Update: La Montagne has just published a new story with a remarkable video highlighting this early work by Gustav Eiffel in the deep heart of France… Click here to see the video. By the late 1800s, Gustave Eiffel was a busy and well-known engineer, with projects not just in France but across Europe and as far away as Vietnam, Peru, Bolivia, Mexico and Turkey. His company managed the construction of an astonishing variety of train stations, grand galleries, and bridges all over the world. And while we all know something about a certain Tower in Paris, one of his most famous projects brought him to the deep heart of France five years before the Tower opened. Gustav Eiffel in 1888 […]
Want to feel a chill in August in a secret corner of France?
One of the things I love most about exploring the “deep heart of France” is finding events and experiences that translate the region’s rich history into something I can taste, touch, see or hear for myself. Today’s post is about one of the most extraordinary experiences you can have in central France, one which lets you go very far off the beaten path and be absorbed into one of the country’s hidden artistic delights.I’m talking about the great abbey church of La Chaise Dieu, where this August you can go for the 50th anniversary of an extraordinary classical music festival.
What Draws Me Back To “The Deep Heart of France”?
I’m no psychologist, but I’m always curious about what draws people to their personal passions. Why does someone love to spend her afternoons knitting while her husband would rather spend the day at a flea market looking for baseball cards? Why does one friend read serious history books while another reads nothing but thrillers? Why do I love college football but my cousin only likes the pros? More to the point for this blog: “Why do so many people have such a particular fascination with France?” And even more precisely, the question my friends often direct to me: “Why do you care so much about the Auvergne, the Centre, the Limousin, and all the other regions that make up what […]
4 Random Things We Learned in Our First Weekend in France
We decided to launch our French travel experience the second weekend we lived in the country. We arrived in Clermont-Ferrand on a Tuesday, I went to the office the next day, and we used the first weekend to get settled in our temporary apartment. By the second Saturday, though, we were ready for a day trip to see what we had gotten ourselves into.Our target for this first adventure? Le Puy en Velay, one of the most important medieval towns in the deep heart of France. We’ll see Le Puy in detail in another post – but on the drive there we were startled to see the crumbling ruins of a great castle, sailing like a clipper ship on a […]
