Sport in London

Hi everyone today I’m not gonna post a long article, that’s why I will just focus on an aspect about the british capital London, sport.

So as you know one of the most popular sport in England is football, and for sure London is one of the british city which shows the best how much football is an important part of british culture, and how much british people are fond of this sport. As well, the city of London has some 14 professional teams with some significiant one like Chelsea, Arsenal, Tottenham… The most impressive football stadium in London is Wembley, but some other typical stadiums shows the bristish fervour about football. For example WhiteHart Lane (Tottenham), Highbury (ex-Arsenal) or Stamford Bridge (Chelsea).

London is also a city of rugby, with 4 significiant teams, London Irish, Saracens, London Wasps and Harlequins., but there is only one of this team (Harlequins) which really plays in London. Matches of the national team are generally played in Twickenham.

Moreover London is’nt limited to this two sport. In fact, in London we can watch some typical sports like cricket in two important stadiums : the Lord's Cricket Ground, or The Oval.

Afterward, every year we can watch the Tennis Wimbledon tournament, the London Marathon, and also the Boat Race which  is an annual rowing race between Oxford University  and Cambridge University on the River Thames.

European/American cities

     Hi everyone, today I’m not gonna talk about a European capital, but I will try to argue a little about why European cities are more interesting and fascinating to visit than American cities.

     

      So, on one hand, to my view, notwithstanding American cities are very beautiful and impressive with huge skyscrapers and buildings, they are too much younger than european cities, and as well they don’t have the huge heritage that European cities have thanks to their history. In america we can rarely visit a monument which dates from the 13th century for example. Furthermore, I find that all American cities are built with the same standards. For example each street is very straight and all parallels, in a linear way ; however, European cities are filled with a lot of picturesque little streets, and also with a big irregularity which gives to European cities an important and unique identity. On the other hand, american cities have European origins because it was european people who built first the cities over there and of course they built it with the same architecural style as european cities, and now we can found a lot of buildings which are very inspired by europen architecture, as well.

     To sum up, I think that even if american cities are also beautiful, they don’t have the huge diversity and heritage which european cities have, and that’s why European cities are more interesting to visit.

Dublin

Dublin,  '' Baile Átha Cliath ", is the capital of The Republic of Ireland. It’s also the biggest city in the country with some 550 000 inhabitants. The city is situated at the east coast of Ireland. In this post, I will focus on the evolution of Dublin’s architectural evolution.

First, the city was established as a Viking settlement in the 9th century, but there is actually no vestige of Viking constructions because of the Norman Invasion of Ireland. So after this british invasion in 1170-1171, a lot of edifices, synonym of British power and patrimony, were built like the Dublin Castle (1204) or St Patrick’s Cathedral.

In the 16th century, Queen Elizabeth I of England wanted to make Dublin a protestant city and established some protestant edifices, like Trinity College. She also converted the St Patrick’s Cathedral to a protestant church.

The vast majority of Dublin’s notable architecture dates from the 18th century, with a huge diversity of architectural stlyes. Some significiant areas were established at this period like Temple Bar and Gafton Street, which are two remaining areas which an important medieval character (and also big touristic areas). Other important buildings and areas were established with a Georgian style like the Merrion Square or Henrietta Street. Then, other edifices were built at this time with a neo-classicism style like the Custom House.

The beginning of the 20th century was marked by the Irish War of Independance, and as a consequence the center of the city was mainly destroyed. After the war, the State of Ireland rebuilt the center but didn’t take initiative to modernise the city, so the city became an old city. But at the end of the century a modernisation plan weas established, and some modern areas were built like the Grand Canal Dock, an important hub of activities which attracts a lot of multinational firm (with a majority of IT and internet firms).

Stockholm

In this post, I will talk a little about Stockholm.  First, Stockholm is the swedish capital and also the biggest city of Sweden. The city is situated at the edge of the Baltic sea, and built in several isle arroud the Malär lake for which the city is also called « The Venice of the North ». Now let’s talk a little about architecural history and identity of the Swedish capital.

The city’s oldest part is « Gamla Stan », which contains a majority of the oldest buildings and ruins. This district is from the 13th century, and the majority of buildings which survive from this period are the churches or also royal buildings. One example of this buildings is the Riddarholmen Church, which is considered at one of the oldest edifice of Stockholm, from the end of the 13th century.

During the 15th century, a lot of German craftsmen were employed to built buildings, as a result a lot of boroughs and buildings are influenced by German architecture, for example the German Church.

In the 19th century, the city grew up very fast because of the industrialization. A lot new districts were built inspired by architectural styles of big european’s cities like Berlin. One of the representative district of this period is Södermalm. Notable works of this time period include public buildings such as the Royal Swedish Opera.

The 20th century is characterized by suburban development. Some boroughs were totally rebuilt with  some skyscrapers and larger streets. Significative areas and buildings of this period are the tower « Söder Torn » for example or also Sergels torg a modern place.

Well that the end of this post, I hope that you liked it, see you soon !

Paris

As I told you last week, I will talk a little about my country's capital Paris. As well if you want to know more about Paris, you will enjoy this post!

So Paris, also nicknamed "The city of light", is located in the region of Ile de France. The city is built arround « La Seine » a big french river. The city is famous for its artistic life, its culture and also its romantic identity for which it was also nicknamed « The city of love ». Paris is also an important political and economical centre of France and also of the European Union.

First, the city of Paris is over 1800 historic monuments which belong to a huge diversity of historic periods. Generally, the oldest edifices are the churches with significiant ones like « La Cathédrale Notre Dame » or « La Sainte-Chapelle » which show high Gothic architecture at its best. They date from the 12th century. 

Then, the center of Paris shows an important architectural identity with 17th-19th typical buildings. As we can see in important districts like « Montmartre » buildings are built in a classical style representative of the 17th-19th centuries. They are also all aligned, with the same height, like twins. That is the result of a vast mid-19th century urban remodelling. At this time the city was a big labyrinth of narrow streets, with a lot of dark districts which were also dangerous. So Napoleon III (who was the French emperor at this time) decided to demolish streets and buildings and built two hundred kilometers of new streets and districts. As well, the emperor and his team established a lot of standards and rules of construction which gave the centre of Paris the distinct unity and look that it has today. The 19th century was also the period when a lot of significiant monuments were built like The Eiffel Tower, « L’Arc deTriomphe », « La Basilique du Sacré Cœur »…

The 20th century and specially the after-war period is the beginning of contemporary architecture, and Paris was a city affected by this style with some important structures like « Le Centre Pompidou », « La pyramide du Louvre », or also the district « La Défense » which is actually the biggest financial business district of the city, and an important economical centre.

Paris is also an important city of art, culture and sport. First the city is the center of literature, as well a lot of major authors used Paris as a dynamic and fascinating surrondings for their works. We can think about « Les Misérables » from Victor Hugo, for example. Then it’s also an important city of art, it set a lot of artistic waves of the 20th century like Impressionism, surealism or cubism. What’s more, Paris is also a city of sport with a lot of profesional team in a huge diversity of sports like the Paris Saint Germain in football, The Stade Français in rugby, the PSG Handball, The Paris-Levallois team in Basket-Ball..

Well, that the end of this first post about Paris, I hope you enjoyed the read. Don’t hesitate to comment, if you comment for my posts, I will check out your blog, I promise. Bye !

Intro

Welcome everyone to my new blog. In this post, I will introduce the topic of my blog which is culture and heritage of european capitals. First, I chose it because I'm crazy about travels and also with the huge diversity which characterise european countries. So, I will talk about customs, history, monuments and important places which are linked to european capitals' countries. As well, each week, I will choose a capital and describe it. Well, I know there are a lot of things to tell about this topic, that's the reason why I will focus on urban heritage by talking about historic monuments and also important buildings which are linked to the city's identity. Then, I will talk a little about city's history and also about the place taken by culture and sport in each city.

Well, I will start next week with my country's capital; you guessed it will be Paris. I hope you will enjoy this blog, have a good read! Bye!