 With only a minimal delay, Le Westin Montréal by Starwood opened
this month in the Quartier International, right next
to the Palais des Congrès. The hotel appears to be
a solid, reasonably stylish choice for business visitors,
although some PR claims do seem a bit exaggerated...
Read the rest of: "Le Westin Montréal Opens"»  A bewildered American tourist who vacationed in Montreal
this summer recently wrote a letter to the Gazette, the
local anglophone daily, wondering why announcements
on the métro are delivered only in French.
The newspaper's response and the quotes it extracted
from various officials highlighted an interesting
contrast in policies between Montreal and Paris
public transportation services. While in
Paris,
announcements
are routinely delivered in three languages (French,
English and a rotating third major language), Montreal
metro will only play a pre-recorded bilingual
tape in an emergency situation ("fire! get out!").
"Routine" messages such as announcements of delays
are delivered only in French as a matter of policy...
Read the rest of: "Montreal Métro Passengers Lost With No Translation"»  The voting process for the name of Montreal's citywide bike rental program is over and the winner is chosen. The system is going to be called "BIXI".
Over the next month, demo bikes will be wheeled around the city and public demonstrations will be held. According to the city's mayor,
Gérald Tremblay, by next spring Montreal will count 2,400 bikes at more than 300 solar-powered stations...
Read the rest of: "BIXI: Bike, Taxi, Montreal"»  Although the construction of the new passenger
port in St.Petersburg is far from finished (in fact, it won't be
finished until at least 2011), the first cruise liner, the 292-meter long Costa Mediterranea, docked at a recently completed terminal on September 10th...
Read the rest of: "First Cruise Liner Docks in St.Petersburg's New Port"»  Starting this week, RENFE, the Spanish railroad company, is
increasing the frequency of its high-speed train service (AVE) between
Barcelona and Madrid by one third. Instead of the previous 19-20 scheduled
trains, there will be up to 26 daily departures in each direction. Two of
the newly added trains will be direct, making no stops, the others - local, extending the existing Madrid - Zaragoza line service...
Read the rest of: "More AVE Trains Between Madrid and Barcelona"»  Construction crews are still crawling over the central tower of the new Hilton Garden Inn on Rue Sherbrooke, but the hotel is already open for business, as made evident not only by the banner that says as much, but also by a quasi-permanent line of cabs picking up departing guests...
Read the rest of: "New Hilton Garden Inn / Centre-ville"»  Back in June, Parisian decorator Pascale Benhamou finished her
project for
Hotel Plaza Athénée in Paris's
8th arrondissement.
The
lobby restaurant, La Galerie des Gobelins (named after Manufacture des Gobelins - a former factory, now a museum, which supplied furniture to French monarchs) got new carpet, furniture and redesigned lighting.
But actually, what caught my attention was not so much the decorative changes of the space as the restaurant's updated menu, which features desserts by world famous pastry chef Christophe Michalak, the winner of the 2005 "Coupe du Monde de la Pâtisserie"...
Read the rest of: "La Galerie des Gobelins: New Look, Cute Cakes"»  On September 3rd, Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG) opened a new terminal, 2G. The terminal will mostly serve flights within France (30%) and more broadly, within the Schengen zone (70%). Air France will be the principal carrier using it, along with three "partner" airlines (Régional, Brit Air,
CityJet) who are all, in fact, subsidiaries of Air France.
With the addition of 2G, airport Charles de Gaulle aims to improve transfer options between regional flights, strengthening its role as a European "hub" of Air France...
Read the rest of: "New Terminal (2G) at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport"»  |
