France Travel News 11/23/2010

Officials from France and Atlanta plan to announce a partnership between Atlanta and France in science, business, humanitarian efforts and the arts. "France-Atlanta: Together towards Innovation" will kick off Nov. 29 and wrap up on Dec. 12. The collaboration is to include a series of 20 events. Prominent figures from the French governmental, cultural and scientific sectors plan to travel to Atlanta during the two-week period.

Mapping Gothic France is a joint project between the Visual Media Center in the Department of Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University, the Visual Resources Library at Vassar College, and the Columbia University Libraries. The project uses the Google Maps API and custom map tiles to present the locations of France's Gothic buildings. Using the map it is possible to browse the listed buildings geographically. It is also possible to view buildings by the approximate date of their construction and view historical maps of the period overlaid on the main map.

I… don't even know what to say about this one, but I guess I should just put it out there – if you're going to be in France on Dec. 7, there may not be any money in ATMs? Maybe? This ex-footballer wants everyone to take out money in ATMs to bankrupt the banking system. Naturally, the French think this is a great idea. I dunno, I give up.

FATHER Christmas’s French office officially opens for letters from children in France today. The office is in fact a branch of la Poste at Libourne, in the Gironde, which has been receiving children’s letters on behalf of Santa Claus, and replying for 50 years. These days you can also send emails: last year Le Père Nöel received 150,000 emails and a million letters. This year there are 60 staff working on the job.

POPULAR websites such as Google, Facebook and YouTube should be made to pay for the amount of traffic they generate in France, France Telecom has suggested. The telecoms operator said it was only fair that Google and other big content providers that use up a lot of bandwidth should pay some of the cost of maintaining and upgrading the network. (*headdesk*)

I live in France, Mr. Ailes. I've seen socialism. And Obama, sir, is no socialist. Please be quiet now.

How much would you pay for a hotel room and a spot of pampering for one night? A couple of thousand dollars? Oh, and that won't include dinner, which will probably cost you several hundred more – your generous tip not included, of course. If your answer is yes, then clients like you are just what France is seeking, for it is on a campaign to propel its top hotels into the super-luxury bracket where the attention is as lavish as the bill is eye-watering. Under a directive published by the Tourism Ministry, France is setting up a category of hotels called "palaces" whose offerings go way beyond the humdrum five-star hostelry with the coffee shop and the business centre and into the stellar beyond.

France will be the host of the Group of 20 finance ministers and central bank chiefs in February next year. This should be noted if you're thinking of visiting Paris during that time.

Paris and Brussels are presently seeing skirmishes over the fate of what's become the oceans' most iconic creature – the Atlantic bluefin tuna.
Bluefin tuna. This week and next, the French capital hosts the annual meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (Iccat) – the organisation charged with ensuring this species and many others are fished sustainably, but which has in conservationists' eyes so badly mismanaged its task over the years as to garner the alternative appellation of the International Conspiracy to Catch All Tunas.

Google Inc. said Wednesday it is in talks with Europe's biggest book publisher on a deal to digitally scan and distribute its out-of-print French books. Google Books Director Dan Clancy said the proposed deal with Hachette Livre, the world's second-largest book publisher, is "a first of its kind" — and could serve as a template for other deals with publishers around the world.

A French police official says a U.S. delegation investigating doping in cycling has held a second day of meetings at the headquarters of the international police agency Interpol. The senior official tells The Associated Press that the Americans interviewed French police officers who specialize in doping in sports. The official spoke Wednesday on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the talks publicly.