Tag: Royalty and Nobility
VoiceMap Tour: The Champs-Elysées, from Place de la Concorde to the Arc de Triomphe
Join Gary Lee Kraut on an essential Paris walking tour: a stroll along the full length of the world-famous avenue of the Champs-Elysées, from Place de la Concorde to the Arc de Triomphe.
VoiceMap Tour: The Tuileries Garden, from the Louvre to Place de la Concorde
Talk a walk through the Tuileries, Paris's most historic garden, with Gary Lee Kraut. A royal walk, an imperial walk, a people's walk. But beware: drama lurks within its geometry.
The Royal Estate of Marly: Absence, History and Splendor
At the Royal Estate of Marly, just over four miles from the relentless restoration of Versailles, all that’s left of what was once Louis XIV’s most precious secondary residence is fragments. Glimpses of its former splendor are found at the Louvre.
A Little Loop in the Loire Valley: A 2-day Cycling Route from Blois
There are those big biking trips that you spend months preparing. Then there are those short trips that begin with “Hey, it’s going to be nice out this weekend—let’s go biking… in the Loire Valley!” This little Loire loop—three days, two nights, including two days of biking—is of the latter kind. Beginning and ending in Blois...
Blois Castle: The Key to the Loire Valley
To Blois or not to Blois, that is the question that travelers ask when planning their itinerary of Loire Valley chateaux. Though not as photogenic as some the other stars of the valley, Blois, easily accessible from Paris, is in many ways the key to understanding royal history and architecture all along the Loire. This illustrated article examines the men and women who made Blois, followed by information about hotels, B&Bs and restaurants in Blois and in the surrounding area.
The Marquis, the Hounds and Château de Cheverny
The elegant Château de Cheverny is "chez moi" for Charles-Antoine de Vibraye and his family. Call him "marquis" if you like. His ancestors have resided on the premises for the better part of 600 years. Cheverny was one of the first private French estates to open its gates to the public, and de Vibraye welcomes on average 350,000 guests per year to his castle-sweet-castle.
Chambord, the Loire Valley’s XXL Château, Gets a Tourist Makeover
When you can't get any bigger, you just have to get better. Chambord, the massive chateau in the Loire Valley, 9 miles east of Blois, is in the midst of a major development plan (€4.5 million invested in 2014) to make the castle more user-friendly and, ultimately, self-financing.
Moulins (Auvergne) and the National Costume Center
Deep in the heart of France, the little-known town of Moulins (Auvergne) reveals the fabric of great theater at the National Costume Museum, particularly this year when the museum celebrates the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth with an exhibition of costumes from some of the bard’s most emblematic plays, on display through Jan. 4, 2015.
Party Like It’s 1865: A Taste of Imperial Splendor in Vichy
The primacy of French gastronomy may have gone the way of the rotary phone, still the hungry traveler explores France with a desire to taste its native tang, to savor its cultural heritage and, from time to time, to experience the flavors of long-gone imperial and royal glory served at Versailles or Chantilly or… (drumroll, please)… Vichy.