France Revisited joins France’s celebration of the 400th anniversary of the birth of André Le Nôtre, the father of French gardens, with seven stunning photos of Paris’s most historical garden, the Tuileries Garden, by American photographer Elise Prudhomme.

Bilbao, Spain did it with its Guggenheim. Bordeaux intends do it with its Cité des Civilisations du Vin. Can Biarritz do it with its aquarium and its Cité de l’Océan?

In which the author visits Biarritz, meets a French surfing legend, learns the history of surfing in France, zips up a wetsuit, takes a surfing lesson and eventually glides along with the 3-year-olds. Includes photos.

Accompanying France Revisited’s examination of surfing and museums in Biarritz, here are five notable hotels in the mid and upper price ranges, i.e. 3-,4- and 5-star hotels, including the history of the imperial residence that launched Biarritz as an international resort destination.

Corinne LaBalme discovers NoLita, a ritzy ristorante parked next to the vintage Lancias in the Fiat Group’s “Motor Village” on the Champs-Elysées. If a Maserati goes a lot faster than a mere car, the menu at NoLita goes a lot farther than simple carbonara.

A call for contributors to turn a cranky eye on their surroundings brought forth a photographic rant from Va-nu-pieds, France Revisited’s fetish photographer, who’s fed up with the sight of bicycle cadavers on the sidewalks of Paris.

Bringing up bébé has its dark side in the City of Light when maman can’t go wheeling through the supermarket without a stranger telling her that she hasn’t dressed her precious one properly for the yogurt aisle, as Melinda Mayor, aka Meshugeneh Mama, recounts with vitriol and humor.

The guidebooks describe the pleasures of sightseeing in Paris, typically under sunny skies, but ignore the cold, gray, back-aching shuffle through the crowds of the kind that longtime resident Ellen Labelle experienced while visiting Montmartre with friends.