Climb Paris’s other tower
A 500-YEAR OLD Gothic church tower is the French capital’s latest tourist attraction after being closed to the public for hundreds of years.
The Tour Saint Jacques — all that remains of the medieval Saint-Jacques-dela-Boucherie church in the centre of Paris — was previously open only by arrangement, and there have been no such visits for the past decade. But after a campaign by Parisian archaeologist Rémi Rivière, the tower will be open to small groups of visitors until September 15.
Over the centuries, the 55m-high tower has been used variously as a fire lookout post, a weather station and a science lab — French scientist Blaise Pascal is believed to have carried out experiments there on atmospheric pressure and the use of weights long before Isaac Newton “discovered” gravity.
The tower is at 88 rue de Rivoli in the 4th arrondissement. To secure a visit for à6, be there at 9.30am to book. See fusac.fr.
NO SMILES HERE
WHAT do Luanda, Newark, Tangier and Los Angeles have in common? They are all in the top 10 of the world’s least-friendly cities, according to the annual Condé Nast Traveller readers’ survey.
Newark took bottom spot, with one reviewer saying he would not recommend it “for anything, except a cheaper/less busy airport to fly into while visiting other cities”, while another said she had run into “a lot of rude people” there.
Poverty pushed Luanda into fourth place, while Togo capital Lomé, the only other sub-Saharan city on the list, was in sixth place, with one reader warning travellers not to stay or eat there.
Some 46 476 people took part in the survey, ranking everything from the world’s best beaches to its nicest airlines.
Florianopolis in Brazil was ranked the world’s friendliest city for its beauty, “nice people” and “great views”. Travellers also heaped praise on Thimpu (three) and Paro (six) in the tiny Buddhist kingdom of Bhutan — which has kept its doors firmly closed to mass tourism — for their friendly people, great architecture and unique customs and arts. Bhutan’s policy of Gross National Happiness is clearly paying off.
‘BEST’ NORTHERN LIGHTS IN DECEMBER
IF you’ve ever wanted to see the Northern Lights, solar conditions this December are shaping up to offer the best display for the next 10 years, The Telegraph reports. Nasa scientists believe that the current period of solar activity will hit a new peak in December, giving visitors to the far north the best conditions for seeing the aurora borealis. The best place to see the fantastical displays of light are in the northern parts of Scandinavia, Greenland, Alaska, Canada and Russia. The lights could be seen any time between early October to late March.