For its 8^th edition, the Rock en Seine festival has beaten its attendance record with 105,000 spectators (97,000 in 2009). Amongst them, some Eurostar customers who tried the Rock en Seine experience after winning passes in our competition last week.

Check out what Julian, one of this year’s competition winners, thought of his experience…

My first festival in nearly a decade turned out to be a surprisingly civilised affair. Lots of space, some interesting sideshow tents, an impressive array of food options, friendly faces and of course a truly international line up of top notch bands, all set in a really attractive park complete with tree lined avenues,  impressive sculptures, fountains and wooded borders.

I arrived on Friday afternoon via a 30 minute metro journey (I’m too old n grumpy to camp it up, opting instead for a cheap hotel in the 9th arrondisement) sadly missing Band of Horses but just in time to witness a solo set from Bloc Party’s newly raved-up Kele, followed by Foals who despite their fresh faces seem to share the former’s fixation with bass-driven early 80s pop of the Cure. One new discovery for me was noirish French hip hop crew Beast, whose dragnet guitars and Portisheadesque female rapping brought back memories of triphop’s late 90s heyday.

After demolishing possibly the world’s biggest sausage baguette, I took a stroll along the avenue of impressive band-inspired poster art before rejoining the fray in time for the Kooks and a bit of their ‘Ooh La’ action.  As spirited as their well-groomed tunes were there was  little they could do to stem the inevitable tide of people streaming towards old-time stoner rappers Cypress Hill come 8pm.  Well, you can’t come to Rock En Seine by train and miss Insane in the Brain now can you?  Oddly the biggest cheer of their set was reserved not for this old school classic but for the moment when they ceremoniously sparked up enormous bifters much to the crowd’s obvious delight.

The occasional short shower gave me ideal excuses to loiter in a few of the sideshow tents.  One, sponsored by Converse, let punters fiddle with samplers and customise their own trainers, another energetically showcased a dancing game on the new Xbox Kinect system, while another somewhat bewilderingly featured an onion headed man greeting visitors, while an overexcited Frenchman toasted at incredible speed over a selection of bleeps and beats.

I returned on Sunday after a day of exploring the city to watch the Temper Trap. Their Sweet Disposition, with its tantalisingly long intro and note perfect falsetto was definitely a personal highlight.  Later came eels with enigmatic frontman E dressed up looking like the invisible man’s badass backwoods brother. His uptempo set included a rip roaring surf rock version of Summertime and a great, showbizzy ‘introducing the band’ segment, with tributes to impressively beared bassist Cool G Murder and drummer Knuckles.  Then for that most European sounding American band confusingly named after a city in the Middle East: Beirut.  Multi talented bandleader Zach Condon flaunted a louche sophistication well beyond his years, not only delivering a storming set of brassy tunes that would sound perfectly at home in a smoky Pigalle cellar bar, Berlin beirkeller or Balkan bordello but  also addressing the audience almost entirely in French.

As usual for festivals the drink options were limited. Heienken and Desperadoes lime beer everywhere but only one small, packed to the rafters tent selling wine and not a spirit in sight.  Instead I drank a refreshing cup of Cold Mint Tea (rock n roll moi?) as I sat on the grass and skanked gently to the easygoing, polished reggae of kiwis Fat Freddy’s Drop, but soon Fat Joolsy was ready to drop too and I bade a fond adieu to this fantastic little festival, which before too long will hopefully become famous for more than just being the venue of Oasis’ inevitable combustion last year.

Read a more in depth review of Julian’s experience at Rock en Seine on his blog

Feel a sense of Avignon’s character and personality through Michael Smith’s series of short video-postcards below. Join him in the ‘art of getting lost’ as he hops off a Eurostar into sunny Provence and sets off to discover the city walls of a distant past.

He describes the quality and clarity of light as being perfect for making this city a work of art in itself. Added to this, is centuries of history and plenty of Catholic culture to admire and learn from. See more of Michael Smith’s video-postcards from Paris, Lyon & Amsterdam.

Photo: ‘Avignon‘ by hsivonen

“Diamonds are Forever” wrote Ian Fleming and the song which was sung by Shirley Bassey cannot resonate more in any city than it does in Antwerp. This is partly interesting because around the 16^th century Antwerp was a hub for merchant and the prevailing economic theory of the day was mercantilism, which dictates (in short) that it is important to stockpile gold. Nevertheless, even 400 years ago Antwerp was probably the diamond capital of the world and it has continued to be so.

This is manifested in the quite wonderful Diamond Museum, found on Konigin Astridplein in Antwerp. It’s the largest museum devoted to diamonds in the world and whether you’re planning on buying some gemstones and want to find out how to tell what’s what, or simply want to see some cool jewels, it’s a brilliant museum to visit.

The museum contains several treasure chambers which is full of exciting exhibits such as a replica of the British Crown Jewels, some of the world’s biggest diamonds including the Koh-I-Noor and a whole host of jewellery dating from the 1500s until the present day. There really will be a twinkle in your eye.

But what really makes this museum is that its full of images and videos of the process of making diamonds saleable from when they are first mined. The best part of this is that in one of the museum’s workshops it is possible to watch a diamond cutter at work and see gems being prepared for sale. You may leave this museum a little jealous you can’t own any diamonds yourself – but this is testament to the brilliant array of exhibits on show.

Photo: ‘Dreaming of diamonds‘ by swamibu

Follow Michael Smith as he explores various parts of Amsterdam in this playlist of 6 video-postcards. Click play on the player below to view each video one after the other and join Michael Smith in discovering Amsterdam’s eccentricities such as the history of a famous bar called ‘In the Monkeys’.

Other places visited in this series of video-postards are the brown cafés of the city, a cross between a bar and a café which attract a range of people who enjoy meeting others, chatting and ‘chilling out’ with others.

If you liked this series of video-postcards you can find another set for Paris and another for Lyon too, enjoy!

Photo: ‘Three bikes on the canal bridge in Amsterdam‘ by joiseyshowaa

If Boris Johnson wants help in implementing a city cycling scheme which is effective he could do far worse than looking to Amsterdam. Sure, most of the locals’ bikes cost less than the £45 Boris is charging for a year; but this is also brilliant for tourists as the bike shops (which are everywhere) rent bikes out very, very cheaply.

And it’s well known that Holland is flat. Very, very flat. So flat that Amsterdam is filled with a whole network of canals because it was so easy to build them. And all of this makes for brilliant cycling conditions: the city (as different from London) is home to countless cycle paths and the traffic is very safe – 2007 saw 18 traffic deaths in Amsterdam (including car crashes etc.) compared with 26 murders. Amsterdam is a city set up for cycling and yet, if you’re still bothered about the dangers of cycle paths, many of the canals have paths by the side which make for a picturesque ride.

But more importantly, the abundance of cycle paths makes it possible to visit almost any site in Amsterdam by bike – there are places to lock bikes all over the city.

The Rijksmuseum the city’s main art gallery (found on Hobbemastraat) is the sort of place where one can while away an entire day with its collections including works by Rembrandt and Vermeer. If you want more art the Van Gogh museum is just round the corner on Paulus Potterstraat. But if boredom strikes, one can hop on the bike elsewhere – to the floating flower market on the Singel Canal or the Amsterdam Historical Museum on Kalverstraat which, despite the odd name, showcases fascinating exhibits like the city plan of 16^th century Amsterdam. Or NEMO, the fantastically anarchic science centre located by the Oosterdok with so many hands-on exhibitions that it will be a definite hit with the kids.

The point is, Amsterdam is very much a medium-sized capital city – much smaller than London or Paris. Because of this it’s really easy to get around by bike and the work done by the city council has made it even easier. The cycling is healthy and it is the best way to take in the calm of Amsterdam city centre as well as the extraordinary beauty of the surrounding roads. It truly is the only way to see Amsterdam properly.

Photo: ‘Bikes‘ by loop_oh

Although Bordeaux is known for its wines, the city has lots more to offer than simply an abundance of vineyards. Watching Champions League football for years, I could never work out why Uefa were always so insistent on calling the football team of the city, Girondins de Bordeaux. But after visiting Bordeaux, I appreciate why the Girondins deserve appreciation from football fans and tourists alike.

The Girondins were a group of Legislative Assembly deputies of whom 22 were executed during the French revolution for alleged counter-revolutionary activities. They were led by Pierre Vergniaud and Armand Gensonné who believed that though they (the Girondins) had been the most radical in supporting the revolution,  when the new Parliamentary chamber was established (the National Convention) they became the conservatives amongst the membership as they wanted to bring order to France.

Alas, the reason they are such heroes is that although they were simply trying to defend the ordinary people, they ended up guillotined by Robespiere – all 22 of them – because he was worried about the consequences of keeping them alive.

As they all came from Bordeaux or the surrounding region, they are memorialised in the city: the most prominent feature of Esplanade des Quinconces, a large square that was built in 1820, is the fountain monument to the Girondins. The monument was completed in 1902 but was destroyed by the Nazis because they wanted the Bronze; however, the Bordeaux locals felt so strongly about the Girondins that they had the fountain replaced.

The fountain is quirky insofar as the horses’ nostrils squirt water. But the square and the fountain are interesting not so much for this, as to remember people of integrity whom history could easily forget. Sure, visit Bordeaux and drink the fabulous wine on offer. But raise a glass to the Girondins all the same.

Photo: ‘Lens-Bordeaux 2008: droit en L2‘ by RG1033

As well as showcasing Tottenham’s failures in the Europa League, Channel Five brought British audiences of the 1990′s the delights of Fort Boyard – a  television programme similar to crystal maze with various challenges and games, all set in a Napoleonic fort off the coast of La Rochelle.

La Rochelle has a fascinating history as the area where all the Huguenots were concentrated during the French Wars of Religion but the reality is, that for anybody who has watched Fort Boyard, the highlight of a trip to La Rochelle will be a visit to the fort.

From the old harbour it is possible to take boats throughout the day to the Ile d’Aix and the boats will happily take you on the Fort Boyard if you ask.

The fort is located in the Pertuis d’Antioche straits and is 61 metres long, 31 metres wide and 20 metres high. Napoleon ordered its construction in 1801 and it was completed in 1857 with room enough for a garrison of 250 men. Unfortunately, by the time it was completed the range of canons had hugely increased making the fort obsolete. It slowly crumbled away before it was restored in the 1980s in preparation for the TV programme.

Aficionados of the programme will probably want to visit the tower where the professor lived, the cages where the tigers were kept and maybe to pretend they have to attempt some of the challenges. La Rochelle is certainly an interesting place to visit – but there is nowhere more fun in the surrounding area than Fort Boyard.

Photo: ‘Fort Boyard‘ by Armel

Nice is arguably the capital of the French Riviera and for this reason it has a great many things to do – more relaxed than Cannes and more fun-loving than St Tropez (and without the price-tags of Monte Carlo) it really is the place to visit on the Cote d’Azur.

One particular highlight of Nice is walking around the old town called Vieux Nice. This area is full of narrow, winding, cobblestone streets and can be found behind the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art. Many of the streets here have looked the same since the 1700s – several houses have signs showing that they were built over 300 years ago – and the area is full of character.

In this area is the arcade-lined Place Garibaldi built during the late 18t century and full of wonderful places for a little shopping. It is named after Guiseppe Garibaldi one of the heroes of the Italian unification who gives his name to a fine biscuit. He was originally from Nice and although the politics of the city has recently taken a turn for the worse – in the 90s the Far Right won over 25% of the citywide vote in most elections – many older citizens still revere him as one of the great inhabitants of Nice.

Vieux Nice also has several remarkable churches. The baroque Cathédrale Sainte Réparate was built around 1650 when France was recovering from the ravages of the Wars of Religion and represents an important part of how the country tried to unite once more. At Place du Gésu (next to Rue Rosetti) there is the striking Église Saint Jacques le Majeur which is coloured a vivid yellow. If you’ve had your fill of churches, round the corner on Rue Benoit Bunico is the home of the old Jewish ghetto.

But really what makes Vieux Nice is not any of the individual sites; its about being able to walk in a maze of old streets and alleys, admiring picturesque houses and, if hunger calls, stopping off at the daily fruit and flower market of Cours Saleya for a snack. That, is the true beauty of Vieux Nice.

Photo: ‘Vieux Nice‘ by dbaron

Lyon is known as the food capital of the world and it does everything it can to uphold this reputation. There was a BBC TV Series earlier this year where the journalist had to train for six months in America just to be allowed to prep vegetables in a Lyon restaurant. And when coming to the food capital of the world, it’s a shame not to eat in arguably the best restaurant there.

Restaurant Paul Bocuse is truly spectacular – it opened in 1965 and has won three Michelin stars every single year it’s been open. It’s situated 4km outside Lyon on Rue de la Plage but the journey there is well worth it because a meal there will not just be a highlight of a trip to Lyon – it’s likely to be a highlight of a lifetime.

Everything about the restaurant is grand. It is situated in a huge red, green and gold building with frescoes of Bocuse on the outside. He is now aged 83 and yet he still comes and visits his guests every evening and even occasionally does the cooking.

And this is not ordinary cooking. There is so much technical skill involved in the dishes that even the most competent home cook could not manage to produce this. The most famous dish is the Bresse chicken cooked in a pig’s bladder – the bladder is boiled in cognac to remove the smell and taste of urine – this is true decadence. The chicken is served with morel mushrooms and it has really been described as to die for.

Going to Restaurant Paul Bocuse is certainly an expensive meal out. One certainly has to reserve in advance. But it will also provide one of the most sensational eating experiences of a lifetime. And, having been there, you need not eat anywhere else to believe that Lyon is the food capital of the world.

Photo: ‘IMG_3482‘ by nozomiiqel

Paris is often billed as the city of romance in the same way that New York is portrayed as the city that never sleeps. But to get away from the romance, there is no better place to go than the Musée des Égouts de Paris, or the Paris Sewer Museum.

Indeed, Paris’ reputation as the city of romance probably has a lot to do with the fact it has had such good sewage works for so long – when young couples were out on a date, they were faced with the smell of perfume, not of waste, a situation radically different to almost any other city in the world in the 19^th century.

The museum, located on the Place de la Resistance, is truly fascinating.  The great success of the Sewers is born out by the museum itself – it does not smell. Rather, one can admire fascinating exhibits detailing how the sewers date back to 1370.

No city has a sewer network like Paris, where the sewers house drinking and non-drinking water areas, as well as many cables to keep the electricity system working. But really, this is all down to one man: Baron Haussman. He was a city planner who came up with the plan for the sewers in the 1850s which elevated Paris to becoming a truly modern city.  His work to build a sewer system over 600km long was truly a feat of engineering.

The Musée des Égouts may not seem an obvious attraction to visit. But what with the role the Parisian sewers play in Les Miserables, as well as the extraordinary history of what is in effect, an entire underground city, it really is worth a visit, for its quirkiness if nothing else.

Photo: ‘Les Egouts, Sewer Museum Underneath Paris‘ by Bogdan Migulski