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Nomiya, the trendiest new restaurant in Paris

Paris, Tour Eiffel

Next time I go to Paris, I won’t miss the trendiest new restaurant in Paris—with stunning views of the Eiffel Tower and delectable food and wine pairings by Chef Gilles Stassart.

Nomiya, Japanese for « little bar, » seats just 12 people per meal (at one long table), has no menu (you’re served whatever the chef has dreamed up for the day), and reservations are only available via an online lottery system.

But it’s more than just a restaurant. Nomiya is a part of ArtHome (pronounced « arôme »), the newest installation to land atop the Palais de Tokyo. Roughly the size of a freight car, ArtHome is a 24-ton glass and steel box equipped with an open kitchen and a long communal table seemingly suspended in the sky. Lowered by crane onto the spot previously occupied by Hotel Everland (the bright green one-room hotel installation), Art/Home is collaboration of multiple artists with a common goal: to create unforgettable experiences around food.

In July 2009, Electrolux  and the Palais de Tokyo joined forces with contemporary artist Laurent Grasso and culinary director Gilles Stassart  to open this unique restaurant-cum-art installation. With fresh produce from the organic rooftop garden, Chef Stassart’s multi-course tasting menus are colorful experiments in flavor and texture, well worth the trip alone. But, aside from the 360-degree views of Paris, the real fun is dining in the sky with a group of total strangers.  If you care to experience this curiosity for yourself, make your reservations soon—the installation will be open for one year only, through July 2010.

Nomiya, ArtHome’s restaurant, is open every day (except Monday) for lunch and dinner, and reservations must be made online www.art-home-electrolux.com. Seats are available one month in advance, starting at 10 a.m. Paris time. Pre-fix meals are €60 (lunch) and €80 (dinner), which includes a glass of champagne, wine pairings throughout the meal, coffee, and mineral water. For those who aren’t so lucky with the reservation system, cooking workshops and free afternoon tours are also available.

Nomiya @ ArtHome
Palais de Tokyo
13, avenue du Président Wilson
75016 PARIS

Adventure in New Zealand

The country is renowned for its range of adventure pastimes – the best known being bungy jumping, jetboat riding, rafting and skiing. But adventure means different things to different people and the best aspect of the New Zealand adventure scene is that it provides activities rated from ‘soft’ to ‘extreme’ – from hiking and waterskiing to mountain climbing and caving.

The adventure tourism industry makes the most of having a country surrounded by sea, criss-crossed by rivers and lakes, covered in native bush and with a central spine of spectacular snow-capped mountains. There’s something for everyone who enjoys the outdoor lifestyle and the special sense of freedom the relatively sparsely populated land provides.

Australia’s Green Cauldron

Australia Cauldron

When the warm rays of the morning sun rise over Australia, the first place they light up is Mount Warning in northern New South Wales.

Known by the local Aboriginal people as Wollumbin, which means cloud catcher, Mount Warning and its caldera were formed more than 20 million years ago after a massive eruption caused the walls of this now extinct volcano to collapse,.

The towering, cone-shaped peak of the mountain dominates Australia’s Green Cauldron, which stretches from Byron Bay to Queensland’s Gold Coast, and west towards the Great Dividing Range.

Captain James Cook gave the mountain its ominous name after his ship almost ran aground on the nearby reefs. He wanted to warn other 18th century mariners against sailing too close to thisunchartered coast. more »

Why not visit Autralian Alps

The Australian Alps encompass the highest points on mainland Australia, and stretch from Canberra through to New South Wales and straddle the Great Dividing Range through eastern Victoria. In this home to Australia’s high country, the mountains and national parks are the source of life-giving rivers, supporting an abundance of plants and animals found nowhere else on the continent.

The landscape is both demanding and beautiful. It has rich Aboriginal and European cultural heritage, and boasts magnificent outdoor recreation opportunities as well as spectacular wilderness scenery.

This is Man from Snowy River country, a place fixed in the national consciousness by poet Banjo Paterson, who wrote about the area’s wild bush horses and the men who gave them chase. The legacy of these early pastoralists and gold prospectors remains in the form of historic huts, built as shelters for stockmen and now used by four wheel drivers, trail riders, bushwalkers and skiers.

Aboriginal clans lived in this alpine environment for thousands of years, and knew its flora, fauna, geography and seasonal changes intimately. The mountains form an important part of the complex network of ceremonial song lines that run across the country.

Wilderness areas that retain their primeval character include the Bimberi Wilderness that links the Namadgi and Kosciuszko national parks.

The Australian Alps feature undulating plateaux and deep gorges, underpinned by marine sediments deposited millions of years ago when the sea covered south-east Australia. Ancient glaciers have left their mark on the alpine rocks. Rivers carve their way through this mountain country, feeding the Murray River system. The alpine rainfall encouraged the development of several hydro-electric power schemes including the tunnels and power stations under the Snowy Mountains Scheme.

Victoria’s largest national park – the Alpine National Park – sits within this landscape. Its snowfields are the primary winter attraction, but the park also has over 1,100 native plant species, and it is no surprise that the warmer months bring stunning wildflower displays.

The Australian Alps Walking Track winds for 650 kilometres, through peppermint forests, tall stands of alpine ash and snow gum woodlands.

The region contains seven national parks, including the Kosciuszko National Park in the Snowy Mountain Ranges of New South Wales. It’s named after Australia’s highest mountain.

Namadgi National Park is special for its ancient and modern human history. There is evidence that Aboriginal people were living in the region during the last ice age 21,000 years ago. More recently, space-tracking stations operated here between the 1960s and the 1980s, and were instrumental in monitoring the Apollo space program. Honeysuckle Creek was the first place on Earth to receive images of Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon.

Key facts

The Australian Alps comprise 1.6 million hectares of protected  areas. They provide a habitat for more than 40 species of native mammals, 200 bird species, and 30 reptile species, many of which are endangered.

The region contains seven national parks, including:

• the Alpine National Park – Victoria’s largest national park – has over 1,100 native plant species, and it is no surprise that the warmer months bring stunning wildflower displays.
• the Kosciuszko National Park in the Snowy Mountain Ranges of  New South Wales – named after Australia’s highest mountain, and
• Namadgi National Park which is special for its ancient and modern human history. There is evidence that Aboriginal people were living in the region during the last ice age 21,000 years ago.

A number of reserves across the Australian Alps protect heritage >>gold-mining relics and provide an insight into the harsh conditions endured by prospectors.

www.tourism.autralia.com

Des dominos géants chuteront là où le Mur de Berlin a chuté il y a 20 ans

Porte de Brandebourg, Berlin, Allemagne

Les célébrations de l’effondrement du Rideau de Fer d’Allemagne culmineront avec le Festival de la liberté et le Festival de la joie dans la capitale.

Le 9 novembre 1989, après 28 ans, la frontière entre l’Allemagne de l’Est et de l’Ouest a été réduite en poussière. Vingt ans plus tard, c’est une Allemagne réunifiée qui célèbre l’effondrement du Rideau de Fer en compagnie de visiteurs provenant de partout dans le monde. Les événements de l’année qui marquent le 20ème anniversaire de la chute du Mur de Berlin sont maintenant sur le point d’atteindre leur paroxysme.

Le grand « Festival de la liberté » de Berlin centralise son action près de la Porte de Brandebourg. Le moment fort de l’événement: un rallye de dominos qui symbolise l’effondrement de la tristement célèbre barrière qui jadis divisa la ville. Au cours des derniers mois, des milliers de jeunes ont décoré des tuiles de domino en polystyrène de taille démesurément grande – hautes de 2,5 mètres – avec des dessins et reliefs interprétant l’événement historique. Le 7 novembre, plus de mille de ces dominos formeront une galerie de deux kilomètres de long le long du trajet d’origine du Mur de Berlin, entre Reichstag, la Porte de Brandebourg et la Potsdamer Platz. Le 9 novembre en soirée, des artistes très en vue ainsi que politiciens et représentants provenant de la communauté culturelle feront dégringoler les dominos en présence de plusieurs de ces jeunes artistes ayant créé ces dominos. Le Festival de la liberté programmera également un concert en plein air avec le Berlin State Orchestra, sous la direction de Daniel Barenboim.

Durant la Guerre Froide, le Pont Glienicke, reliant Potsdam à Berlin, était le lieu d’échanges tendus d’espions capturés entre l’Est ou l’Ouest. Le 10 novembre, à l’occasion du « Festival de la joie », le pont sera transformé en un lieu de spectacles de toutes sortes — comédie, film, danse et feux d’artifice géants, transformant ainsi la rivière Havel en une mer de lumières magiques.

Pour des détails sur les autres célébrations de ce 20ème anniversaire et pour des informations générales sur l’Allemagne, veuillez visiter le 

 www.allemagne-tourisme.com

L’Andalousie en Espagne

Cette région du sud de l’Espagne a tout pour séduire un québécois qui sort de l’hiver : des fleurs partout, des bâtiments qui nous rappellent l’influence arabe et l’émotion des danseurs de flamenco.

Votre tournée en automobile pourrait partir de Cordoba avec ses vieilles rues et sa célèbre mosquée Mezquita. Au sud-ouest, Séville est incontournable avec sa vieille ville, le grand parc Maria Louisa où je me rappelle avoir pris un repas mémorable de paëlla au poulet il y a plusieurs années sur une terrasse où le parfum des fleurs d’orangers contribuait à rendre magique ce repas plutôt simple.. Les espagnols sont gentils et prévenants, ce qui ne fait qu’ajouter au plaisir.

En route pour Granada, en allant vers l’est, vous serez subjugué par les paysages et les villages de maisons blanches. N’oubliez pas de passer par Antequera et La Pena de los Enamorados.

La nourriture vous comblera par sa simplicité et ses saveurs espagnoles et marocaines.

La revue Travel and Leisure propose d’aller voir le spectacle de flamenco de la Fundacion el Monte à Séville le jeudi soir pour 30$ pour 2 personnes. À Granada, on nous propose d’aller au salon de thé Alfaquara dans le quartier Albaicin.

Michelle Dufort