Salut!

Lisbon: faded charm defeats the crisis

Somewhere between the waterfront Praça do Comércio and the hotel, behind the Plaça do Rossio in Lisbon, we stumbled across Tuna ForTuna, the band of the Nova School of Business and Economics.

London, Paris and la guerre des chiffres

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It's all been a bit quiet around here. I might have taken a close look at the Dieudonné row, with the added dimension of Nicolas Anelka's goalscoring gesture, or the Hollande-Trierweiler-Gayet triangle and the double, triple and quadruple standards we've seen. But since I was not writing about either professionally, both passed me by in terms of Salut! Here's a look at the current war of numbers between London and Paris ...

Spring in Venice - and I swear I bought my vaporetto tickets

Waste not, want not. Wherever I travel, I look out for ideas for articles that may interest the various publications to which I contribute (Salut! naturally turns me down flat most of the time). Here is the result of a long weekend in gorgeous, overcrowded, seriously overpriced Venice**. The photos are from that break ...

A letter from Sri Lanka, stained by 65th birthday teardrops

Prabash Mendis at the tsunami memorial

Salut! has been neglected of late, starved of new content and indeed of readers. Here is the first written product of a 10-day visit to Sri Lanka disguised as a harmless tourist. It is taken from the website of The National, Abu Dhabi, which publishes the article tomorrow (Tuesday) in its print edition ...

Sixty-five years after Sri Lanka gained independence from Britain, the spring in the step of the president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, and his supporters has turned to something of a swagger.

The recent history of the island, known as India's teardrop because of its shape and location off the southern tip of the subcontinent, helps to explain the self-satisfaction.

The deadly tsunami of 2004, when an estimated 40,000 Sri Lankans died, is not forgotten. But closer, now, to loyal minds is the defeat four-and-a-half years later of the Tamil Tigers, ending nearly three decades of bloody civil war.

Tunisia: wintry chill in the birthplace of the Arab Spring

Just back from a quick trip to Tunisia. Loved it and more will be seen here soon enough. This is a Postcard from There kind of piece that went live on The National's website a few hours ago ...

Bali: from floral splendour to honest to goodness rubbish

Bali and Mexico are behind me. France beckons once more. A trip to Paris looms - read about it here - and then it will be back south to the Var. With the presidential elections coming up, things are likely to be busy and Salut! will regain its predominantly French flavour.

And suddenly the summer's over as top French hotels prosper

Andy Roberts

I parked with ease in town this morning. The seafront entertainment will soon be over and a few restaurants have closed already, at least on certain nights. Never accuse the French of being less than rigid when it comes to holiday timetables (though they do have the rituals of la rentrée to contend with) ...

Most of us like to push the boat out when we can.

The headline writer at The National understandably zoomed in on the cost of a night in the Suite Royale at the Plaza Athénée on the avenue Montaigne in Paris's eighth arrondissemnt. No, I couldn't afford €22,000 either, no matter how many Randalls I could fit into the huge space the suite affords.

Nor could I stretch to the €10,000 charged for the best suite at the Hotel du Palais, converted from Napoleon III and Empress Eugenie's little Atlantic retreat in Biarritz, a town I have never visited.

Sarkozy's ministers 'may rest but not go on holiday'

Saint Clair, the Var

French government ministers may rest but not take holidays. That appears to have been the thrust of the message from Nicolas Sarkozy, his eye on next year's elections, as the summer high season began.

And that rest should take place in France. No swanning off to hobnob with associates of nasty regimes, as Michèle Alliot-Marie did during her shaky handling of French responses to the Tunisian revolution.

As for Sarko himself, it will be back to the old presidential retreat of the Fort de Brégançon, which he more of less abandoned in favour of the estate owned by his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy's family a few miles along the coast at Cap-Nègre.

The Elysée says the first lady's family will be at Cap-Nègre in July, so her need for rest during pregnancy makes Brégançon more practical, at least until August.

The French in general - those that can afford to think about holidays at all - are more likely to stay in their own country this summer. The following is an article building on my recent posting at Salut!; the "golden summer" forecast by tourism officials in the south is matched by confidence for most other parts of France.

Bormes-les-Mimosas: handy for Brégançon, but a bit hilly for mothers-to-be

The drunken revelries and cold comforts of tales from northern towns

Sirens wail repeatedly into the night. On the street, Geordie girls expose their stout arms and legs to the wintry air; groups of lads ignore the absence of any noticeable sport and roar out their football chants as they head, already well fuelled, for the next bar.

Welcome to the centre of Newcastle upon Tyne.

How to see Paris without needing a mortgage first

What are people's recent experiences of Paris hotels?

Someone I know travelled from Abu Dhabi on business, with a reservation in or off the rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré and was staggered to find himself charged €560 a night even before he contemplated so much as coffee and croissant for breakfast.

Since he said it was a decent hotel but, by implication, nothing too extravagant, I assume it was not the Bristol, which is rather grand. So even allowing for what is undoubtedly a chic and expensive area, he paid through the nose.