标签 法国 下的文章

Chapel St-Michel d'Aiguilhe, Le Puy-en-Velay, France (© Jaubert French Collection/Alamy Stock Photo)

Chapel on the rock

Pace yourself—you'll need to climb 268 stone steps to reach the entrance of Chapel St-Michel d'Aiguilhe (Chapel of St. Michael of the Needle). This historic church near Le Puy-en-Velay, France, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site that attracts visitors from around the world. It was constructed in 969 by a local bishop and dedicated to Archangel Michael, the patron saint of mountaintops. Even before the chapel was built, the site had spiritual significance, as it was home to prehistoric dolmen (stone tombs) built by the Romans to honor their god Mercury.

This time of year, you don’t necessarily have to climb the stairs to get a good view. If you're lucky, you can hitch a ride from the many hot-air balloon pilots that take to the skies in early November. These enthusiasts gather in Le Puy-en-Velay each year for a festival that commemorates the anniversary of the first hot-air balloon flight.

秋日里通往卢浮宫的杜乐丽花园，法国巴黎 Jardin des Tuileries in autumn leading to the Louvre Museum in Paris, France (© Brian A. Jackson/Getty Images Plus)

Paris is photo-ready this week

Today we're featuring an image of the Jardin des Tuileries and the Louvre to highlight the Paris Photo art fair happening through Sunday at the historic Grand Palais. Paris Photo is the world's largest art fair dedicated to photography. Since 1997, the mission of the fair has been 'to promote and nurture photographic creation and the galleries, publishers, and artists at its source.' Starting today around 200 exhibitors, leading galleries, and specialty publishers, along with Parisian cultural institutions, will give visitors a unique look at both historical and contemporary photographic works of art.

孚日山脉的针叶林，法国 (© Radomir Jakubowski/Minden Pictures)

法国塔恩河沿岸的Castelbouc城堡和塔恩峡谷 Castelbouc and the Gorges du Tarn along the Tarn River in France (© Stefan Schurr/Westend61/Offset)

Bidding summer adieu

Today, on the traditional end of the French summer season, we're featuring the wild beauty of the Gorges du Tarn, a canyon formed by the Tarn River in south central France. The Tarn Gorge is about 33 miles long and, at points, almost 2,000 feet deep. It's a popular spot for tourists, especially kayakers and rock climbers. History buffs also find much to explore, including the castles and villages built along—or even carved into—the canyon walls, like Castelbouc in today's image.

巴拉涅卡尔维湾的城堡和要塞，法国科西嘉岛 (© Siephoto/Masterfile)

Peloton during the 2018 Tour de France in Valence, France © Justin Setterfield/Getty Images

Racers pushing past sunflowers in the 2018 Tour de France

Cyclists have been competing in this prestigious, multi-stage race since 1903. The route is changed every year but always includes a mix of terrains and elevations, mostly in France. Originally conceived as a promotion for a newspaper, the Tour is now a worldwide sporting event that draws billions of viewers each year, making it more popular than the Super Bowl. Here, competitors are biking alongside the summertime sunflowers of southern France that are in full bloom during the race each year. This scenic image is a foil to the grueling duration of the race, which covers more than 2,000 miles over a 23-day span. Although athletes are organized into teams, the individual who completes the strenuous course in the overall shortest amount of time wins and gets a cash prize often shared with teammates. This year's race starts in Belgium and will pedal past the iconic sunflowers around stage 16 before coming to a stop in Paris.

塞尚山，法国普罗旺斯艾克斯 (© travelview/iStock)

Cracking Art installation at Le Mans Cathedral in 2015, Le Mans, France © Michel GILE/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images

Installation art turns heads

If you ever encounter a giant, plastic snail in the city or an army of rainbow-colored meerkats holding sentry outside a historic building, it's likely an art installation from the Cracking Art collective. The group uses plastic to craft vivid representations of meerkats, elephants, snails, and other natural creatures for traveling art installations in unexpected locations. The collective's use of plastic is meant to call attention to the sometimes-blurry connection between natural and artificial reality, inviting viewers to reexamine the world around them. The meerkat exhibit on our homepage took place in 2015 at Le Mans Cathedral in Le Mans, France.

诺曼底入侵后的桑树港遗址，法国诺曼底Arromanches les Bains / Remains of Mulberry Harbour from the D-Day invasion, Arromanches les Bains, Normandy, France (© Javier Gil/Alamy)

Engineering an artificial harbor in Normandy

For the 75th anniversary of D-Day, the beginning of the end of WWII, we're focusing on the remains of the Mulberry Harbours—one of the most impressive military engineering feats of the war. Knowing that the ability to land huge numbers of men, vehicles, and supplies would be crucial to the Allies' success of the invasion of Normandy, Winston Churchill challenged his forces to come up with an artificial harbor that could be towed into place and operational within days of the initial landings.

Over 40,000 men were involved in the creation of two harbors that were installed at Omaha and Gold beaches beginning on June 9, 1944, and which were completed just six days later. The harbors included breakwaters comprised of sunken decommissioned ships, pre-built concrete caissons, 33 jetties, and over 10 miles of roadways. A violent storm on June 19th destroyed the harbor at Omaha beach, but Mulberry B, at Arromanches, survived and by the time it was abandoned six months later it had landed 2.5 million men, 500,000 vehicles, and 4 million tons of supplies into northern France.

Stravinsky Fountain in Paris, France © Alessandro Saffo/eStock Photo

A ‘circus of chaos’ for Stravinsky

The whimsical sculptures of Stravinsky Fountain in Paris are a bold, modern contrast to the Church of Saint-Merri, seen in the background of our photo today. The fountain—designed to inspire feelings of joy and playfulness—is a tribute to the groundbreaking symphonic composer and conductor Igor Stravinsky. Though he was born near St. Petersburg, Russia, Stravinsky wrote and debuted many of his career-making works while living in France in the early 20th century. It was this day in 1913 that Stravinsky’s ballet ‘The Rite of Spring’ debuted at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées.

The ballet, choreographed by iconic dancer Vaslav Nijinksy, was not well-received by traditionalists. Those who preferred classical ballet clashed with ‘bohemian’ members of the audience who openly embraced the modern performance. The fracas soon led to heckling of the performers and fights within the crowd. The ensuing ‘riot’ is something of a legend, with most historians agreeing that it wasn’t quite the spectacle that some accounts suggest. Still, it’s fun to imagine a ballet inspiring such a passionate reaction from the audience. Imagine if the ballet fans of early 20th-century Paris had social media…