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Travel in All Zones Without Extra Charge on Weekends/Holidays Beginning September 2012, Stif introduced a new formula for traveling within the five zones of the department, Île-de-France, which includes Paris using the Navigo Monthly and Navigo Annual passes (not the weekly, Mobilis or Paris Visite). This new service is for the metro, bus, tramway, weekend...
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Fairs come to town and leave. The showmen pitch their games or talk up their sweets and entice you to take a ride. The rides go up; the rides come down. It happens in Paris throughout the year. The Pavillons de Bercy was one of the stops on the traveling fair circuit. This year, I am...
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While preparing a visit to Versailles, I ended up helping build Versailles. The building task involves matching three levels of architecture to please Mr. Mansard and the King. Playing the game, I heard myself giggling out loud (as did the rest of the household). Once completed, I earned a medal and the approval of the...
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Associating a zoo with Paris strikes a different chord from looking at historic buildings. However, le Jardin des Plantes is historical with its own zoo called La Ménagerie . Founded in 1794, this zoo is considered to be the oldest in the world along with de Schönbrunn in Vienna. Among its 2,000 inhabitants, the...
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The Eiffel Tower is about to provide its visitors with a step into dizzying suspension. Soon visitors to the first level will look straight down the Eiffel Tower through a plate of glass instead of looking through the fence. The idea of the architect, Alain Moatti, is to give the impression of floating above...
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This year’s Journées du Patrimoine Web site is easy to use if you speak French. Instructions follow below. The alternatives to helping you decide where to go first are a visit to the culture office, newspapers, download applications or copy pages off the Internet. If you have children with you, check the Web site...
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It is close to take off. The anticipation mounts. For those at the end of the line, the hope is to be within the fifty chosen ones. The climb to the top of the Pantheon (les colonnades) includes about 276 steps. It is not a straight climb up. Your visit to the top in...
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Questions about visiting the Eiffel Tower are frequent. They include how to buy a ticket to the top if you are already on the first or second floor; or how to reach the restaurants. Is the iPhone application for the Eiffel Tower available in English? What time are the light shows? Here are some...
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The plan for the London weekend visit was to combine historic house museums with nearby pubs as another way to discover small streets and what lies in tucked-away corners. Instead of interior decorations, I would follow in the footsteps of known contemporary Enlightenment personalities. They lived and worked in the new Georgian style homes...
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For DaVinci Code trackers, your souvenir photo showing the church Saint-Sulpice has a major distraction. If you visited the church after the the book’s publication in 2003, the north tower is shrouded in scaffolding and hidden from view. It is time to return to Paris for a new Kodak moment photo shoot. Completely dismantled...
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