Tourism plays an important economic role in France. Around a million people work in the tourism sector; Around ten percent of the gross national product is generated there. The country was considered the world's most important tourist destination in 2019, with 90 million foreign visitors. Paris and its surrounding area, the Île-de-France, the Mediterranean coast (e.g. Côte d'Azur) and the French Alps are important holiday regions. As of 2019, the country had 45 UNESCO World Heritage Sites. In the World Economic Forum's 2019 Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report, which measures a country's tourism performance, France ranks second out of 140 countries.
France does not see itself as a Grande Nation. In media policy, one's own culture and language are promoted through quotas for films and music. France is vigorously pursuing its concept of defending cultural diversity (“diversité culturelle”) in the European Union, UNESCO and the World Trade Organization (WTO): culture is not a commodity that can be freely traded without restrictions. The cultural sector is therefore an exception to the rest of the economy (“exception culturelle”).
Nationwide care and preservation of the rich material cultural heritage is viewed as a task of national importance. This understanding is effectively conveyed to the public through government-organized or sponsored measures that contribute to the formation of national cultural awareness. Days of national heritage, music or cinema, for example, which are firmly anchored in the annual cultural calendar, are very well received by the population.
French cuisine (Cuisine française) has been considered the most influential national cuisine in Europe since the early modern period. It is world-famous for both its quality and its versatility and looks back on a long tradition. In France, food is an important part of daily life and the cultivation of cuisine is an indispensable part of the national culture. The French gastronomic meal was recognized as an intangible world heritage by UNESCO.
After many years of abstinence we once again decided going to England, close to the like a sword of Damocles over the island hanging exit attempt from the EU, where no one finally really knows what will happen in this long lasting episode.
Some inspirational images of the frozen Rhine-Rhone Canal south of Strasbourg in winter, sent to us by our friend and paraglider Patrick Andre from France, inspired us to write an article about ice skating, a still little practiced outdoor sport in Turkey.
We've known each other for a few years now, so it's not surprising that our friend Patrick from Strassbourg keeps telling us about the experiences and impressions he's had during his professional paragliding tours around the world.
Even today the view from the window shows a blue, cloudless sky and at the breakfast table we can already see the anticipation in Patrick: another wonderful day for paragliding. So breakfast is done quickly, the equipment is already in the vehicle anyway and off you go.
We started our first day in Strasbourg early. One of us had to go to the bakery to buy croissants and warm baguette.
After returning from our extensive first bike tour through Strasbourg, which ended with some shopping, we went along the canals back to Patrick's apartment.
During our stay in Strasbourg, we had already collected some information about the Roman era of Strasbourg due to the visit to the Palais Rohan Museum.
Our interest in the Roman period in Marseille had led to initial findings, particularly through the museum in the Centre de la Vieille Charité, although the research was not that easy.
Around 2600 years ago, around 600 BC, the Greeks founded a small settlement on the south coast of what is now France as part of their colonization and gave it the name "Massalia". We have already written an article about this.
In our article about the former poorhouse Centre de la Vieille Charité in the center of Marseille, we reported extensively that today the Egyptian collection of the Musée d’Archéologie Méditerranéenne also contains it.
Similar to the Fuggerei in Augsburg, we came across the Vieille Charité in Marseille, a building complex of social housing or poor housing, which are now real attractions in the old town due to their conversion into museums and the impressive building structure.
We used to travel quite often in the south of France, but we never really saw the region around Marseilles as an attractive holiday destination, especially for a beach holiday.
If you travel around Provence and especially in the Marseille region and pay at least a little attention to the architecture of the buildings, you will first notice some memorable constructions, which of course have their reasons.
Right at the beginning of our stay in Marseille, we set off from our accommodation for an initial exploration tour towards the Vieux Port and passed the Marseille Cathedral, which was hard to miss.
After our exploration of the Saint-Jean fortress, it was obvious to cross the second bridge over to Mucem, because the facade design alone was too attractive for us.
After the somewhat disappointing attempt to visit the Marseille Cathedral due to the high number of tourist visitors, we turned to the harbour, or rather the imposing fortress at the harbour.
Today began with a decision that, in retrospect, turned out to be quite the right one: taking the tourist train up to the La Garde hill, which is only 161 meters high, where there is said to be such a perfect view of Marseilles and of course the St. Mary's pilgrimage church Notre Dame de la Garde is worth visiting.
The pure curiosity of discovery led us to explore the narrow side streets at the Vieuw Port, some of which lead quite steeply and narrowly up into the old town of Marseille.
As already mentioned in our article “Short visit to the Tara”, we came to Marseille in Provence for a few days as part of our project work along the Roman roads in order to get to know the city in detail but also primarily to explore whether and which one ancient heritage is still visibly present in the city.
On the way to the port of Marseille via the fortress, we saw the church of St. Laurent and right at the entrance two gentlemen dressed like Templars (although without a sword like the Knights of the Templar Order) received the seemingly few visitors.