French Open at Roland Garros: Mixed bag for French tennis stars
May 30, 2008
For the French, more losers than winners in French Open action Wednesday on their home courts.
With the eyes of France and the world turned toward Roland Garros and the French Open, French players both elated and deflated French hopes with a mixed showing in Wednesday’s matches. A source of national pride almost on a par with soccer in France, tennis at the French Open is causing more than the usual spring fever in French offices and classrooms all over the country as the French of all ages cheer on their countrymen and mourn their defeats.
French winners included Fabrice Santoro, 35, who beat Russian Evgeny Korolev, his junior by 16 years (7-6, 6-1, 6-4). He next faces Spaniard David Ferrer. Also over 30, French player Marc Gicquel roundly defeated young Serb Viktor Troicki, ranked 99th in the world, before cheering students on court #2 (6-4, 6-3, 4-6, 7-5). A bit less experienced than their older colleagues, Julien Benneteau and Paul-Henri Mathieu, both 26, benefitted from enthusiastic hometown French support, beating, respectively, American Vincent Spadea (6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 3-6, 6-3 in 3 hours 11 minutes) and Oscar Hernandez of Spain (2-6, 1-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-2 in 4 hours 11 minutes) in hard-fought battles in the Porte d’Auteuil stadium. French player Gaël Monfils, 21, outplayed his older countryman, Arnaud Clément, in the center court(7-5, 6-3, 6-1).
Among the ladies, Frenchwoman Émilie Loit, 28, won’t be retiring anytime soon. She beat Czech Klara Zakopalova (6-4, 6-3). And Stéphanie Cohen-Aloro, 25, defeated Romanian Olaru (7-6, 6-3).
But the good news for the French players ended there on Wednesday. Marion Bartoli of France ran out of steam against Australian Dellacqua (6-7, 6-3, 6-2), Stéphanie Foretz lost to Russian Zvonareva (6-2, 6-1), Violette Huck went down before American opponent King (4-6, 6-2, 6-1) and Aravane Rezaï was defeated by the Russian Petrova (7-6, 6-3). Despondent Frenchwoman Bartoli complained of exhaustion both mental and physical, saying that she had been playing nonstop since the beginning of the year and now she wanted to forget all about Roland Garros. The French who saw her lose may be feeling the same.
French men were also victims of disappointment and frustration at Roland Garros on Wednesday: Gilles Simon (eliminated by Czech Stepanek 6-2, 6-4, 6-1), Adrian Mannarino (who lost to Argentine Junqueira 6-1, 6-2, 6-2), Thierry Ascione (defeated by l’American Reynolds 7-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2), Éric Prodon (beaten by Croatian Ljubicic 7-5, 7-6, 7-6) and Nicolas Mahut (who lost to Australian Hewitt 6-4, 6-2, 6-4), who has still not won a match in Paris in seven tries.
French film finally wins at Cannes: The Class takes the 61st Palme d’Or
May 28, 2008
A French film, “the Class” has finally won the greatest French film prize, the Palme d’Or of Cannes, after a more than 30 year drought for French cinema at Cannes.
French director Laurent Cantet’s “The Class” (“Entre les Murs”) won the Palme d’Or after screening on the last day of the Festival de Cannes. The win was the first Palme d’Or for a French title since 1987. “Sous le Soleil de Satan” (Under Satan’s Sun) by French director Maurice Pielat andstarring Gerard Depardieu, was the last film from France to win the coveted Palme d’Or in his home country more than 30 years ago.
The winning French film, whose French title is “Entre Les Murs” (Within the Walls) is based on an autobiographical novel by Francois Begaudeau. Mr. Begaudeau plays himself as a French teacher in the movie. While not a documentary per se, The Class is a realistic film with a docu-drama feel, that stars actual teachers and students toughing it out in a rough Parisian junior high school over the course of a school year. Although “The Class” screened on the very last day of Competition at the festival, the French film still managed to get straight A’s from international critics and audiences, before going to the head of the class with its Palme d’Or win. The win was a unanimous decision among the nine-member Cannes jury, said actor Sean Penn, who headed the panel.
The victory for the gritty French movie was only one of many surprises during the awards ceremony at the festival, with Penn presiding. Robert deNiro introduced director Cantet, writer/actor Begaudeau and all 25 students who star in the film and presented them with the prize at the traditional ceremony at the Palais des Festivals. De Niro’s own movie, “What Just Happened?”, directed by Barry Levinson, had just closed the festival.
Another French honoree in Cannes was Catherine Deneuve, who, along with Clint Eastwood, received a special prize from th ehand of jury president Sean Penn, similar to the lifetime Achievement Awards given at the Oscars.
Roland Garros Open 2008
May 25, 2008
In French Open 2008 tennis at Roland Garros, France’s hopes rest on Alizé Cornet, 18
As a series of injuries, meltdowns and forfeits plague the French veteran tennis stars Richard Gasquet, Marion Bartoli, Gaël Monfils, Amélie Mauresmo, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Tatiana Golovin at the French Open tennis tournament at Roland Garros, the nation’s chances for victory at home fade. The only ray of hope for the French is being offered by a past junior champion just 18 years old, Alizé Cornet.
France and the world began to take real notice of Cornet at Roland Garros on Thursday when she beat Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova, 5th female player in the world, (6-2, 6-4 in 1 hour 14 minutes). Cornet then caught a break from the forfeit of Serena Williams Friday in the quarter-finals. Then on Saturday, the young French player trounced the number 8 in the world, another Russian, Anna Chakvetadze (3-6, 6-4, 6-3 in 1 hour 41 minutes).
Against Chakvetadze, Alizé Cornet had a rough start. Tense and anxious, Cornet committed one fault after another. Later Cornet cited her fear of facing a top 10 player (Cornet herself came into Roland Garros at number 34) and of looking ridiculous as France and the world looked on. But in a display of mental toughness beyond her years, last year’s junior champ found her stride and battled back to win, stunning Chakvetadze and delighting the French hometown Roland Garros crowd.
Facing Jelena Janovic in the finals at Roland Garros, Alizé Cornet would make only her second appearance in a pro tennis final since her debut, while Janovic, 23, reaches for her 6th career win.
On the men’s side, France’s slim Roland Garros hopes rest on Gilles Simon, 29th in the world and winner last saturday of the Tournament of Casablanca, and on the return of Julien Benneteau, quarterfinalist in 2006.
France not so happy? Happy hour and liquor bottle sales may be banned in France
May 21, 2008
Too many youth in France getting drunk, says French official, blaming promotions at bars and nightclubs in France.
In a move sure to cause even more than the usual French melancholy, France is said to be considering a ban on bars’ ability to offer happy hours and on the sale of liquor by the bottle in nightclubs in an effort to discourage young people from binge drinking and to curb drunk driving in France.
Etienne Apaire, head of a committee in France heading the French government’s fight against addiction to drugs or alcohol said that the measures are the subject of talks with alcohol manufacturers and distributors in France. Decisions may come within weeks, he said, in anticipation of the summer school holidays. Apaire cited a spike in youth alcohol consumption and drunkenness in France, exacerbated by bars in France adopting the time-honored American tradition of “happy hour”. Begun in the US as a way to help frazzled businessmen to unwind after work, and to attract customers in the slow early evening hours, Happy Hour has become in the US–and now increasingly in France–simply code for a way to get drunk fast and cheaply. With young people in France, as everywhere, having less disposable income than their older working brothers and sisters, they are – intentionally or not – prime targets for bars in France serving cheap alcohol.
Apaire said 2005 research revealed that a quarter of 17-year-olds in France reported getting drunk at least three times in the previous year. A tenth of French 17-year-olds said they got drunk 10 times or more.
Apaire said France might ban “open bar” deals. These are bar promotions that sell customers all they can drink for a set price. Apaire said such schemes encouraged drinking games and drunkenness. The ban on “happy hours”, concerns bars or nightclubs offering cheaper drinks to try to attract customers earlier in the evening.
Other possible measures could include restricting the sale of vodka, whisky and other hard liquor in nightclubs to glasses, and raising the legal drinking age for purchasing any type of alcohol to 18.
Under the law in France today, beer and wine can be sold to people aged between 16 and 18. It is a long French tradition for children at home to be given wine mixed with water at meals. Until recently, one might have argued that French culture not creating a “forbidden fruit” atmosphere around alcohol was one reason why teenage drunkeness did not exist as a problem to anything like the extent that it does in the US, where underage drinking often begins as an act of rebellion or due to peer pressure.
The president of a union in France representing nightclub owners, objected to the measures, calling them stupid and ineffective. He reasoned that people in clubs bought bottles of alcohol to share in groups as a cost-saving measure, much as diners in a restaurant might buy a bottle of wine instead of individual glasses. Apaire appeared unmoved by this argument, and went to say that France would not only be looking at bars and nightclubs but also at French supermarkets, where young people can buy alcohol with almost no restrictions.
In France, the Festival de Cannes is a show on the movie screen and off
May 20, 2008
In Cannes, stars and movie fans line the Croisette for the glamorous French film festival.
France is a film loving country all year round, but more than any other time of year June in France means movies, and movie stars, at the glittering Cannes Film Festival, which runs May 14-25 this year. With the famous French long weekends of May already past, attendance by French fans is reported to be not as great as in former years, but there are still plenty thronging the streets and hoping to score a ticket for a premiere or spot one of the their favorite stars on the Croisette, Cannes’ answer to a boardwalk.
Once the stars left the darkened theatre and headed out into the darkened city, the show was just beginning. Cannes was aflutter with parties this weekend, with most nights seeing three of four headline bashes to choose from. One party was an Australian inspired barbecue in honor of Cate Blanchett, who plays a Russian femme fatale in the premiere everyone has been waiting for – Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull. And earlier, the stars were out on the red carpet all weekend in eye-popping fashions, ensuring that there was at least as much to gawk at off screen as on.
This year, entertainment at Cannes may have been more at a premium than ever, so that moviegoers could cheer themselves up after viewing a spate of serious, political and troubling films on the Cannes slate this year, such as “Blindness” which deals with an apocalyptic loss of sight and the societal breakdown that follows, “Gomorra,” a violent depiction of a fictional Italian town, and “Linha de Passe” about life on the mean streets of Brazil. Even Clint Eastwood’s “Changeling”, the only US film in competition at Cannes, is a troubling story of a child’s disappearance and its strange aftermath.
Even animated films have taken on darker themes. “Waltz with Bashir” tells of the main character’s recurring nightmare in which he is chased by 26 vicious dogs and relates it an Israeli Army mission in the first Lebanon War in the 80s.
The one spot of pure movie fun was to be had at the out-of-competition premiere of the new Indiana Jones movie, directed by Steven Spielberg following a raft of serious movies of his own. “We did it as a celebration of the movies,” Spielberg said at the news conference. “We wanted to reacquaint people with the pure joy of seeing something with others in a darkened room.” He also left the door open for yet another Indiana Jones sequel if the movie-going audiences appeared to want one.
Some critics sniffed at the latest Indiana Jones installment, calling Harrison Ford–and the franchise–to old and tired, and others disdaining its mass appeal. Ford made a number of statements to the effect that he works for the people “who buy the tickets” and avoids reading reviews of his films, good or bad. Harrison Ford is favorite in France, where he has owned a home for years and is a regular at the Deauville Film Festival held in the fall. In addition to Harisson Ford, other stars spotted around Cannes have been Natalie Portman, Penelope Cruz (who appears in Woody Allen’s film premiering at Cannes), Angelina Jolie, Halle Berry and many others. Madonna is rumored to be making an appearances at some point during the festival.
Ile Saint Louis, Paris’ small town
May 17, 2008
Ile Saint Louis is an oasis of quiet charm in the center of bustling Paris.
The Ile Saint Louis, a small island in the middle of the Seine, at the epicenter of Paris, holds no must-see world-famous attractions. It has no major monuments to speak of, and its one church, Saint-Louis-en-l’ile, which, while a fine example of 18th C. church architecture, is not among the most spectacular in Paris. The most well-known attraction on the Ile Saint Louis is an ice cream shop, Berthillon, which, while excellent, to some might not appear to be reason enough for a detour to the Ile Saint Louis. But any visitor to Paris soon realizes as soon as he or she sets foot on the Ile Saint Louis, that the point is not what you can see there, but how it feels to be there.
Right in the physical center of Paris, the Ile Saint Louis providesa calm in the eye of the storm, with quais made for strolling with a cone of passion-fruit Berthillon ice cream, cafes under the trees with a spectacular rear view of Notre Dame’s flying buttresses, and shop after shop of irresistibly useless items (Marionettes! Impossibly chic clothes! Products made from honey! Exorbitant oil landscapes!) to reward hours of leisurely window-shopping. Many tourists make a mistake in bypassing the Ile Saint Louis, skirting it to head for the more impressive Place Des Vosges and the now-trendy streets of the surrounding Marais area. But the Marais, while also old, has become very gentrified, the Soho of Paris, while the Ile Saint Louis remains pleasantly behind the times. No wonder one feels comfortable slowing down there, which is exactly what the harried tourist needs. The old-fashioned look of the Ile Saint Louis, the absence of much auto traffic or noise and the small scale of everything invite visitors to step back to an older time and a slower pace.
The irony is that when Ile Saint Louis was first developed in the 1700′s, it became at the time the most modern area of Paris. But the tables turned when the more fashionable crowd moved west. This was a blessing in disguise for Ile Saint Louis and centuries’ worth of visitors, as the little island’s passing out of vogue meant years of benign neglect during which almost nothing changed. So the narrow streets and facades, some of them mere slivers, the charmingly off-kilter buildings, the cobblestones, the oddly-sized doors and hodgepodge of small shopfronts are still much as they were, while little of “mainland” Paris has escaped modernization so well.
Of course no one knows the secret charms of the Ile Saint Louis better than the lucky few fortunate enough to live there. Residents of Ile Saint Louis give up the convenience of having a metro or bus stop right on the corner, but they have the real luxury of living in a small-town atmosphere in the center of Paris, knowing their butchers, bakers and neighbors by name. Real estate on the Ile Saint Louis is among the most expensive in Paris, and even so, because of the small size of the Ile Saint Louis, apartments are hard to come by. Since these apartments are in buildings and hotels particuliers(town homes) from the 18th century, many have the large French windows, exposed beams, intricate moldings and fireplaces, touches that infuse homes on the Ile Saint Louis with charm.
Visitors can pretend to be an Ile Saint-Louis denizen for a week or weekend, however, if they opt for a Paris apartment rental on the Ile Saint Louis. A Paris apartment rental, especially on the Ile Saint Louis is a good alternative to a hotel for a number of reasons. First, the location of the Ile Saint Louis is an ideal departure point for exploring all of Paris. Yes, there is no metro stop on Ile Saint Louis, but Pont Marie, Hotel de Ville and Chatelet metro stops are not far. Because Ile Saint Louis is in the center of what was once the birthplace of Paris, many important sights are an easy walk: Notre Dame, the hotel De Ville, the Place Dauphine, the Pont Neuf, and the aforementioned Places des Vosges and Marais area. Even the Louvre is not very far from Ile Saint Louis, perhaps a twenty-minute stroll.
Secondly, a Paris apartment rental on the Ile Saint Louis will certainly give you more room than a hotel room in the same area. Hotel rooms in Paris are generally small, and the Ile Saint Louis, which has everything scaled-down, is notorious. If you are travelling with a family, a Paris apartment rental on Ile Saint Louis is far preferable than squeezing into a hotel room, or having to pay for two, still not giving you the space or comfort of a guest apartment.
Thirdly, staying in a Paris apartment rental on the Ile Saint Louis will allow you to relax on your return from a day of sightseeing in a quiet, pleasant enviroment. In your own Paris apartment, you’ll be able to also enjoy some meals at home, which you will certainly want to do after visiting the local pastry shops, greengrocer and cheesemonger on the Ile Saint Louis. This way you can save your euros for a big splurge at Mon Vieil Ami.
And lastly, staying in a Paris apartment rental on the Ile Saint Louis will allow you to feel like a native, and to imagine living in a simpler time and place, to make your stay in Paris that much more magical. Legend has it that if you kiss someone on the Pont Marie, a bridge leading to the Ile Saint Louis, you will always return to Paris. Once you have stayed on the ile Saint Louis in your own Paris apartment rental, you will most definitely feel like you have a home in Paris forever.
Guest Apartment Services
Ile Saint Louis luxury apartments rental
Tel : +33 1 46 33 37 73
Reservation : http://www.guestapartment.com/reservation.html
Web : http://www.guestapartment.com
Looking for a French vacation that really gets your heart pumping? Why not bike through France?
May 15, 2008
Athletic and adventurous or a gentle tour on two wheels; whatever your taste, Logis has the perfect hotel for your bike stay in France.
Exploring France by bike is a wonderful way to experience the French countryside, tour charming villages and work up an appetite for fabulous regional French cuisine — and it’s easy to plan anything from a perfect trip that simply includes cycling or a complete bike tour through France when you choose a Cycling Vacation Hotel from Logis hotels.
If you are looking for a truly charming hotel in France, Logis hotels is a whole network of hotels in France chosen not only for their high level of hospitality, authenticity and cuisine, but are also organized by themes and special interests. So cycling enthusiasts can search among Bike Stays in the Logis hotels network and find a whole list of charming hotels that have been selected for meeting the specific needs of cyclists.
At a Cycling Vacation Hotel from Logis, you’ll be welcomed by a host who understands what you are seeking in a cycling vacation. Your host will enjoy presenting his area to you and giving you personalized tips on bike trails in the area, both mountain bike trails and touring routes. A locked room will be at your disposal for storing your gear, and a maintenance area equipped with running water will help you keep your bikes in perfect condition. An energy-rich breakfast specially designed for a day of pedaling will be provided, and box lunches will be made available for long day tours. You’ll find today’s weather conditions posted each morning, and your host will be able to put to you in touch with local bike repair and equipment stores and places to rent bikes as well.
If your stay is a point-to-point cycling tour through France, Logis hotels can even arrange the transport of your luggage between the hotels on your route. And for a perfect end to a day spent in the great French outdoors, the gourmet chefs of Logis will serve you refined cuisine based on the freshest local products and of regional specialities in their gourmet restaurants.
Experience free-wheeling through the countryside of France
A Logis Cycling Vacation is the way to immerse yourself France’s amazing preserved natural sites with complete freedom and at your own pace. Why not consider a chaming hotel in Brittany? View splendid panoramas and areas of character from Cancale to the Gulf of Morbihan, the Breton coast dotted with pretty ports, inlets and long beaches of sand and smooth stones. The deeply rural inland area is a vast natural park where exploring on two wheels offers guaranteed rest and relaxation. Between a preserved coastline strewn with islands and a back-country protected by natural reserves, the area lends itself magnificently to a vacation in the country, all explored from your Logis de France hotel in Brittany.
The Poitou Charentes region’s natural heritage also makes it an ideal setting for a bike vacation with family or friends, thanks to its many bike trails which line the entire coast, from the Ile de Re in Royan to the Ile d’Oléron. When you stay in a charming hotel in Poitou Charantes labeled “Logis Velo” (Cycling Holiday) from Logis de France, you have the guarantee of a quality accomodations plus many added practical services for cyclists and sightseers.
Further south, hundreds of miles of beautiful bike trails await you in the Landes and Girondes regions of France. There, you can cycle along the Atlantic coast and its immense fine sand beaches, and cross splendid forests of fragrant pines.
Nestled in the heart of France’s natural beauty, a Logis hotel is ready to accommodate you and to guide you on the perfect cycling vacation in France, whether your tastes run to heart-pumping sport or simply sightseeing in the most ideal and independent way. See the best of France on two wheels, from the best home base for a biking vacation — a Logis hotel. And if you are looking to plan a holiday in France geared toward wine, gourmet cuisine, fishing or many other varied activities and interests, Logis has hotels just for you.
Services
- Fishing vacation
- Cycling vacation
- Hiking vacation
- Snowing vacation
- Distinctive vacation
- Wine testing vacation
- Business accommodation
Booking hotline : +33 1 45 84 83 84
Central Reservation : info@logis-de-france.fr
Web : http://www.logis-de-france.fr/uk/
In Paris this Spring? Smile! You’re on Google Street View!
May 12, 2008
New Google Street View in Paris runs up against French image rights laws in the effort to capture Paris streets for Google Maps.
In Paris, it’s Spring, which means the people are out in the cafes, kissing on street corners… and being photographed and broadcast all over the Internet by Google. The Google Street View mapping service has black Opels circulating around the capital of France taking photos to map all the streets of Paris from ground level. The results are impressive; put in a street address and it’s jut like you are there. However, anyone who actually IS there also turns up in the photo. With so many Parisians out in the good weather, that means many potential unintended celebrities on Google Maps.
Similar vehicles to those in Paris, some bearing the Google Street View logo (while others are travelling incognito, unmarked) , have been spotted in other European cities in recent weeks, indicating that Google is gathering data on a massive scale in preparation for the launch of the Google Street View in Europe.
In France, the photography of Google Street View in Paris poses a particular problem, because strict French laws prohibit using the image of a person without his or her consent. This was recently seen in the suit brought by President of France Nicolas Sarkozy and his then-fiance and now-wife Carla Bruni, against the airline Ryanair, for the satirical newpaper advertisement Ryanair ran showing a photograph of the happy couple. (The suit was settled with a payment by Ryanair to a charity.) The French law means that Google running Google Street View photos that include French people could open them to lawsuits from those people unless Google obtains their consent. Since thousands of people could potentially appear in the Google Street View Paris photos, this could be a legal nightmare for Google, and a potential cash cow for opportunistic Parisians caught by Google’s candid camera. A few of these suits have already been borught; Google has withdrawn the offending photos rather than pay the litigants.
Among the technical solutions Google is considering are blurring faces in images, which would require an enormous amount of Photoshop-style manpower, or only publishing unidentifiable low-resolution images, which would make Google Street View in France much less attractive, and less useful.
The law concerning image rights in France was obviously put in place before the Internet made life in France and elsewhere so much more complicated. How the use of Google’s photos showing people will play out is still to be seen. Certainly, many people in France may not care or actually enjoy seeing themselves or someone they know on Google Street View, the French version of Andy Warhol’s 15 minutes of fame. But woe to the philandering husbands of Paris or the worker who has called in sick when the images of them smooching on a bench or basking–in perfect health– in a cafe appear for the world, their wives and their bosses to see. In Paris, this sort of threat to privacy may be closer to the hearts of the people than any French law.
Limousine rental in Paris makes good sense for business or pleasure
May 9, 2008
Businesses in France as well as tourists and travel agents benefit from the reliability, convenience and professionalism of chauffeur-driven cars in Paris.
Every traveller knows all too well about the difficulties of foreign travel today: long security lines, late and cancelled flights, missed connections. But in France, much of the stress of travel can happen after you arrive. Take airport transfers in Paris. Traffic can be brutal on the wrong autoroute. Tourists and business travellers alike have long lamented how hard it is to find taxis in Paris. And once in Paris, you never know when French transit workers will call one of their famous slowdowns or strikes, stranding you–or worse, your clients–in unfamiliar territory.
The good news is, unlike with air travel, there’s a way to avoid all these snafus: hire a chauffer-driven car from a reputable company. For businesses, planning ahead with a chauffer-driven car for Paris airport transfers can help prevent missed flights as well as make a great impression on arriving business associates. Travel agents can offer a great service by proposing airport transfers and a luxury tour of Paris for special clients, or private transport for groups. And tourists can hire a chaffeur-driven car with an English-speaking guide for sightseeing in Paris and beyond, especially handy for families, those with special needs…or for a romantic couple.
It’s essential, however, to choose your car company carefully to make sure it has both the reliablity and range of services you need. Adaïa Services is one such company, with a fleet of cars and complement of bilingual drivers to serve both business and tourism customers alike. For business, Adaïa Services offers airport transfers in Paris to and from Charles de Gaulle, Orly and private airstrips, as well as all train stations, and welcomes your foreign business associates for the signature of contracts or to transport them in comfort to meetings and conventions. Tourists will enjoy luxury tours of Paris and excursions to places of interest within driving distance of Paris such as Giverny, the Loire Valley, Champagne and even the WWII beaches of Normandy, all with an English-speaking guide. And travel agents can offer their clients unique a la carte services such as chauffeured shopping trips, romantic tours of Paris by night and even luxury transport to and from a wedding. Surprisingly, hiring a chauffer-driven car in Paris need not break the bank; in fact, businesses will appreciate the ability to budget their transport costs in Paris in advance, and leisure travellers will find that a chauffeured car can be hired for not all that much more than other less comfortable ways of getting around in Paris. Adaïa Services’ fleet of vehicles include everything from Peugeot and Mercedes sedans to Volkswagen minivans and even Rolls Royce limousines. More than a way to get from point A to point B, Adaïa Services strives to make each trip a pleasant and stress-free one. And Adaïa Services’ drivers know the area, the traffic patterns and the roads, so you arrive wherever you’re headed on time and in style. Whether in Paris on business or on vacation, everyone can relax if they leave the driving to Adaïa Services.
Adaïa Services offers a wide range of chauffered car services in and around Paris, serving both business and leisure clienteles as well as the tourism industry.
Services
- Paris daytrips by chauffeur-driven car
- Luxury tour of Paris
- Paris Airport Transfers
- Limousine service in Paris
10, rue des Gaudines
78100 Saint Germain en Laye
Tel : +33 1 34 51 20 93
Fax : +33 8 72 11 73 93
Web : http://www.adaia-services.com
Contact : Contact & booking page
First-time visitors to France can explore Paris and Versailles in style with private guided tours
May 6, 2008
American travellers looking for a great, comprehensive introduction to Paris and Versailles should look no further than a private tour with an English-speaking guide.
With so much to see and do in Paris and nearby, it’s hard for someone new to Paris to know where to begin. If your time in Paris is limited, it’s even more essential that you plan your tourism time wisely. Big bus tours are not attractive options for most sophisticated travellers, who resent being part of a large herd of camera-toting tourists. But going it alone, it can be frustrating to arrive at the Eiffel Tower at a bad time only to spend hours waiting in line, or to waste valuable travel time navigating an unfamiliar metro and bus system between sights. And if you’ve got your nose in a guide book to try to learn about what you are seeing, you’ll miss half of the experience, no matter how you get there.
A great way to get your bearings in the City of Light is with a private tour of Paris. Being driven around Paris in your own private air-conditioned van may seem like a luxury at first, but if it helps you make the most of your time and get more in-depth knowledge out of your visit, the value is indisputable. With a driver who knows his way around the city, you won’t arrive at a museum five minutes before closing or do a lot of useless backtracking to get to everything you want to see. And with an English-speaking guide, you won’t miss anything once you get there.
One company that offers a wide range of private tours of Paris is Best of France. Comfortable vans with knowledgable English-speaking drivers pick guests up right from their hotel and whisk them to sights all over Paris. In their full-day Paris tour, travellers can get an amazingly comprehensive overview of the city and its most beautiful and important sites. Those who have less time might prefer the half-day private tour, also very complete. There are private tours that center around Paris’ museums or nightlife. Best of France even offers a great idea for jet-setters with only a long layover in Paris: the Paris stopover tour, picking guests up at the airport and taking them on a private guided tour of Paris before bringing them back to Charles de Gaulle or Orly airport to catch their next flight! Definitely preferable to waiting in the airport departure lounge. For those wishing to explore outside of Paris in the same customized and intimate style, Best Of France offers private guided tours of Versailles, Fontainebleau, Giverny and other popular half-day-trips from Paris, without the crowds. Your own English-speaking guide can take you through the chateaux, houses, cathedrals and museums, or you can choose to explore on your own; either way, you are sure of an enriching experience at a flexible and relaxed pace, free from the stress and hassle of getting there yourself or being forced to shunt along with a large group.
For example, in the Versailles guided tour the licensed guide begins with a drive through the park to show guests the little hamlet where Marie Antoinette used to play at being a peasant for fun, as well as the Petit Trianon and the Grand Trianon, before heading inside the royal Versailles Castle to give fascinating background information on the residence built for the Sun King, Louis XIV. Guests hear the inside stories and are able to ask all the questions they like about the magnificent apartments of the King, the Hall of Mirrors, the Queen’s apartments, and the magnificent gardens, in a private tour that really brings history to life. And for those who wish to venture even further, Best of France offers one and two day Normandy D-Day tours and tours through Burgundy, Champagne and more. If you’re new to France, or even if you’re not, a private tour from Best of France is the way to travel and miss nothing except the hassles.
Best of France provides private and shared guided tours in Paris and around France for individuals and groups of up to 15.
Services
Best of France Tours7 passage Foubert
75013 Paris
Tel : + 33 1 45 89 51 82
Fax : + 33 9 55 79 23 45
Web : http://www.best-of-france.net
Email : info@best-of-france.net