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Interesting Questions, Facts and Information
- There are a total of 60 general entries. We are selecting 30 for display.
Special Topics
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 Interesting Questions, Facts, and Information
 France
Promenade des Anglais. This is the road you see in all the postcards of the beach.
rocky. The sand beaches are man-made. Actually, I prefer the rocks because they don't get in your bathing suit!
Italian. I wondered why the street signs were in French and some sort of dialect that looked Italian, but wasn't!
8th century. It's now a nice, green park with a fake waterfall (which is quite pretty).
Jazz. I saw the Duke Ellington orchestra and James Brown at the 1999 one. The festival has been held at the Roman ruins near the city.
tourists. That's where they buy all their souvenirs.
| What type of people will you see on the beach in the winter (according to my penpal)? | Fun Facts about Nice!
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tourists. In the winter, the native French think it's too cold to be at the beach.
The skies are prettier in the winter.. The skies are a bright blue in the winter, my penpal told me. So the photographer can either take a picture of a pretty sky or a crowded beach!
Because when it opened it had 3000 parking spots.. That's a selling point there as many places don't have many parking spaces.
| By what name is the French national flag known? | France
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The Tricolor. The three colours convey the principles of liberty, equality, and fraternity.
| What is the name of the most famous French mime artist? | France
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Marcel Marceau. His most celebrated characterisation is Bip, a character half-Pierrot, half-Charlie Chaplin's tramp.
| What is the French term for a pen name or pseudonym? | France
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| From what is the French liquer 'Calvados' made? | France
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Apples. Calvados is an apple brandy produced from fermented cider.
| Which Chateau in the department of Yvelines is the summer residence of the French President? | France
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Rambouillet. Louis XVI bought the chateau from his cousin and built a dairy for his wife, Marie-Antoinette, in the gardens. He established an experimental sheep farm where the celebrated Rambouillet merinos are still bred.
| Who wrote the words 'We seek him here, we seek him there, those Frenchies seek him everywhere. Is he in heaven? Is he in hell? That damned, elusive Pimpernel'? | France
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Emma Orczy. She was a Hungarian-born British novelist, educated in Brussels and Paris. She then studied art in London. Later she exhibited some of her work in the Royal Academy. The Scarlet Pimpernel was written and set during the time of the French Revolution.
| Under which treaty did Germany surrender Alsace-Lorraine to the French in 1919? | France
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Versailles. The treaty was drafted during the Paris Peace Conference in the spring of 1919, which was dominated by the national leaders known as the 'Big Four': David Lloyd George of Britain, Georges Clemenceau of France, Woodrow Wilson of the United States, and Vittorio Orlando of Italy.
| Who was the French tightrope walker who crossed the Niagara Falls, then repeated the feat blindfolded, then pushing a wheelbarrow? | France
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Charles Blondin. He was born Jean-Francois Gravelet in 1824. His first crossing of Niagara was made in 1859.
| Which French author wrote the book Les Miserables, adapted as a musical in 1980? | France
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Victor Hugo. He is considered the most important of the French romantic writers. Though regarded in France as one of their greatest poets, he is better known abroad for such novels as Notre-Dame de Paris (1831) and Les Miserables (1862).
| What is the French name for the English Channel? | France
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La Manche. La Manche takes its name from a departement in the Basse-Normandie region of northwestern France, with a 200-mile coastline embracing the Cotentin peninsula.
| After flying into the sunrise to land at Charles de Gaulle airport north of Paris, we get some euros at the ATM, pick up our rental car, and head towards town. As we approach Paris, we can see a large white church with many rounded domes sitting on a hill overlooking the city. What is the name of this church? | A Grand Tour of France I
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Sacre Coeur. Situated near Montmartre, the "Church of the Sacred Heart" is a Paris landmark. Notre Dame and Sainte Chapelle are on an island in the Seine, and St Sulpice is in the Luxembourg quarter on the left bank.
| We are exploring Paris on the return part of the trip, so we swing northwest on the A13 toward Normandy, and in less than two hours we are in Vernon, my hometown. We admire the white chalky cliffs overlooking the city and cross the river. In five minutes we arrive at a pink house with extensive gardens, lily ponds, and a Japanese bridge. We are in what famous village? | A Grand Tour of France I
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Giverny. The gardens are extensive and a photographer's dream. To get to the lily pond, you traverse a passage under a road and then are sheltered by bamboo rushes and willows as you contemplate the water lilies and are engulfed by the scent of wisteria.
| After visiting Monet's home and gardens, we tour the American Impressionist Museum in Giverny, and head up to the Normandy beaches to take in some D-Day history. We first come to a famous bridge spanning the Orne, named after a mythological figure. This bridge was captured by British commandos the night before D-Day. What is the name of this bridge? | A Grand Tour of France I
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Pegasus. Across the canal you can see the first house liberated in France, and the exact spot where each British glider landed is marked by a stone tablet.
| We continue up to the English Channel, and find ourselves among some large concrete bunkers formerly used as gun emplacements, and were surprised to find many still had the large cannon in them. In the distance, we see what looks like a string of large structures in the water. A passer-by tells us it represents the remains of an British artificial harbor towed in after D-Day. Where is this engineering marvel? | A Grand Tour of France I
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Arromanches. Mulberry is the name of the artificial harbors. Colville-sur-Mer is the site of the American cemetery, and Cherbourg is the first major port liberated.
| After a rainy, dreary stay in Brittany, we head down to the Loire Valley, the "Valley of Kings" and the famous châteaux scattered along the banks of the rivers Loire, Cher, and Indre. We come to one where Leonardo Da Vinci lived out his life under royal patronage and is rumored to be buried underneath the chapel. What is the name of this chateau? | A Grand Tour of France I
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Amboise. Francois I was Leonardo's patron, and the chapel where the artist/inventor may be buried is Chapelle St. Hubert. In the nearby manor house of Clos-Luce where Leonardo is believed to have stayed is a museum displaying his inventions.
| We choose to reside at one of the private chateau hotels along the Loire. We sit on the terrace among the geraniums and sculptured gardens and the proprietor brings us a famous tart white wine of this region. What did he bring us to enjoy? | A Grand Tour of France I
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Sancerre. Gewurtztraminer comes from Alsace, Mersault from Burgundy, and Chinon is a red Loire wine. Sancerre is a hillside village in the eastern Loire region.
| We leave the Loire valley and head south to Bordeaux, then follow the Dordogne river to the region of the same name, one of my very favorite areas in all of France. I am ready to dig into the cuisine of this area. What am I going to eat? | A Grand Tour of France I
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Truffles, foie gras, mushrooms and walnuts. Don't stay too long. You will get very fat!
| We don't stay too long, since I only brought one size of pants on the trip, so we continue east to the Auvergne region. We descend into the bowl of a volcanic cone, in which is situated a city teetering on a series of rock outcrops and basalt pillars. One pillar is topped by a chapel, another by a statue of the Virgin Mary, and a third by a cathedral and cloister. In which city are we? | A Grand Tour of France I
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Le Puy-en-Velay. The incorrect answers are wonderful places to visit in their own right, but don't try to climb these pillars in Le Puy after eating in the Dordogne unless you are a world class climber.
| Well, we are at the last question, and alas, we haven't made it back to Paris. Perhaps we can finish the tour another time. Let's forget this dilemma and head south once again to Carcassonne, a dramatic double-walled fortress inhabited since the 2nd century B.C.. A nonviolent religious sect professing vegetarianism, sexual abstinence, and personal piety was once protected here before a church crusade annihilated them. By what name was this sect known? | A Grand Tour of France I
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Cathars. Also known as the Albigensians, the crusade against them had little support until their land holdings were promised to the crusaders. The current cathedral in Albi is built to resemble a fortress to serve as a reminder of the power of the church in this region.
| From Carcassonne, we head east to most Americans' favorite French region, Provence. The countryside is beautiful, and the flowers and herbs are intoxicating to the eyes and nose. What are the typical blooms for Provence, which manifest at different times of the year? | A Grand Tour of France II
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Poppies, sunflowers, and lavender. Other Provence products include honey, textiles, and herbs.
| It is summer, and we are lucky enough to be there at festival time. We are staying in Grignan, a charming town with cobblestone streets and a laid-back lifestyle. Driving through the countryside we chance upon a wine festival, with a mountain of barrels piled up alongside the road. We pay our two dollars for a glass we hang around our neck, and taste all the free wine samples we want, all from villages of what wine-growing region of northern Provence? | A Grand Tour of France II
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Cotes-du-Rhone. The Cotes-du-Rhone villages are in the region. Burgundy, Macon, and Beaujolais are all between Paris and Lyon.
| After we recover from the wine festival, we move on to Nimes, an ancient town since Roman times. We tour the Maison Carre, a wonderfully preserved Roman temple. For what else is Nimes known? | A Grand Tour of France II
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All of these (Bullfighting, A coliseum, The origin of "denim"). Denim, or "de Nimes" refers to the fabric used to make blue jeans. Incidentally, "jeans" comes from the French word for the Italian port of Genoa (Genes) from which the fabric was shipped. Provence has cowboys, and bullfighting in the coliseum is still very much in presence.
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