Memories and hints of a travelling IT professional.
Grasse is known to be the world capital of perfume and therefore that’s all a visit about. The region surrounding it is used to grow different kinds of flowers (mostly lavender, narcissus, cassia, mimosa, violet, iris, roses, jasmine plus bigarade oranges) used in fragrance production and whenever you stroll through the narrow streets and enjoy good views from the mountain you’ll always have a nice scent in your nose.
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When visiting Grasse you can stop at the historic perfume factories like Fragonard, Galimard and Molinard to learn about fragrance making, but you should definitely also have a look at the Musée International de la Parfumerie; a very unusual museum and a topic I had never explored before. As the small city of Grasse at the French Côte d’Azur is considered the world capital of perfume you can have a deep-dive here and fill your nose with lots of different scents.
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Since 1946 every year at the Festival de Cannes the best movies, actors and scripts are awarded, with the Palme d’Or as the most important trophy. We all know the yearly pictures of celebrities waving from the red carpet in front of the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès at Cannes. You can find the Palais directly at the harbor after strolling through the nice streets of the city center and discovering the roofed markets of Cannes.
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You can’t ignore the beauty of Antibes at the French Côte d’Azur, the charming old houses in the city center at the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Next to the cathédrale Notre-Dame de l’Immaculée Conception you’ll find the ancient fortress of the Grimaldi family from the 12th century. In 1608 it became owned by the French crown and since 1966 it houses the Musée Picasso, a nice art museum on Place Mariejol directly at the sea.
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One of the best features of Nice is for sure the Promenade des Anglais, the walkway between the beach and the beautiful old city center. It is seven kilometers long and named after the English that started in the second half of the 18th century to spend their winters at the Côte d’Azur. Everyday people are strolling along the shore, having a bath at the pebble beach, playing pétanque or enjoying a drink in one of the many bars. The beach is by the way partly public and in some sections commercialized giving you the choice to either have free access or to enjoy sun loungers and bars directly at the water.
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Already had your daily dose of sports? If not, it could be the time to climb up to the Parc de la Colline du Château on a 90 meters high rock above Nice. Walk to the east end of the beach where you’ll find the steps up to the Tour Bellanda from which you’ll have amazing views on the beach of Nice. Continue further up the hill, through parts of the former fortification to the park and from there continue to the Belvédère du Château with a great panorama of the city and an artificial waterfall underneath.
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Marc Chagall was a Russian-French painter born in Witebsk that today belongs to Belarus. He was travelling much and living at St. Petersburg, Paris, Berlin; in Mexico and the USA. He is seen as an expressionist and you can easily recognize his works because of his special colorful style and the symbols he continuously uses; elements coming from his hometown, the circus world and the bible. One of these is the goat that you can discover in many of his works, sometimes just as a tiny additional element, sometimes in focus playing the violin.
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When I had given myself the mission to visit my hitherto unseen European microstates (Liechtenstein, Monaco, San Marino and Andorra) I immediately thought that this should be possible in an eco-friendly manner. Reaching Liechtenstein with Deutsche Bahn and SNCF was hassle-free, but the trip to Monaco was a very long one with many things that could go wrong. I tried it anyway.
Continue reading “Respectueux du climat”
The Tour Eiffel is the highest building at Paris, the second highest one – clearly visible on the skyline of the city – is the Tour Montparnasse next to the Gare Montparnasse at the 15eme arrondissement. It was inaugurated in 1973 and is 210 meters high, 120 meters smaller than Eiffels iconic building. But nevertheless it is still today controversial, as only these two buildings stand out in this part of the city. The Tour Montparnasse was designed in the International Style and has 59 floors.
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Northwest of Paris you can find a famous river island within the Seine, the Île de la Grande Jatte. It partially belongs to Levallois-Perret and to Neuilly-sur-Seine and is today a nice residential area reachable via different bridges – but in earlier days it looked completely different. In 1818 the Duke of Orléans bought the island as a new home, created a park and his family was also the sponsor of the Temple de l’amour which you can find today at the southern end of the island. By that time the island was only accessible by boat and different painters went there to create artworks well-known today.
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