France assumed its 6 month role as President of the EU tonight. Its first task was lighting Le Tour Eiffel in bleu, next step, escargot for everyone, oh wait they already have that.

When Klimt espoused his philosophy of “Total Art”, he was insisting that modern culture should be something of a circle of inspiration—Schiller’s writings inspiring Gustav’s paintings inspiring Mahler’s music, and so on. And it’s no surprise that in these contemporary times of the banal cult-of-the-individual, it should be the inimitable and ever spiritually generous Sigur […]

When I showed Ken last Sunday Times’ travel section cover story on Berlin being the European capital of culture his typically sardonic response was, ‘oh so the Times are only five years late on that one.’ Granted that might be true, but the photos are pretty rad.

We just saw the brilliant 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, a film about two college students dealing with the prospect of an abortion in Romania in the mid ’80’s. It’s a stark, sometimes brutal, film and shows how grim life was in the ‘bloc’ during communism. Pretty amazing that Romania has gone from […]

is nothing new but Rail Europe has a new service called Anywhere Anytime France that reduces the price of fares substantially if you buy more than one at a time, so lets go Bordeaux! Check it out.