Travel to France

Palais Royal

The Palais Royal is a palace and garden, north of the Louvre in Paris, and was the home of Cardinal de Richelieu, who ordered its construction in 1629. Richelieu bequeathed the palace (know at that time as Palais Cardinal) to the French Crown, and after the death of Louis XIII, it was the house of the Queen-Mother Anne of Austria, Cardinal Mazarin and the young Louis XIV. After that, it became the seat of the Dukes of Orleans in Paris. Today it houses the Constitutional Council and the Ministry of Culture, and the National Library is at the rear of the garden, boasting a collection of more than 6.000.000 books, documents, maps, and prints.

L'Arc de Triomphe

L'Arc de Triomphe is probably one of the most popular landmarks of Paris, and was commissioned by Napoleon in 1806 as a tribute to his victories as Emperor of France. It is decorated with battle scenes and martial sculptures that includes La Marseillaise by Rude, and in 1920, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was placed beneath the arch, with its eternal flame burning in tribute to the French dead in both World Wars.

Père-Lachaise Cemetery

The Père-Lachaise Cemetery in Paris is probably the most visited graveyard in any Western city, offering thousands of elaborately decorated graves, and it is the final resting place of some very famous people, like Chopin, Champollion, Sarah Bernhardt, Edith Piaf, Oscar Wilde, Delacroix, Bizet, Proust, Balzac, Colette, Molière and Jim Morrison.

Les Catacombes

Les Catacombes or the Parisian Catacombs in Paris could be considered as one of the most scary landmarks of the French capital, but still is very impressive. The Catacombs are network of labyrinthine tunnels, first excavated in the Roman period, that now house the remains of over 6 million burials removed here from the various overcrowded cemeteries and charnel houses all over Paris in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

Château de Chaumont

The Château de Chaumont was the first château at Chaumont-sur-Loire, in Loire Valley, dating from the 11th century and built by Eudes II, Count of Blois. This castle became the property of Catherine de' Medici in 1560, entertaining there numerous astrologers, including Nostradamus.

Château de Blois

The Royal Château de Blois in Loire Valley was the residence of several French kings, and was the place where Joan of Arc was blessed by the Archbishop of Reims before departing with her army to drive the English from Orléans, in 1429. It rises in the middle of the town, comprising several buildings dating from the 13th to the 17th century, being the spiral staircase in the François I wing the most famous piece of architecture.

Château de Chambord

The Royal Château de Chambord is one of the most recognizable châteaux in France and in the world for its distinctively French Renaissance architecture, that blends the traditional french medieval forms with the classical Italian ones. The original design of the castle was by Domenico da Cortona, but this design was altered in several ways during its 20 years of construction, and it is believed that Leonardo da Vinci himself had been involved in the design when he was a guest of King François at Clos Lucé. Chambord is also the largest castle in Loire Valley.

Loire Valley

Loire Valley or The Garden of France and the Cradle of the French Language, as it is known, is famous for its architectural heritage of its historic town, but specially for its incredible and world known castles, like Châteaux Amboise, Château de Villandry and Chenonceau. Its cultural monuments and landscapes are an incredible illustration of the ideals of the Renaissance and the Age of Enlightenment.

Verdun

Verdun is a city in the Lorraine région and was the site of the Battle of Verdun in 1916 during WWI, one of the most costly battles of the War. There are many French and German cemeteries, being the French National Cemetery and Douaumont Ossuary the largest, with 13.000 crosses adorning the field. An impressive memorial among the many found on the battlefield, is the "Bayonet Trench", and nearby we found the World War I Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery and Memorial.

Metz

Located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers, Metz is the capital of the Lorraine région. It has a large historical heritage, and you will find incredible buildings from different periods in the city.  The Gothic cathedral St. Etienne, with its impressive stained glass windows designed by Marc Chagall, is definitely one of its main sights.