France St. Barths

Coming to Saint Barthelemy or St. Barths can be a great journey as it can make you meet celebrity sometimes. High season in St. Barts has come to mean visits from the likes of David Letterman, Harrison Ford, and Zhang zi Yi.Shopkeepers and restaurateurs cite privacy considerations but murmur such names as Sharon Stone and Sylvester Stallone, Claudia Schiffer, Brad Pitt, and "Tom Hanks."
St. Barth has long been considered a playground of the rich and famous and is known for its beautiful pristine beaches, gourmet dining in chic bistros and high-end designer shopping.
St. Barth has about 25 hotels, most of them with 15 rooms or fewer, and the largest, the Guanahani has just 70 rooms. Hotels are classified in the traditional French manner 3 Star, 4 Star and 4 Star Luxe.
Villa vacations are extremely popular and there are hundreds of villas terraced into the hillsides throughout the island as well have many beach front locations. Villas here can range from one-bedroom bungalows to large luxurious homes.The tropical location and natural beauty of St. Barth's makes it a prime location for modeling photo shoots, particularly for swimwear publications such as the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition.

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France Galeries Lafayette

Galeries Lafayette was founded in 1893 by cousins Théophile Bader a Alphonse Kahn as a novelty store in a small haberdasher's shop at the corner of rue La Fayette and the Chaussée d'Antin. The excellent location of the store in the heart of an active shopping quarter brought a large clientele each day, to the point where expansion became unavoidable. From the start, Galeries Lafayette attracted with equal appeal the ladies of the high society and working women, those shop and office employees, seamstresses and other area workers who made time during their lunch breaks to go shopping. They were literally known as "midinettes", literally known as light lunchers.

In 1896, 1 rue Lafayette was purchased in its entirety and in 1905, 38, 40 and 42 Boulevard Haussmann were purchased as well as 15 rue Chaussée d’Antin.

In 1906, Théophile Bader commissioned the Roman award-winning architect Georges Chedanne and later his student Ferdinand Chanut to design the new layout of the Haussmann store. The block of buildings delimited by Haussmann boulevard, Chausée d’Antin, Mogador and Provence streets was redesigned according to Chanut’s predilection for oriental bazaars, where the hodgepodge of merchandise and departments was intended to drive customers into a buying frenzy. The 35-meter high glass and steel dome and Art Nouveau staircase were built in 1912.

Galeries Lafayette has always been a trend-setter in the Parisian fashion world. The multiple store complex is home to scores of famous luxury brands, but also serves as a launching pad
for young and upcoming designers.

Lafayette Homme & Gourmet and Lafayette Maison, the main store, offer a vast array of ladies, men’s and children’s apparel, VO for young people, skincare products and cosmetics, food products, kitchenware, cooking utensils, table linen, crystalware, chinaware, and interior decoration items.

Galeries Lafayette is not only well known for shopping, but also has a reputation for being one of the best sightseeing spots in Paris. The splendid glass dome of Neo-Byzantine style has been classified as a historical monument. It is an architectural landmark which attracts people from all over the world. The terrasse of the building offers a splendid panoramic view of the city. The newly renovated building of the Opera Garnier House lies beneath your eyes, and if you look up, you will see in the distance the Basilica of the Sacred Heart atop the Montmartre Hill.

The night view of this Galeries Lafayette which is well known now as famous department store is absolutely fabulou after all the Christmas lights are turned on every Christmas eve.

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France Furstenberg

Behind the church St.-Germain the place of Fürstenberg is, one of the most marvelous small places of Paris. One of the sides of the place is constructed in the style Henri IV: blue (slates), white (the edge of the windows), red (the walls out of brick).

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France Hotel Dieu

France is filled with dozens of wonderful chateaux, palaces, fortresses, cathedrals, abbeys, and cloisters. One of the places you might interest to visit is the hôtel-Dieu which has been created in 651 under the episcopate of Landry. The opening of the street Neuve-Notre-Dame in 1164 during the reconstruction of the cathedral brings about the destruction of the hôtel-Dieu that is rebuilt to the south of the parvis. This second building is ravaged by three major fires in 1718, 1737 and 1772 and will be renovated finally in 1878 by the works of Haussmann.

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France Sevres

When we have a trip to France, we will able to admire so many art historical building. One of them is Sevres. Sevres is a commune in the southwestern suburbs of Paris. It is located 9.9 km (6.2 miles) from the center of Paris. As you can see in the picture, the gable wall that stands in the square Félix Desruelles is decorated with a monumental porch achieved by architect Charles Risler and sculptor Jules Coutan in 1900. It was decorated with characteristic varied motives of the Art nouveau, this porch out of enameled sandstone is decorated with a central medallion representing a young woman. Another history about Sevres is after the First World War; in Sevres the peace treaty with the Ottoman Empire was signed.

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France Orsay

Talkin about Orsay, there is a little history that I heard. By 1939 the station's short platforms had become unsuitable for the longer trains that had come to be used for mainline services. After 1939 it was used for suburban services and part of it became a mailing center during World War II. It was then used as a set for several films, such as Kafka's The Trial adapted by Orson Welles, and as a haven for the Renaud-Barrault Theatre Company and for auctioneers, while the Hôtel Drouot was being rebuilt. One of the stuff that attracts my attention a lot is the clock of in there. Antique and full of art in my opinion. The Orsay museum occupies the building of a former railroad station closed in 1973. This station, as well as the adjacent hotel, constructed on the plans of the architect Victor Laloux, very modern for the time, had been inaugurated on the occasion of the world fair of 1900.

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France Chevreuse

Chevreuse is located south of Paris, in the middle of a regional national park. I heard a bit about Chevreuse’s history which was Chevreuse was founded in the 10th century, and celebrated its first millennium of existence in 1980. The evidence of such history can best be seen by the presence of a castle dating back to the same time (Château de la Madeleine). You can have nice walk undergrowth in the High Valley of Chevreuse, near Cernay. The High Valley of Chevreuse remains one of the regions with rural acpect most charming of Ile-de-France. The environment and the air is very cool down.

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France Chateau De Breteuil

There is one more artistic place in France, Chateau De Breteuil which is a nice castle located at about 35km (22mi) from south-west Paris. It was built in 1600. It is a very well maintained property and an interesting visit. It is a private property owned by the same family (le Tonnellier de Breteuil) since the 17th century. The moat around the castle is used to keep a small herd of white fallow deer, quite an original idea. The chateau is set in a listed park of some 90 hectares. I heard that the family of the Marquis de Breteuil who still lives there gave three ministers to the Kings of France. You can compare this building with the Chateau of Dampierre-en-Yvelines by Jules Hardouin-Mansart.

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France Dampierre

If you are an art lover, you need to have a visit to Dampierre when you have a trip to France. It was built by Jules-Hardouin Mansart from 1675 to 1683 for the Duke of Chevreuse, and restored under Louis-Philippe, the castle of Dampierre belonging to the family of Luynes, rise at the bottom of cobbled main courtyard preceded by a majestic grid. Simple but can catch your eyes for quite long time.

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France Paris Versailles

The first time I got to know Versailles was in my childhood time when I read the Japanese mange titled “ Berussaiyu no Bara or Rose of Versailles” from the author Riyoko Ikeda. I straightly fell in love with this place and admire it so much. I’m so excited to talk about and share information about this place with you. Well, first what the most popular from this place is the history of Versailles, the story of the famous and fabulous, Queen Marie Antoinette. In French, it is known as the Château de Versailles. When the château was built, Versailles was a country village; today, however, it is a suburb of Paris. Originally, Versailles was built by Louis XIII, and then continued to Louis XIV, Louis XV and Louis XVI. But when it comes to the advent of Napoléon and the First Empire, the status of Versailles changed. Paintings and art work that had previously been assigned to Muséum national and the Museé special de l’École française were systematically dispersed to other location and eventually the museum was closed. In accordance to provisions of the 1804 Constitution, Versailles was designated as an imperial palace for the department of the Seine-et-Oise. As you can see, the beauty of this palace still exists until today and amazed me a lot.

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France Paris Hôtel de Ville

The square of the Hôtel de Ville, today peaceful place dominated by the intricate frontage of the City hall of Paris was the central square of the City a long time. It was then the Grève square which lodged the popular markets and festivals but also the public executions. It is also since centuries the seat of the Parisian administrative power.

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France Paris Ile Saint-Louis

The Île Saint-Louis is one of two natural islands in the Seine river, in Paris, France (the other natural island is Île de la Cité, the Île des Cygnes is artificial). The island is named after King Louis IX of France (Saint Louis). The island is connected to the rest of Paris by bridges to both banks of the river and by the Pont Saint Louis to the Île de la Cité. This island was formerly used for the grazing of market cattle and stocking wood. One of France's first examples of urban planning, it was mapped and built from end to end during the 17th-century reigns of Henri IV and Louis XIII. A peaceful oasis of calm in the busy Paris centre, this island has but narrow one-way streets, no métro stations and two bus stops. Most of the island is residential, but there are several restaurants, shops, cafés and ice cream parlours at street level, as well as one large church, Saint-Louis-en-l'Île Church.Ile St-Louis is at the origin formed of two small islands: the cows island (it was only a field of pasture) and the Notre-Dame island where legal duels during the Middle Ages took place. It is only in XVIIth century that the two small islands were joined together by Marie, general contractor of the bridges, with the assistance of two bankers: Le Regrattier and Poulletier.

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France Paris Disneyland

With nearly 12 million visitors per annum, Disneyland became the first tourist attraction of the region, right in front of Notre-Dame de Paris. Arranged in 1992 with the French government aids which prolonged the railway lines through the beet fields. The park is divided into 5 lands or countries illustrating a topic, each one having of shops, itinerant snack bars, thematic restaurants. I am sure your children will addict going to this place. The Disneyland Railroad runs along the perimeter of the park and stops in Main Street, U.S.A., Frontierland, Fantasyland and Discoveryland.

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France Paris Vaux-le-Vicomte

The castle of Vaux-le-Viconte is the work of the financial Nicolas Fouquet and of the architect Louis Vau. By building the castle, into 1656, Vau carries out the masterpiece of the first style Louis XIV announcing the primordial worry of the greatness. Le Nôtre, in the gardens, know order the perspectives. The terraces, vases, cut boxtrees and the water mirrors take part in the composition.

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France Paris Conciergerie

The Palais de Justice and Conciergerie. The Palace is the seat of the civil and legal authority, and was the residence of the Roman governors, the Merovingian kings, of the children of Clovis, the monetary workshop of Dagobert and the fortress of the Count Eudes during the Norse invasions. Two twin towers and the oldest part of the palace. the Conciergerie became under the Revolution, the anteroom of the guillotine, and sheltered until 1200 prisoners at the same time.

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France Paris Palais de Chaillot

The Palais de Chaillot is an outstanding achievement of first half of the 20th century with its two houses prolonged by curved wings enclosing gardens, its esplanade bordered of eight gilded bronze statues. The palace shelters the theatre of Chaillot, the museums of the Man, of the Navy and of the French Monuments. For the Exposition Internationale of 1937, the old Palais du Trocadéro was demolished and replaced by the Palais de Chaillot which now tops the hill. It was designed in classicizing "moderne" style by architects Louis-Hippolyte Boileau, Jacques Carlu and Léon Azéma. Like the old palais, the palais de Chaillot features two wings shaped to form a wide arc: indeed, these wings were built on the foundations of those of the former building. However, unlike the old palais, the wings are independent buildings and there is no central element to connect them: instead, a wide esplanade leaves an open view from the place du Trocadéro to the Eiffel Tower and beyond.

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France Paris Madeleine

The construction of the church of the Madeleine was started with Telling of Ivry (1764), continued by Guillaume Couture (1777), transformed as from 1806, by Pierre Vignon, on the model of a Greek temple.It is a church occupying a commanding position in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. It was designed in its present form as a temple to the glory of Napoleon's army.The Madeleine is affiliated with a Benedictine abbey, and masses and the most fashionable weddings in Paris are still celebrated here. The church has a celebrated pipe organ, built by Aristide Cavaillé-Coll , which is widely regarded as one of the best in Paris. The composers Camille Saint-Saëns and Gabriel Fauré were both organists at the Madeleine, and the funerals of Frédéric Chopin, Saint-Saëns, Fauré and Josephine Baker were held there. To its south lies the Place de la Concorde, to the east is the Place Vendôme, and to the west L'église Saint-Augustin.

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France Paris Tuileries

The Garden of the Tuileries, with at the bottom the obelisk of the Concorde and the Arc de Triomphe. At the origin it was a garden in the Italian taste of the Renaissance, imagined by Catherine de Médicis. One century later, Le Nôtre made of it the first surroundings of nature given to the elegant life and the style of the French garden.

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France Paris Carrousel

The Arc of the Carrousel is located near the Louvre. The architects Percier and Fontaine increased the Carrousel Square where Napoleon passed his legions in review and raise there, in 1806, a pastiche of the Roman arc of Septime Severe to celebrate the imperial victories. The highest arch is flanked by another two smaller ones. Around its exterior are eight Corinthian columns of granite, topped by eight soldiers of the Empire.

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France Paris Saint Merry

Watery sculptures of Tinguely in front of the Saint-Merry church. Located just near Beaubourg Center, the Saint-Merry Church perhaps regarded as one of most beautiful of Paris. In XIthcentury, Medericus (Merry), Abbot of Saint Martin of Autun, remained and died in this place. In 884, at the time of the last siege of Paris by the Norman, it was selected like the saint of right bank. The current building was built between 1500 and 1550.

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