The Île de la Cité is an island in the river Seine in the center of Paris. In the 4th century, it was the site of the fortress of the Roman governor. In 508 Clovis I, the first King of the Franks, established his palace on the island.
Tag Archives: Walks
City Walking Tour: Toruń – Northern Poland (4K)
Toruń is a historical city on the Vistula River in north-central Poland and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Its population was 201,447 as of December 2019. Previously, it was the capital of the Toruń Voivodeship and the Pomeranian Voivodeship.
Walking Tour: Bayeux – Northwestern France (4K)
Bayeux is a town on the Aure river in the Normandy region of northwestern France, 10 kilometers from the Channel coast. Its medieval center contains cobbled streets, half-timbered houses and the towering, Norman-Gothic Cathédrale Notre-Dame. The famed 68-meter Tapisserie de Bayeux, an 11th-century tapestry depicting the 1066 Norman invasion of England, is on display in an 18th-century seminary.
Walking Tour: Vernazza – Cinque Terre, Italy (4K)
Vernazza is one of the 5 centuries-old villages that make up the Cinque Terre, on northwest Italy’s rugged Ligurian coast. Colorful houses surround its small marina. The Santa Margherita di Antiochia Church has a bell tower topped by an elegant cupola. Clinging to the rocks, Doria Castle is a medieval defensive structure with a cylindrical tower. The Belforte bastion is just below it.
Walking Tours: Athens – Southeastern Greece (4K)
Athens is the capital of Greece. It was also at the heart of Ancient Greece, a powerful civilization and empire. The city is still dominated by 5th-century BC landmarks, including the Acropolis, a hilltop citadel topped with ancient buildings like the colonnaded Parthenon temple. The Acropolis Museum, along with the National Archaeological Museum, preserves sculptures, vases, jewelry and more from Ancient Greece.
Tours: The Alhambra Palace, Granada, Spain (4K)
Alhambra, palace and fortress of the Moorish monarchs of Granada, Spain. The name Alhambra, signifying in Arabic “the red,” is probably derived from the reddish colour of the tapia (rammed earth) of which the outer walls were built.
Constructed on a plateau that overlooks the city of Granada, the Alhambra was built chiefly between 1238 and 1358, in the reigns of Ibn al-Aḥmar, founder of the Naṣrid dynasty, and his successors. The splendid decorations of the interior are ascribed to Yūsuf I (died 1354). After the expulsion of the Moors in 1492, much of the interior was effaced and the furniture was ruined or removed. Charles V, who ruled in Spain as Charles I (1516–56), rebuilt portions in the Renaissance style and destroyed part of the Alhambra in order to build an Italianate palace designed by Pedro Machuca in 1526. In 1812 some of the towers were blown up by a French force under Horace-François-Bastien Sébastiani during the Peninsular War (War of Independence), and the rest of the buildings narrowly escaped the same fate.
Summer Walks: Banff Village, Alberta, Canada
Banff is a resort town in the province of Alberta, located within Banff National Park. The peaks of Mt. Rundle and Mt. Cascade, part of the Rocky Mountains, dominate its skyline. On Banff Avenue, the main thoroughfare, boutiques and restaurants mix with château-style hotels and souvenir shops. The surrounding 6,500 square kilometres of parkland are home to wildlife including elk and grizzly bears.
Seaside Walks: Mevagissey – Cornwall, England (4K)
Mevagissey is a village, fishing port and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The village is situated approximately five miles south of St Austell. The parish population at the 2011 census was 2,015, whereas the ward population at the same census was 4,354.
Walking Tour: Cabourg – Northern France (4K)
Cabourg is a commune in the Calvados department in the Normandy region of France. Cabourg is on the coast of the English Channel, at the mouth of the river Dives. The back country is a plain, favourable to the culture of cereal.
Walking Tour: Potsdam – Northeast Germany (4K)
Potsdam is a city on the border of Berlin, Germany. Sanssouci Palace was once the summer home of Frederick the Great, former King of Prussia. On the grounds of the complex, the Renaissance Orangery Palace overlooks Italian-style gardens with fountains. Historic Mill offers city views. English gardens surround neoclassical Charlottenhof Palace. The 19th-century Roman Baths were built in several architectural styles.