The French capital is a city heaped in history and tales of conspiracy, murder and even vampires! Rosie Khdir gets a fright on a Parisian ghost tour.

While the evenings are still cold and dark enough to set the scene, take a walk around Paris, a city haunted by its eerie and often violent past.

You will be surprised to learn that unlike in the capital cities of the UK, Paris does not have many ghost tours, but one that every fan of the paranormal should experience is the Mysteries of Paris Ghost Tour.

The tour group gathers every Friday and Saturday at 8pm in Black Dog Bar where you will meet one of two enthusiastic tour guides who will take you back in time, as they recant tales of Parisian horror.

These guides are like walking historical encyclopaedias, spouting interesting fact after gruesome tale as you huddle together on old cobbled streets. The tour is described as “The Dark Side of the City of Lights” and covers all things macabre including torture, executions, cannibalism, serial killings, Satanism and unexplained phenomena.

The guides are funny and engaging and make this a really unique and enjoyable way to spend an evening. You hear about the less romantic and darker side of Paris, which although at times is quite grim, is also an eye opener!

Previous visitors who have written on the Mysteries of Paris website have labelled the experience “a mix of rock & roll, urban legend and haunted history” but be warned it is not for the easily frightened!

The Black Dog Bar is situated at the 24 rue Lombards, Paris 75004 and the tour lasts about two hours. Some language can be explicit so it might not be the best family activity but for anyone who is up for a good scare and dose of gruesome French history this tour is ideal!

The Mysteries of Paris Ghost Tour is now a member of the Office du Tourisme in Paris you can get more information about the tour through them.

—————–

Image credit: boklm

Tags: France, History, Lifestyle, P&O Ferries by Rosie Khdir
No Comments »

When spring returns and the weather takes a turn for the better it’s time to start planning your first caravan trip. And where better to start than with a caravan trip to France, says John Hillman

As we turn into the home straight and race towards the finish line, I think it’s safe to say that even the most diehard fan, of these dark and frosty months, will be glad to reach the welcoming arms of spring after this particular winter.

And of all the people in the UK to rejoice the return of warmer climes, there are perhaps none more eager and more grateful than the nation’s caravan owners.

March marks the beginning of the caravanning season. Any of you toying with the idea of joining this troupe of intrepid roadsters can now begin registering with the Camping and Caravanning Club, who run courses from March to September.

The short course will teach you everything you need to know about towing, loading, hitching and unhitching, reversing with safety, and any legal issues surrounding caravans and the roads.

Once you’re ready to hit the open road there really is an endless list of possible destination for you to consider. P&O Ferries has been transporting caravanners over to France on the Dover to Calais route for many decades now. This is because the French have a very strong tradition of camping holidays, in their culture, so as a result they have the excellent facilities to match.

Whether you wish to explore the foothills of the Alps, the rugged coastline of Normandy or the rural charms of Provence, you’ll find an endless supply of excellent locations to hook up your pitch, open your deckchairs and fire up the barbeque. Then sit back and marvel at the scenery.

Image Credit: MGspiller

Tags: France, P&O Ferries by John Hillman
No Comments »

In 2010 we will say goodbye to the Year of the Ox and welcome in the Tiger! Rosie Khdir explores the Chinese New Year celebrations across Europe.…

This weekend Chinese communities all over the world will be celebrating the start of a new year. The Year of the Ox will end on Sunday 14th of February so for those of you, who don’t fancy celebrating St. Valentine’s Day, why not join the Chinese in celebrating the Year of the Tiger?

Celebrations will kick off all over Europe for this major event in the Chinese calendar. In Paris’ 13th arrrondissement, where the largest Asian community lives, a party will begin with the traditional procession of the dragon. A colourful parade featuring firecrackers, music, dancing and this giant serpent will take place in the heart of the Chinatown in the French capital.

In the Netherlands the festivities will begin on Saturday 13th February in the city hall in The Hague. A one kilometre log red carpet will connect the city hall to Chinatown and at 1pm a firework show and dragon parade will mark the start of the party.

For the last few months Brussels has been the host for the Europalia a festival celebrating Chinese culture. This event will end on the 14th February as the new Chinese year begins. The Hong Kong Economic Trade Office, along with various other organisations in the country, is putting on a celebration on Friday 19th February at the Concert Noble in the Belgian capital, complete with delicious Chinese cuisine, performances and prizes!

A person’s Chinese zodiac sign is based on the lunar year in which they were born. The Tiger is the third animal in the zodiac which is the sign for people born in 2010, 1998, 1986, 1974, 1962 and 1950 and is characterised by its courage, optimism, rebelliousness and vigour.

—————–
Image credit: Dalliano0925翹鬍子周末

Tags: Belgium, France, History, Lifestyle, Netherlands by Rosie Khdir
No Comments »

This week sees a celebration of our 8,000 year relationship with the humble olive. John Hillman discovers a festival that’s a perfect combination on delicious scenery and gorgeous food.
——————-

Olive oil has been around a long time. Long before the Pharaohs, the Greeks and the Romans. Indeed, before any concept of civilization began the peoples of the Mediterranean relied on its properties as a food, body cleanser, perfume and lighting fuel.

It began life in the Eastern Mediterranean and was carried west by Greek and Phoenician sailors, having already underpinned the wealth of the Minoan Empire of Crete a thousand years before.

Such is its ongoing importance to the civilizations of the Mediterranean that Olive Oil continues to be found in the religious ceremonies of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

Today it underpins the regional economies of the Mediterranean – we consume 2.8 million tonnes of the stuff each year, with people from Australia to Iceland recognizing its enormous health benefits and willing to pay handsomely for their annual share.

It only makes sense, therefore, that we celebrate the annual harvest of each newest batch, which comes around the end of winter. (Hooray it’s the end of winter!). This takes place at the end of the first week of February in the medieval fortified town of Nyon in the Drôme Region of Southern France.

Known as The First Press Oil Festival, visitors to this delightfully picturesque town are invited to sit at enormous communal tables in the centre of Nyons, at the Place des Arcades, where they can rub toast in crushed garlic before dipping it in the newest batch of local olive oil, savouring the most genuine, fresh and delicious flavours of the Mediterranean.

Organised by a group known, entertainingly, as the Knights of the Olive Tree Confederation, the festival also includes folk music, dancing, concerts and special conferences. If you are heading through France this week then this is a culinary pit stop that’ll be well worth your gastronomic inspection.

———————–

Image Credit: M. Minderhoud

Tags: France, Lifestyle by Gabriel Grant
No Comments »

In two weeks time it will tick round to Valentine’s Day, and if you’ve still no more idea what to do for your special someone then how about a break in Paris? Tomas Mowlam looks at the options.

Sure it might be bit of a cliché but Paris really is a city of romance and it’s not all sentimentality and soft focus camera shots. There are plenty of things you can do to soak up the passion and the history of this fine old city.

The first is to hit the streets wander from your hotel, down to the Seine and along the river. Feel the crisp wind, and stop in a small cafe and embrace that cliché head on with coffee and croissants.

For all you cynics, remember it’ll be the cheapest thing you’ll do all weekend.

Take a tour round the Louvre stop at the Mona Lisa, and wonder what all the fuss is about a picture so small, then head out into the Tuileres gardens. The 280,000 metre square gardens, between the Place de la Concorde and rue de Rivoli, were designed by André le Nôtre in 1664, and have been place for couples to wander ever since.

Thousands upon thousands of people will visit Notre Dame for a dose of religious splendour, but for me the more impressive, though far smaller, church is Saint-Germain-des-Prés.

Built in the 6^th Century, it was pillaged by Vikings, rebuilt in the 9^th century and it’s one of the oldest churches in Paris. There’s something really special about the atmosphere here.

Saint Germain the parish is also home to something to put a little spice into your trip; some of the best North African restaurants in the capital.

Flavours straight from Morocco and Algeria combine at L’Atlas, 12 Boulevard and Chez Hamidi, 4 Rue Boutebrie are two of the friendliest restaurants, serving the best in all things couscous and lamb based.

It’s cheaper and infinitely more delicious than any posh haute cuisine.

It’s hardly unknown, but the Eiffel Tower is always worth a visit, but try going up at night and watching the lights of the capital shine in the chill night air.

Paris is a buzzing metropolis of a city, so why stick to the same old sites? Instead, grab your partner and head off for an unforgettable weekend.

Image Credit: stevenvanwel

Tags: France, P&O Ferries by tmowlam
No Comments »

Once off the ferry and in the car many people tend to race through Northern France, to slightly more exotic locations, but just 90 minutes drive south of Calais is an often missed treat, writes Tomas Mowlam.

The city of Amiens was the chief town of the medieval area of Picardie; it was fought over repeatedly, it suffered in WWI and WWII as well.

St. Leu is the city’s medieval quarter, renovated throughout the 1990s it is a tourist attraction in its own right, with puppet shows in the Picard language called Chés Cabotans.

But towering above St Leu and the rest of the city, is Amiens real attraction, Cathédrale Notre-Dame d’Amiens, often simply called Amiens Cathedral it is one of the biggest ever Gothic buildings.

Work started in 1220, construction was finished in 1266, and it took a further 22 years to decorate and finish. The nave vaults are 42.30 metres high, making them the highest in France.

Supported by 126 pillars it has the largest interior of any French cathedral, and the vaults and buttresses give a staggering impression of space, designed to make mortals contemplate heaven and look skyward.

Hundreds of intricate sculptures, carvings and reliefs adorn the walls with memorials to martyred saints and reminders what would happen to Christians who strayed from the flock.

It was paid for by the proceeds of the cloth industry and, fittingly, one of the most glorious parts of the church is the Drapers Chapel.

It even has a reliquary containing the head of John the Baptist a relic brought from Constantinople by Wallon de Sarton as he was returning from the Fourth Crusade.

During laser cleaning in the 1990s it was discovered that the façade was of the cathedral was painted. After painstaking research elaborate lighting techniques were developed to light up the statues, and bring them to life.

If you want to experience the wonder for yourself, then check out the Son et Lumière (sound and light) shows.  With the church lit up, it gives you a spine tingling experience of how the cathedral would have looked in the 13^th Century; the statues gaze down over the medieval congregation and the church dominates the surrounding town.

Check out visit-amiens.com for details of cathedral opening times and other information.

Image Credit: Cornell University Library

Tags: France, P&O Ferries by tmowlam
No Comments »

Why on earth would the French be trying to claim Calais as English? Peter Moore investigates

—

On the first day of her last year in her miserable reign as Queen of England, Mary Tudor – or Bloody Mary, as she was to be remembered – woke up to discover that Calais had been lost to the French.

It was a desperate blow. Calais was to the Tudors what Gibraltar became to Georgians during the empire-building days later on. It was a toe-hold on the Continent: a place for plotting, for trading, for spying and for peacocking. And in 1558 – for the first time in a good few hundred years – it was gone.

‘When I am dead and opened,’ the terminal Queen complained to her doctor shortly before she died, ‘you shall find Philip (the Spanish King and her husband) and Calais lying in my heart.’

Any sensible person would have concluded that Calais had been lost forever. But four hundred and fifty two years later, in one of this year’s more peculiar twists, a number of French politicians are attempting to realign Calais’ identity as ‘British.’ And what’s more, they are doing it without being asked.

Their motivation for such an odd move is to cash in on the expected millions that will be accompanying the Olympic Games into London in 2012. Calais, a number of town councillors have asserted, is a perfect destination for hundreds of travelling athletes, fans and journalists.

‘We are the south of England and because we’re the south of England it’s normal that we would associate ourselves with this extraordinary event,’ claimed Dominique Dupilet, the chairman of the Pas de Calais regional council.

Mr. Dupilet is at the centre of a drive to rebrand the town in anticipation of the Games. New hotels are being constructed alongside expensive training facilities, bars and restaurants.

Moreover, Mr. Dupilet contends that as Calais is perfectly served by a continuous flow of ferries and trains that it excellently positioned to carry visitors into London in record speed.

‘It will take no more time to get to events than if you’re in North London,’ he told the Times.

What might appear to be a rather far-fetched plan has already achieved a touch of validity after officials signed a contract with Chad’s boxing, wrestling, judo and athletics teams. More recently the canoe and kayak teams from Uzbekistan and Senegal also added their names to the list.

It is a peculiar story and one which reminds us that national identities are no longer fixed – but fluid. We now live in a world where a city or town might be willing to swap it allegiance or identity for a short space of time in return for a few pennies and a bit of attention.

Goodness knows what Mary Tudor would make of that.

–

image credit: LordFerguson

Tags: Britain, France, Lifestyle, P&O Ferries, Uncategorized by Peter Moore
No Comments »

It’s fast, unpredictable and very violent, but we just can’t seem to get enough of the old smash and grab fest that is The RBS Six Nations. John Hillman looks forward to the upcoming slug off.

Saturday week sees the start of Six Nations Rugby, the biggest event in International Rugby after the World Cup. Rugby fans are about to be treated to six weeks of bone crunching tackles and breathtaking displays of warrior spirit.

And with the rugby world descending on New Zealand for the World Cup, in 2011, all eyes will be on the approaching Six Nations in the hope of seeing some genuine world cup winning form from one of the home nations.

It all kicks off at Croke Park, in Dublin, on Saturday 6th February and ends with a classic cross-channel bruise fest, France v England, on 20th March. There’ll be a few victory songs sung on the P&O Channel crossing that weekend we hope.

So what can we expect? Will the champions, Ireland, manage to defend their title? Can Scotland improve on one win out of five? How will England’s Martin Johnson deal with having to rebuild his team, whilst remaining marginally competitive? Or will Johnny Wilkinson come back to rescue us from the doldrums? Do we all hope that France gets continually humiliated throughout the tournament? Of course we do.

With Ireland and England both travelling to France, rugby fans may be interested in taking advantage of P&O Ferries’ special deals. You can take a car and up to nine passengers over to Calais from just £20 each way – that’s under £2.25 each. And while on board you stock up on loads of duty-paid beers, wines and spirits.

Of course you could take the plane, but that would hardly be in the spirit of Henry V and Agincourt and all that, now would it?

———————

Image Credit: Picasaweb

Tags: Britain, France, P&O Ferries by Gabriel Grant
No Comments »