Archive for mass tourism
Shiragawa-go snapshot [jatp]
Posted in Mountains, pictures, Running, Travel with tags Britain, Gasshō-zukuri house, Gifu, Japan, jatp, mass tourism, miscanthus reed, Normandy, Shiragawa-go, Shogawa river, snow pack, thatched roof, traditional housing, Unesco World Heritage List on March 11, 2025 by xi'an
travel woes
Posted in Travel, University life with tags Astérix et Obélix, Birmingham, CDG, De Gaulle airport, French politics, GNP, Jamel Debbouze, mass tourism, Paris, Paris 2024 Olympics, Paris suburbs, public transportation, RER B, SNCF, tourism nuisances, train travel, University of Warwick on April 29, 2024 by xi'an
On my last trip to Warwick, the local (RER) train I boarded broke on its way to the CDG airport, after hitting something in a tunnel just three stops short of the airport, with so much delay and misleading communication that I missed my flight. While a minor issue for me, since I managed to work (and blog) in an airport lounge for most of the day—where I crossed path with Numerobis—, while waiting for the only flight to B’ham, this made me to reflect anew on the very poor state of the transportation network in Paris and its suburbs, with such incidents (power failures, broken rails, vetust engines, stolen cables, idiots on the tracks, &tc., even without mentioning the strikes) more and more the norm. And to wonder at how the ancient and bursting network is going to cope with the incoming flow of visitors attending the Olympics this summer… Actually, when compared with the other cities with a fairly reasonably efficient airport connection I experienced, it remains a mystery to me why the Greater Paris conurbation—whose president, Valérie Pécresse, was apparently deemed the main culprit for our train break by an incensed fellow passenger that morning!—has kept for years postponing the construction of a dedicated rail line between the airport and central Paris, as the unpredictable and uncomfortable suburban train is not delivering the intended message to Paris visitors and their still-growing contribution to the French GNP. But with the growing public opposition to any new infrastructure, incl. trains, this is unlikely to happen!
36 heures à Paris
Posted in Books, Travel with tags 36 hours in, Butte Montmartre, cemetary, Eiffel Tower, Japanese cuisine, La Villette, mass tourism, Notre-Dame-de-Paris, Paris, The New York Times on July 1, 2023 by xi'an
Italy no-no’s
Posted in Kids, pictures, Travel with tags Duomo di Milano, Gran Canale, Italia, Italy, Lonely, Martinique, mass tourism, Milano, Piazza di Spagna, Roma, San Marco, Venezia on May 22, 2023 by xi'an
The Lonely Planet blog has a list of prohibitions on tourists’ activities when visiting some Italian cities. Like Venice, Rome or Milan (below). Most of which is sort of obvious, like not walking around shirtless or barefoot away from beaches, feed the pigeons (although our kids did when visiting Venice for the first time!), hold picnics in busy areas, sit on the Rialto Bridge or the Spanish steps, ride a bike in Venezia!, swim in Trevi Fountain or a Venezia canalo (although kayaking remains allowed outside main canals and working hours), or steal sands from beaches. Some are less predictable, like eating in the street in Florence centre, dress up like an historical (Roman) figure, or wear sandals when hiking. (For the latest one, I got scolded last January when hiking to a waterfall in the Northern tip of Martinique, if not by the police!)
