOP 3 HIKES IN THE ALPS

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The Alps offer a variety of walks and hikes for every skill level. Some of our favourites can be found in the Swiss Aletsch Arena region which is known for its outstanding natural beauty, its many sunshine hours, and more.

Alta Badia: A CYCLIST’S PARADISE

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In the heart of the Dolomites UNESCO World Heritage, Alta Badia offers the ideal area to experience the emotions that cyclists, from amateurs to professionals, seek and appreciate every time they saddle up.

In recent years, thanks to the numerous activities and initiatives related to cycling, Alta Badia has become a point of reference for demanding cyclists. In August 2022, Alta Badia was awarded the GSTC (Global Sustainable Tourism Council) certificate, an internationally recognised reference standard for sustainable tourism. The bicycle, in all its forms, is the ideal means to experience tourism in an environmentally sustainable way, and events such as the Maratona dles Dolomites-Enel and the Bike Days should therefore be a symbol and an important signal in this direction. For this reason, cycling in Alta Badia is in no way inferior to hiking, where clean air, splendid landscapes and spectacular peaks invite you to treat nature with respect.

CULTURE: FRANCE-AMÉRIQUE MAGAZINE – JULY/AUG 2023

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France-Amérique Magazine – July/August 2023 –  The issue celebrates Bastille Day, a look at La Marseillaise in New York City; why the 1789 Revolution still carries so much weight in contemporary French culture; a profile of French food design pioneer Anna Polonsky; and learn all about the Great Chartreuse Shortage of 2023…

ANNA POLONSKY – The French Food Design Pioneer

Born in Paris and based in New York City, the founder of the Polonsky & Friends studio combines her passions for design and cuisine by creating visual identities for restaurants and food brands.

LA MARSEILLAISE – A Taste of Free France in Manhattan

Where could you have once danced to accordion music, met fellow French comrades-in-arms, and even bumped into Marlene Dietrich, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Jean Gabin? All the Free French soldiers who passed through New York City during World War II would have pointed you toward La Marseillaise, on Second Avenue.

SARAH BERNHARDT – A Scandalous French Superstar in America

Having completed nine tours of the United States during her career, actress Sarah Bernhardt was probably the most famous French woman in America at the time. An exhibition in Paris is currently celebrating the thespian, who passed away a century ago this year.

Travel: Tour Of Top Hotels In Cornwall, England

 THE TIMES (June 21, 2023) – A list of 20 of our favourites that are still available. We’ve also highlighted some of the county’s hottest restaurants and its most eye-catching holiday activities. Visitors will notice a renewed push towards sustainability, including an even bigger emphasis on local ingredients in restaurants — think edible seaweed or chickens reared on site. 

Polurrian on the Lizard, Mullion

Polurrian on the Lizard, Mullion
Yes, OK, the approach to this family-friendly bolt hole and the village of Mullion itself are a touch suburban. But look westwards instead of east and there’s Cornwall in all its wild magnificence. At the bottom of the garden, just beyond the swings, the coastal path clings to clifftops before tumbling down to a little cove. The views reach out towards Penzance and the open ocean.

Hotel Tresanton, St Mawes

Hotel Tresanton, St Mawes
It may be 25 years old this year, but Olga Polizzi’s Arts and Crafts-influenced hotel is not resting on its laurels. Most of the bathrooms have recently been redecorated with mosaics, Carrara marble, and tongue and groove panelling. It has new wallpapers, new fabrics and even a new suite. The effect, however, is unchanged. This is probably Cornwall’s most elegant hotel: thoughtful, arty and peppered with eye-catching patterns and colours. 

St Michaels Resort, Falmouth

St Michaels Resort, Falmouth
Down on Gylly beach, St Michaels Resort is burnishing its wellness credentials with the opening of four spa garden lodges on July 1. Guests will be able to step straight into the revitalised spa garden and take advantage of a bubbling hot tub and barrel saunas. They can also soak in their own outdoor copper bath in the privacy of the lodge terrace. 

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Travel Guide: The 12 Best Places To Visit In Colombia

touropia (June 16, 2023) – Colombia, officially Republic of Colombia,  country of northwestern  South America. Its 1,000 miles (1,600 km) of coast to the north are bathed by the waters of the Caribbean Sea, and its 800 miles (1,300 km) of coast to the west are washed by the Pacific Ocean.

Colombia

The country is bordered by Panama, which divides the two bodies of water, on the northwest, by Venezuela and Brazil on the east, and by Peru  and  Ecuador  on the south. It is more than twice the size of France and includes the San Andrés y Providencia archipelago, located off the Nicaraguan coast in the Caribbean, some 400 miles (650 km) northwest of the Colombian mainland. The population is largely concentrated in the mountainous interior, where Bogotá, the national capital, is situated on a high plateau in the northern Andes Mountains.

The only American nation that is named for Christopher Columbus, the “discoverer” of the New World, Colombia presents a remarkable study in contrasts, in both its geography and its society. The lofty snow-tipped peaks of the country’s interior cordilleras tower high above equatorial forests and savannas where surviving indigenous groups still follow the lifeways and traditions of their ancestors. In the cooler mountains, at intermediate elevations, modern cities are juxtaposed with traditional rural landscapes where mestizo farmers cultivate their small plots of coffee, corn (maize), and other crops. The more accessible Atlantic lowlands, dominated by large livestock haciendas and a tri-ethnic population, have a distinctively different character.

Travel: The Top Places To Stay In Normandy, France

Honfleur
Honfleur

The Times and The Sunday Times (June 15, 2023) – The most popular way to access all this from the UK is via the ports of Dieppe (ferries from Newhaven; dfds.com), Le Havre, Caen and Cherbourg (from Portsmouth and Poole; brittany-ferries.co.uk).

Le Tribunal, Mortagne-au-Perche

Le Tribunal, Mortagne-au-Perche

Hotel in the Perche region’s main hub
Southern Normandy’s Perche region is a succession of gentle hills clad in beech and oak. Much of it is designated a natural park. There is great diversity here, in landscape and architecture, which come in a palette of colours thanks to different building materials. Its main hub is Mortagne-au-Perche, a market town of cobbled streets, antique shops, magnificent mansions and its famed black pudding.

Pays d’Auge

Domaine de la Cour au Grip, Repentigny

Rustic retreat in cider country
The Pays d’Auge, to the east of Caen, is an unhurried, painterly landscape, mixing oak and hazel woodland with cattle-filled orchards where morning mists lie low in the valleys and the autumn colours are magnificent. This is cider country, and there are still 20-odd cider makers on the 25-mile Cider Route. The former farm of Domaine de la Cour au Grip is on that route in the village of Repentigny, not far from Beuvron-en-Auge, one of the prettiest villages in France.

Le Landemer, Urville-Nacqueville

Le Landemer, Urville-Nacqueville

Restaurant with rooms west of Cherbourg
Not every ferry traveller wants to hurry home. Le Landemer, barely ten miles along the coast from the ferry port of Cherbourg, is for those who like to linger. This designer conversion of a coastal house is as much an eating as a sleeping place, with five traditional rooms in the main house, and four yacht-style rooms — more modern with big picture windows — smuggled away in an adjacent building.

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CULTURE: FRANCE-AMÉRIQUE MAGAZINE – JUNE 2023 ISSUE

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France-Amérique Magazine – June 2023 – The issue explores the art world on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean! First, read how American sculptor Alexander Calder produced a mobile to support Free France during World War II – this is our cover story.

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LYNN GUMPERT – “Paris Has Always Attracted American Artists”

By Guy Sorman

A book co-edited by Lynn Gumpert, director of the Grey Art Gallery at NYU, is shaking up preconceptions about the contribution of American artists in France following World War II. We asked her about this little-known period, when Paris was still as much a hub of artistic creativity as New York City.

Also in this issue, discover the little-known contribution of American artists in 1950s France; read our interview with Delphine de Canecaude of Chargeurs Museum Studio, the French company that has outfitted many of America’s largest museums; and enjoy our profiles of Clark Art Institute director Olivier Meslay and French-American graffiti legend John “JonOne” Perello.

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DELPHINE DE CANECAUDE

By Guénola Pellen

“Every Museum Is an Incredible Adventure”

The dynamic fortysomething was hired to run Chargeurs Museum Studio in February. As the world leader in cultural engineering and production, the French company has designed the National Museum of the U.S. Army, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and the new wing of the American Museum of Natural History, which recently opened in New York City.

Travel: Do Humans Or A.I. Provide Better Advice?

BBC Scotland (May 6, 2023) – Which source provides the most trustworthy tips on Glasgow’s attractions – artificial intelligence or the humans who live there? Craig Ferguson puts both options to the test.

CULTURE: FRANCE-AMÉRIQUE MAGAZINE – MAY 2023 ISSUE

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France-Amérique Magazine – May 2023 – Our publication was launched in New York City on May 23, 1943, during World War II – a period of intense political debate between supporters of the Vichy regime and those fighting for de Gaulle that our historian-in-residence,

1943-2023 – We’ll Always Have Passion

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This month, France-Amérique is celebrating its 80th anniversary – a miraculous example of longevity in today’s print media sector. This success is due to America’s longstanding passion for France, and the omnipresence of America in French controversies.

WORK TO LIVE? A French Pension Row with Deeper Implications

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The scale and intensity of the current protests reflect a deeper discontent relating to the very nature of work and its place in people’s lives. While these concerns may seem specifically French, they echo a much broader and long-standing debate in our societies.

By Anthony Bulger

Travel Tours: Smithsonian Journeys – April 2023-2024

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VIEW ONLINE 2023-2024 CATALOG

Powered by more than 175 years of prestige and trust in the Smithsonian, our trips mirror the reputation, varied collections, research, and community of the Institution. On any given trip, you’ll travel with intellectually curious, worldly, and adventurous life-long learners, and forge lasting friendships with others who share your passion for deeper learning and exploration.