A Trip News

Ken Chase savors life’s cosmopolitan pleasures: fine food and wine, conversing in several languages, European travel. He’s also a longtime Republican activist capable of flame-throwing opinionating. He refers to President Obama as “the dear leader,’’ invoking North Koreans’ term for their leader, Kim Jong Il.
So what do you get when you stir - no, mix - these passions?
You get Conservative Tours, recently launched by Chase, 48, out of his Belmont home, which (more…)

Sun-seekers whose holidays are spoiled by bad weather could be reimbursed after French travel agencies launched insurance cover for unwanted interruptions to the sunshine.
The insurance policy, launched by holiday groups Pierre et Vacances and FranceLoc, will allow holiday-makers to claim back part of the cost of their trip if they suffer at least four days of rain in any one week.
“Aon France allows Pierre & Vacances to propose its clients with automatic reimbursement for part of their (more…)

Well fortified … (from top) Carcassonne’s Cite’s cobbled streets; a mural at Notre Dame de l’Abbaye; jousting re-enactment. Photo: Lonely Planet, AFP
In a land of castles and cassoulet, Susan Johnson slows to the seasonal rhythm of life.
Lost in Carcassonne, not entirely certain whether I’m heading in the direction of the medieval walled Cite for which it is famous, I use my schoolgirl French to ask a passing stranger for directions.
“Mais oui,” replies the handsome, well-dressed young (more…)

THE plan was a simple one. In the middle of a weeklong trip to France last July, a trip prompted by an invitation to a friend’s wedding celebration, we would swing down to Provence for a sweet, romantic, three-day bicycle trip. I had been to Provence several times in my life, and I had intoxicating, if somewhat faded, memories of the region: the Roman ruins near Orange, the magnificent Palais des Papes inside the walls of Avignon , the olive groves and lavender and fields of sunflowers that (more…)

A FRENCH anti-racism group has filed a legal complaint against the Louvre museum, arguing that a policy to allow free admission to European young people is discriminatory.
Earlier this year, French President Nicolas Sarkozy deflected accusations that he was not committed to culture by proudly announcing that EU citizens between 18 and 26 would be allowed free entry to national museums.
The Louvre, which houses one of the world’s finest art collections, is the most visited museum in France and (more…)

Eiffel’s Tower
By Jill Jonnes
Viking, 354 pages. $27.95 hardcover.
In 1940, when Hitler wanted to announce that his armies had crushed the French, his handlers posed him against the backdrop of the Eiffel Tower. The Nazis intuited that even in a nation crowded with landmarks, no other photo op would as effectively convey their duplicitous message. Yes, the Führer was now Europe ’s unopposable conqueror, but he was also like everyone else, just another tourist enchanted by the (more…)

IF IMITATION is the sincerest form of flattery, Sydneysiders should be feeling very flattered indeed.
One of France’s leading architects has proposed a replica Sydney Opera House be built on the banks of the Seine to improve Paris’s outer suburbs.
Roland Castro was one of 10 architects commissioned by the President, Nicholas Sarkozy, to come up with ideas to improve the capital. His design shows a facsimile of Joern Utzon’s building beside the river at Gennevilliers, on Paris’s north-west fringe, (more…)

Diana Plater takes on the ultimate planespotter’s dream - touring Airbus’s Toulouse plane factory.
For aeroplane buffs there’s a tour that has to be compulsory.
It’s to the Airbus site in Toulouse in the south of France, where the final assembly of most Airbus aircraft takes place.
(The A318, A319 and A321 are assembled in Germany.)
Airbus is the world’s largest producer of civil jetliners, having overtaken former market leader Boeing.
It’s a major employer in the town, with nearly (more…)

The Eiffel Tower is to get a fresh coat of paint for its 120th birthday this year. 60 tonnes of the specially-mixed “Eiffel Tower Brown” will be applied, but the Paris attraction will remain open throughout. Source: AFP.

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To keep costs down, consider skipping going up the Eiffel Tower and relax on the lawns instead. Photo: Getty Images
Paris may be the most visited city in the world, yet it’s also one of the most expensive.
“This city is worth the price,” says veteran tourist Alex Wadkin, 71, a retiree from Dublin, Ireland, sipping a 4 Euro ($A8) cup of coffee on the Champs-Elysees.
“If you avoid expensive neighbourhoods - like this one - you’ll do alright. But the key is to plan ahead.”
For travellers (more…)