Valentine’s Idea: Chocolate Tours

by Willy Volk on

What better way to celebrate this sweet occasion than by stuffing your face with the sweetest sweet on earth — chocolate!

  • Every Saturday, Boston’s Chocolate Tour takes guests on a trolley ride through Boston’s finest culinary landmarks. Of course, guests enjoy a sumptuous array of decadent chocolate desserts from the city’s best chefs, and are treated to the history, myths, trivia, and legends surrounding chocolate.
  • Chocoholic Tours has a variety of options for sampling Melbourne, Australia’s rich history and stunning chocolate. Bonus: since the tours are walking tours, you can burn off calories as you consume them!
  • Join culinary guide/pastry chef David Lebovitz, author of The Great Book of Chocolate, for a chocolate-y exploration in Paris. An expert on the chocolate shops and bakeries of the City of Lights, David treats guests to a memorable tour featuring the best of what France has to offer. Private tours are also available.
  • Chicago Chocolate Tours provides guided walking and tasting tours of some of Chicago’s finest chocolatiers. What’s more, they even have a special Valentine’s Package.
  • London’s Chocolate Ecstasy Tours offers 4-hour long tours (guided by a Chocolate Ecstasy Chocoholic Guide), through London’s side streets and alleys. Participants sample chocolates, enjoy chocoholic chats, take a lavish hot chocolate break, enjoy special prices on the ultimate chocolate luxuries, and receive a goody bag!
  • One day isn’t enough for your chocolate-loving mouth? InTrend offers 7-day Escorted Tours for real chocolate lovers! Spend a week in Brussels participating in chocolate-making demonstrations at chocolate factories, and sample chocolate desserts after sumptuous meals.
  • Looking for a more affordable option? San Fransisco’s Sharffen Berger requires a reservation but offers free walking tours through its factory.

Chocolate tours sound like my kind of holiday celebration. Yum!

Word for the Travel Wise (02/04/07)

by Adrienne Wilson on

I’m busy watching the Superbowl now, but decided to pop in just for all of you.

Today’s word is a French word used in France:

jeu – game

French is the third largest Romance language in the world in terms of native speakers according to the Wikipedia and is the official language of 29 countries. There are a number of places to learn French abroad which include Canada and Switzerland in addition to France. Amerispan offers immersion programs in all three of the countries and more info can be found by clicking here. Search other study abroad programs at some of these sites here: Coeur de France, Accord French Language School, and Transitions Abroad to name only a few. Swing over to My Language Exchange where you are sure to find someone willing to exchange their lingo skills for some of your own. Free online sources for learning French include France-Pub, French Assistant, and the BBC Languages.

Past French words: confiture, difficile, frottis, ma reum (mère), pensées, vélo, croire, neige, cafard, vacances

Let There Be Darkness

by Iva Skoch on

This evening between 7:55-8pm CET in Europe, some European cities–Paris and Athens among them–went dark for five minutes. Not by accident, either.

Tomorrow, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will unveil a long-awaited report on global warming. And, apparently, nobody (aside from global warming deniers and skeptical environmentalists) expects it to be pretty.

Pressure is building on U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to call an emergency summit of world leaders to break the deadlock over cutting greenhouse gases.

I wonder how much money would be saved by keeping the Eiffel Tower dark indefinitely. The 20,000 flashing lights sure make it look more visible to air traffic though. Oh, but wait, air travel is bad for the environment, too. This is where I might stop being an environmentalist. I guess you have to pick your battles.

What Does the Inside of the Louvre Look Like?

by Willy Volk on

I’ve had the honor of spending, oh, about 10 hours in Paris. During a lengthy layover, I rode the train into town, stood outside Notre Dame, ate lunch at an outdoor cafe, hopped a bus to the Eiffel Tower, trudged to the Louvre, returned to the train station, and then headed back to the airport. It was an exhausting day — man, I sure coulda used one of those free bikes! — but it was fun.

Unfortunately, although I got to see a lot of stuff from the outside, I didn’t get to see much from the inside. I never entered Notre Dame. I didn’t ride to the top of the Eiffel Tower. I only marveled at the architecture of the Louvre’s front door. Frankly, I was afraid to invest too heavily in any single activity for fear I’d miss out on something more fun — or miss my flight. On one hand, I’m glad I got to see so much of Paris, whirlwind though it was. On the other hand, if I could do it over, I might’ve chosen one activity, spent the whole day doing it right, and forsaken the others. Dunno. Nevertheless, I stumbled on this 9-minute clip shot (no doubt clandestinely) inside the Louvre. Now I see what I missed.

Did I make a mistake tackling Paris this way? Or was I wise to do what I did, given my time constraints?

The New Way to See Paris: On A Bicycle

by Willy Volk on

Recently, Paris announced plans to make bicycles available to the city’s commuters, strollers, and tourists for free. Working with French outdoor advertising firm JCDecaux SA — which received access to more than 1600 publicity sites in exchange for providing the bikes — the City plans to have in excess of 14,000 bikes by this summer, and more than 20,000 by the end of 2007. To borrow a bike, users visit one of the 1400+ stations around the city, hand over a swipe-card, get a bike, and roll away. Bikes may be returned at any station.

This sounds like a great idea to lower pollution. However, I wonder if thousands of cycling tourists, confused by unfamiliar signage, disoriented by winding cobbled roads, and dazzled by the beautiful buildings surrounding them, will cause more headaches for Paris than it resolves.

My prediction? By the end of the year, every intersection currently manned by art vendors will have boys with tire tools and pumps showcasing their wares. I wonder if JCDecaux SA secured the rights to advertise for all the bike repairmen.

What do you think? Is this idea a magnifique way to pump up the city’s image, or is it stupide, certain to deflate?