The year is 1896 – the height of the flamboyant Belle Epoque era – and François Emil Morin, a director of the grand department store Le Bon Marché, is trying to think of a unique birthday present to give his wife, Suzanne Kelson – a woman with an impulsive personality. She is known as “Amandine,” meaning “much loved,” and Monsieur Morin is wholly infatuated with her. He is so eager to please her that every evening he brings a little gift from the store to coax squeals of pleasure from her. This birthday present should be something that really takes her breath away; something that would be the envy of tout Paris. The Bois de Vincennes – a ‘green lung’ in the eastern section of Paris– is a great place for a leisurely cycle ride. Starting from the Porte Dorée (metro line 8, tram 3a), one of the 17 gateways built into the 19th-century Thiers wall, you will come to a 995-hectare expanse of woodland. The Bois was a royal hunting ground until the Revolution and subsequently used for other purposes, such as an artillery academy, before being developed, in the late 19th century, into the largest public park in Paris. They divorce; the goodhearted M. Morin gives her La Pagode; and Amandine and her new, 15 years-younger husband sail off for the New World. A saddened but resigned Monsieur Morin is left to his reveries of happier times. Apparently, however, the lavish parties continued with Amandine’s best friend assuming the role of Empress of the Rising Sun.

It was originally a h ôtel particulier, constructed in 1880 in the Louis Philippe style of classic 19 th century Haussmann buildings. But by the 20 th century, things were changing. In 1903 a wealthy art dealer named Ching Tsai Loo moved to Paris. He had galleries in New York and Paris supplying American museums with Chinese artefacts—these activities earned him widespread criticism for removing culturally valuable artworks from China and selling them to the West.

Couvrant environ 110,000 mètres carrés, la fontaine musicale située au nord de la place de la grande pagode des Oies Sauvages est la plus grande d’Asie. Avec cette Grande Pagode , Miguel Szymanski livre un nouveau roman noir d’investigation journalistique dans lequel, avec beaucoup d’humour, de mordant et un amour de la gastronomie que l’on retrouve avec plaisir, il dresse le portrait d’un pays qui, entre précarité, incompétence des dirigeants et fraudes par milliers, est vendu pièce par pièce. This story continues on from my previous post about one of the three Paris pagodas, the Japanese-style pagoda, known as La Pagode, which was converted to a much-loved cinema. The other two are equally fascinating, with their own surprising stories to tell. The conquest of Saigon in 1859 by Admiral Rigault de Genouilly and the ensuing spread of French influence through Indochina and Cambodia was the first colonial success of the Second Empire. To commemorate the achievement the admiral, having become minister of the Navy, presented Empress Eugénie in 1867 with this luxuriously bound album of photographs entitled "Cochinchine et Cambodge." Comprising twenty-six images of Indochina and twenty-one of Cambodia, the album includes fifteen views of the ruins of Angkor. The photographs were made by M. Gsell, a Frenchman stationed in Saigon, of whom nothing more is yet known except that in June 1866 he accompanied the naval captain Doudart de Lagrée on a scientific mission along the Mekong River. The mission began with a photographic survey of Angkor. This building actually evoking a pagoda was built in 1896, designed by architect Alexandre Marcel, on behalf of the leader of Bon Marché.

This architectural gem is easy to find, near the Parc Monceau in one direction, and the Musée Jacquemart-Andre in the other, and only a little more than a 10 minute walk from the Champs Élysées. The Paris Zoo is known for its landmark, the Grand Rocher (an artificial mountain). The zoo re-opened a few years ago after being entirely renovated to create the best possible habitat for its 2,000 animal specimens (180 different species). They are now grouped into five biozones (Patagonia, Savannah/Sahel, Europe, Guyana and Madagascar) recreating five different ecosystems. Founded in 1860, the zoo was initially part of the Menagerie at the Jardin des Plantes and devoted to the scientific study of animal behaviour. After the 1931 Colonial Exhibition, it opened as a place where the general public could come to admire the collection of ‘exotic animals’. Today, the zoo with its semi-cylindrical greenhouse and 4,000 m² of waterfalls is a popular attraction. Le temple qui a 13 cours séparées, contenait 1879 magnifiques pièces et il était un endroit important dans la Dynastie Tang. Cependant, il entrait dans une période de déclin après la chute de la Dynastie Tang. Les halls et les pièces qui ont échappé aux temps sont des structures rénovées pendant la Dynastie Ming. Pendant la dynastie Tang, une chambre de traductions a été construite pour les Ecritures saintes bouddhistes.Today, the pagoda is used by various Buddhist schools in the Paris region as a common place of worship, and is without a religious leader. It is the headquarters of the Buddhist Union of France and houses the biggest Buddha in Europe, covered in gold leaf, and reaches a height of 10 metres. The statue was created in six parts in the artist Joan Miró’s atelier and reassembled in-situ. Le style de l'architecture chinoise traditionnelle a été aussi utilisé dans la construction de la pagode. Les fentes sur chaque côté de la pagode sont clairement visibles. L’architecture de la pagode avec son apparence solennelle, son style simple et sa haute structure est un bon exemple d'architecture traditionnelle chinoise. Histoire Poor Monsieur Morin. He not only loses his beloved Amandine to a much younger man but he happens to be the son of his co-director at Le Bon Marché, Jules Plassard. Quelle humiliation!

The garden of tropical agronomy was set up in 1899 as a research centre. Seeds and cuttings from coffee, banana, rubber, cacao and vanilla trees and vines were carefully selected and shipped to the French colonies to be cultivated on a large scale. Wandering through its pathways, you will come upon crumbling country pavilions – the Congo, French Guyana, Indochina, Morocco, the Reunion Islands, Tunisia – amid bamboo groves and tropical plants. One section of the garden is run by V’Île fertile, an urban farm that uses bio-intensive gardening techniques and makes its own compost from organic waste. The farm produces a range of vegetables all year round and sells them on the first Sunday of each month, from 3pm to 5pm. They also organize vegetable-growing and DIY-focused guided tours and activities. This extraordinary era in La Pagode’s history continued until 1927 when the hosts could no longer carry on. The property was put up for sale. However, due to the unusual architecture, offers were not pouring in. For a few years La Pagode languished idly… until… a Chinese diplomatic delegation showed up. They were in search of a building for their embassy. They thought La Pagode’s architecture was perfectly suitable.

Koyasan, an ancient holy temple complex, is one of the most important religious sites in all of Japan. The religion’s founder, Kobo Daishi, taught his disciples right here in Koyasan’s Danjo Garan temple complex, the birthplace of Shingon Buddhism.

The Paris zoo is open daily from 9.30am to 8.30pm from 1 May to 31 August, with late openings (from 9pm to 1am) every Thursday from June to mid-August. There are 2283 hotels in Paris on Trip.com, including luxury, boutique, and budget hotels. As a popular tourist city, Paris has many renowned chain hotels. Ramada is the most popular brand among tourists. Those who favor Ramada can choose a hotel under its name. Ibis Paris Tour Eiffel is one of the most popular hotels in Paris. Many tourists also stay at Ibis Paris CDG Airport.

It’s located in one of the two remaining buildings from the Exposition Coloniale de 1931, designed by the architect Louis-Hippolyte Boileau as the Pavilion de Cameroun. The original Pavilion de Togo at the 1931 Exposition. Zoological Park of Paris – intersection of Avenue Daumesnil and Route de Ceinture du Lac Daumesnil, Paris 12th Culture Trips are deeply immersive 5 to 16 days itineraries, that combine authentic local experiences, exciting activities and 4-5* accommodation to look forward to at the end of each day. Our Rail Trips are our most planet-friendly itineraries that invite you to take the scenic route, relax whilst getting under the skin of a destination. Our Private Trips are fully tailored itineraries, curated by our Travel Experts specifically for you, your friends or your family. With a clever first run art movie programming and a brilliant restoration of the main auditorium, which now seats 212, the result was a huge success. His defenders point to his generosity, recalling that he would often lend pieces to museums at his own expense, also reminding critics that he saved many Chinese antiquities from certain destruction during the frenzied vandalism of temples brought on by Mao’s Cultural Revolution. C. T. Loo in his Paris Pagoda gallery.Increasingly we believe the world needs more meaningful, real-life connections between curious travellers keen to explore the world in a more responsible way. That is why we have intensively curated a collection of premium small-group trips as an invitation to meet and connect with new, like-minded people for once-in-a-lifetime experiences in three categories: Culture Trips, Rail Trips and Private Trips. Our Trips are suitable for both solo travelers, couples and friends who want to explore the world together. The walls of the old town of Chang'an went to 3 km south of the pagoda, giving an idea of the extent of the capital at the time of its glory. A Tibetan Buddhist temple named Kagyu-Dzong was built in the 1980s in front of the Pagode which offers many activities with a variety of French and Asian teachers. Thus, people can learn the basics of Buddhism and meditation, participate in a yoga session or take a Japanese calligraphy class, or perhaps a Tibetan language lesson. A tour of Buddhist art at the Pagode du Vincennes. operated La Pagode for 15 years bringing the attendance to over 100,000 per year. Cinema-oriented events enhanced the cinephile experience. A few years ago the relationship between the owner and the management company began to sour and continued to deteriorate from tense to caustic. After numerous earlier alterations, it was restored in 1977 and transformed into a 28 metre high pagoda as a place of worship, especially for those who had fled war and oppression, such as the Vietnamese and Khmer communities. The second remaining building, the former Pavilion de Togo, is programmed for restoration by the City of Paris, and destined to become a library for Buddhist texts. The Pagoda after its transformation.