If the name of this town rings a bell it’s surely because of the Millau Viaduct, a record-breaking bridge that crosses the Tarn River valley. The Viaduct practically has its own tourist industry: You could take to the skies on a paragliding flight or drive along to the village of Peyre to see it bestriding …
This small town in central France’s Cher department is embedded in a pastoral landscape of vineyards, marshes and lakes. Vierzon was a railway town with its fair share of industry in the 19th and 20th centuries, like the Société Française de Vierzon, which manufactured tractors and farming equipment. Vierzon is now quaint and rural, and …
The second largest town in the Algarve, Portimão is on the right bank of the Arade River just before it reaches the ocean. The remarkable thing about Portimão is how ordinary it is; this is a typical Portuguese working town with a municipal market, pedestrianised shopping streets and quiet squares. And yet inside its boundaries …
A state known for the Green Bay Packers football team and cheddar cheese, Wisconsin has many other hidden gems awaiting discovery. From the elegant museums in Madison to the preserved state parks, you can both learn about history and art in person, see where it happened and read about it in the museums. There are …
A Midwestern state between Kansas and Kentucky, Missouri is covered in grassy plains that stretch for miles that contrast against the high peaks of the Ozark Mountains. Several cities dot Missouri and are filled with fantastic attractions, like the National World War I Museum in Kansas City, or the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. However, …
This sacred town in Normandy’s Calvados department hardly needs introduction for Catholics as it’s France’s second pilgrimage site behind Lourdes. The 19th-century Saint Thérèse spent nearly all her life in the Lisieux, first in an idyllic house with her father and then at the Carmelite convent from the age of 14. If you’re following in …
This medieval city is isolated atop a 100-metre-high limestone rock that punctuates the low, flat plains around. In the high town, encircled by eight kilometres of walls and formidable gates is France’s biggest protected historic centre. There are more than 80 historic monuments to discover in a city that was the capital of the Carolingian …
The capital of the Philippines doesn’t always make the news for the right reasons, but if you want a vivacious and underappreciated city, Manila is ready to challenge your assumptions. There’s a walled citadel from where the Spanish ruled their eastern empire for centuries, Baroque churches and packed, crazy markets that might be the wrong …
Embedded in the massive European Metropolis of Lille, Roubaix was an industrial boom town in the 19th century when it was boosted by a thriving textile trade. By the end of the 20th century this industry had dwindled and the city had to find a new identity. But a lot of the splendour from the …
A romantic medieval city, Rodez is stacked with culture and owes its magic to the vibrant pink sandstone used in its buildings. One of the grandest is the warlike cathedral that looks like no church you’ve seen before, and was made to keep attackers out as much as invite worshippers in. The city is the …