It’s not too early to start staking out your spot for the triumphant arrival of the Tour de France in Paris. This year (2008), the Tour de France cyclists will zoom along the Champs Elysees, do their final circle round the Arc de Triomphe on Sunday, July 27th.

If you plan on being in town for that Sunday, you may want to take an early stroll down the Champs Elysees to choose among the innumerable cafes ranging from burger joints to ornate tea salons, but sentimentally speaking, I’d be hard put to go anyplace other than the Publicis Drugstore, 133 Avenue des Champs Elysees. That’s the place where we first saw the Tour de France tear up the pavement.

Not only that, but the Publicis Drugstore is perfectly situated at the corner of the Champs Elysees and the Arc de Triomphe so you do get a great vantage point.

There are other cafes along the Champs that have a more time-honored reputation such as Fouquet’s or La Duree, but ‘Le Drugstore’ holds a particular place in my heart - as being one of the few places on the Champs where as a poor student, I could afford to splurge on a ‘Salade caifornienne’. Even back then ‘Le Drugstore’ was a stylish place to wander about on a Friday or Saturday night.

Still, to this day, I don’t know how we managed to find a table to watch the Tour de France several years ago, but I think we ended up standing on tip-toe.

Read the rest of this entry »

World Heritage Sites normally conjure of images of jaw-dropping natural beauty - or architectural feats like the Taj Mahal and the Egyptian pyramids wrought by thousands of anonymous hands, yet, now and then, personal excellence gets recognition.

Certainly Sebastien Le Prestre, Seigneur de Vauban, King Louis XIV’s Marshal of France, brilliant tactician and royal military engineer is a name recognized by many who’ve visited the French northern coastline. His fortifications are easy to recognize once you’ve caught onto his star pattern formations. (You can even see the similar star pattern in Quebec City’s citadel - whose layout was approved by Vauban).

One of the reasons Vauban was considered the best man to rebuild the fortifications of almost 300 cities throughout France was his equally remarkable ability to break through a city’s defenses. He had numerous occasions (56 sieges) to prove his worth in battles where his attack strategies had good results.

Just as he sought out the weakest points in a city’s fortifications when he attacked, likewise, he optimized every building device in his defense constructions to create a vantage point that ‘had no blind spots’. Often he would use the natural coastline’s topography as part of his fortification plans.



One of my favorite places to admire Vauban’s engineering skill is along the coastline of the Normandy fishing port St. Vaast-la-Hougue. Thanks to friends, France and Toby Fleming, who introduced us to St. Vaast, we’ve returned many times. This town is famous, not only for tasty oysters, but also for huge naval battle, The Battle of Barfleur and La Hougue, 1692, and the remaining Vauban fortifications which nowadays make for a great seaside ramble. It’s also one of the 12 locations chosen to be recognized by Unesco as part of the World Heritage site honoring Vauban.

Read the rest of this entry »