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PARIS -- Bikini-clad sun worshippers and other Parisians are flocking to Paris Beach, a lengthy stretch of trucked-in sand along the Seine River.
Now in its third year, Paris Plage, as it is known in French, was designed to bring a feeling of the French Riviera and other beach hotspots to city dwellers stuck in the capital during vacation season. The sand will remain along the Seine until Aug. 20.
This year's installation included construction of a waist-deep swimming pool for 200 people, built amid the volleyball courts, sandy beaches and palm trees temporarily lining the two mile-long river. Showers, hammocks, deck chairs, four trampolines and a musical stage for a concert series are also part of the fun.
Typhoid risk
ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- Boil it, cook it, peel it or forget it.
Those are the guidelines provided by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for safe consumption of food and drink in developing countries.
Diarrhea is a common but relatively minor ailment among travelers who are exposed to contaminated food, but the July 15 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases warns of a more serious risk: typhoid fever.
Three-fourths of the cases of typhoid fever examined by the study were associated with international travel, and six countries - India, Pakistan, Mexico, Bangladesh, the Philippines and Haiti - were the source of 76 percent of those illnesses.
If you're headed to one of these countries, you may want to consider getting vaccinated against typhoid before you go. The vaccine takes a week to become effective but immunity lasts five years.
Dr. Ellen Steinberg Stevenson of the CDC says most travelers are probably unaware of the risks of the disease, which may be fatal if left untreated. Symptoms include fever, rash, stomach ache, slowed pulse, enlarged spleen and delirium.
A single contaminated food item - whether it's shellfish harvested from sewage-tinged mud or a snack from a street vendor with dirty hands - can cause the illness. Five percent of the typhoid fever patients in the study had traveled abroad for a week or less, and more than a third had spent a month or less.
"You could ingest it on the first day you arrive or after being there for a few months," the doctor said.
The study looked at 1,400 typhoid fever cases reported in the United States between 1994 and 1999. For more information on typhoid fever and how to avoid it, visit www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dbmd/diseaseinfo/typhoidfever-g.htm and www.cdc.gov/travel/disease/typhoid.htm.
Greyhound route
LINCOLN, Neb. -- Nebraskans wanting to take a Greyhound west to the Rocky Mountains will soon have to head east to get there.
Beginning Aug. 18, Greyhound Lines Inc. is dropping several western Nebraska towns from its route. Stops will remain in Lincoln and Omaha, but the change will mean that the 10-hour trip along Interstate 80 from Lincoln to Denver will jump to 30 hours on a route that heads through Des Moines, Iowa, before veering west through Kansas City, Mo., and Wichita, Kan.
Greyhound announced in late June it would close 260 bus stops, leaving only 99 in the 13-state region between Chicago and Seattle.
The Dallas-based company announced the cuts after losing money nine of the last 17 years. In January through March, traditionally the weakest months for travel, the company said its operating loss in 2003 was $15 million, down from a $22 million loss a year earlier.
In Nebraska, service will be dropped at Cozad, Grand Island, Kearney, Kimball, Lexington, North Platte, Ogallala, Sidney and York.
Most people assumed buses would cross Nebraska without stopping. Instead, Lincoln will sit at the tail end of a trunk line centered in Des Moines.
The Greyhound Web site also says service from Lincoln will be cut from the five departure options available most days to just one. Trips from Lincoln to Minneapolis will require a seven-hour layover in Des Moines, expanding that trip to 15 hours.
Riders can go directly from Lincoln to Chicago, but the return trip will take them south through St. Louis, Mo.
Norwegian travelers
GRAND FORKS, N.D. -- When Norwegians pack their bags, they may be heading to North Dakota.
The state was the fifth most-popular destination for Norwegians vacationing in the United States, after Florida, California, Washington, D.C., and Minnesota, according to travel surveys by the national Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet and a travel industry magazine, Standby.
Char Brekke, owner of Brekke Tours and Travel in Grand Forks, said Norwegians are drawn to the area because 40 percent of North Dakotans report some Norwegian heritage.
"Norwegians are interested in meeting the people here who have ties to Norway," Brekke said.
"It seems somehow or some way they get invited to someone's home for dinner," said Fred Walker, North Dakota's international marketing director.
Minot's annual Norsk Hostfest is a big draw, and the Heritage Hjemkomst Center in Moorhead, Minn., attracts Norwegians who want to trace their heritage, Walker said.
Athens-Olympics
ATHENS -- Tourism related to the Aug. 13-29 Olympics has fallen short of expectations, which means tickets to events and even hotel rooms in Athens are still available.
Delays in local construction projects, a sluggish international economy and a strong euro - the currency Greece shares with another 11 European Union countries - have all contributed to a lower-than-expected demand.
In fact, fewer tourists are expected in Greece this summer than last.
"Generally, it looks like this year we will have less people," George Drakopoulos, head of the Association of Greek Tourist Enterprises, told The Associated Press. He said some parts of Greece have seen a 10 to 15 percent drop in bookings.
Tourism is a key industry in Greece, where vacations on sandy beaches and visits to archaeological monuments comprise 18 percent of the country's gross domestic product.
Concerns about terrorism may also have had an impact, despite more than $1.23 billion spent by Greece to increase security.
"Athens is as safe a place as it can be," Harry Coccossis, head of the national tourism organization, said.
As of mid-July, several thousand hotel beds out of a total of 62,000 in Athens had yet to be reserved and as many as half of the available tickets to various events were still unsold.
Those who do make the trip will benefit from a variety of local improvements, including a spruced-up city center, hundreds of volunteers to help tourists get around, multi-lingual information centers, and extended hours for archaeological sites and stores. Even Athens' notoriously surly taxi drivers have received etiquette lessons.
"There is a great feeling of satisfaction when all the dust lifts, and you can see all the new sidewalks, roads and the colors of the building facades," said Athens Mayor Dora Bakoyianni.
Improvements include a new tram designed to ease traffic congestion on the capital's busy streets. The trams, which can transport up to 80,000 people a day, will carry spectators from the city center to sports venues along Athens' southern seaside suburbs.
Rare bird
PHARR, Texas -- An alert went out to birders over the Internet about the appearance of a black-headed nightingale thrush at a bird sanctuary in south Texas. Within days, visitors from both coasts, the Midwest and Florida had arrived for a look, leaving their signatures in the guest book.
The thrush was spotted here in mid-June but was still gracing the area with its distinctive mating call more than a month later.
The tiny orange-billed bird, which lives in the mountains of Central Mexico, had never before been documented in the United States, said Mark Lockwood, secretary of the Texas Bird Records Committee, which verifies sightings of rare birds.
The Rio Grande Valley is known as a haven for bird watchers. Every year, thousands of naturalists come to see the more than 500 species reported there.
"Two of us had just returned from birding in the Pacific Northwest when this bird was sighted. We just turned around and drove," said Edge Wade, of Columbia, Mo., one of the visitors drawn to Pharr by the rare thrush.
The sanctuary in Pharr is located in a 2 1/2-acre yard owned by Allen Williams, a landscaper. Williams began transforming his property in 1997 from an anemic lawn to a lush bird habitat.
Others in the Rio Grande Valley along the Mexican border have done the same, providing vegetation that would have been found in the region before agriculture and suburban development.
For more information, visit www.southtexasbirds.com.
Royal wardrobe
LONDON -- Fashionistas and fans of the British royals will find common ground at a newly opened exhibit at Kensington Palace called "The Queen's Working Wardrobe: Memories of Royal Occasions 1945-1972."
The show features 12 outfits worn by Queen Elizabeth II, including a gray silk organdie evening dress that she wore to a banquet at the Nova Scotia Hotel in Halifax on Aug. 1, 1959, during a 45-day tour of Canada.
The exhibit of royal couture remains on display at the palace until July of 2005. But it won't answer the question that haunts so many Elizabeth-watchers: What exactly has she been carrying around all these years in those little structured pocketbooks?
Swimming with sharks
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. -- Swim with the sharks, splash with the seals and get a kiss from a sea lion.
Aquariums around the country are inviting visitors to get wet with the creatures they've come to see. The Harbor Seal Splash at the Virginia Aquarium in Virginia Beach permits guests to step down onto submerged rocks in the seal tank as seals splash through the water with their trainer, while the Maui Ocean Center in Hawaii and the Florida Aquarium in Tampa Bay offer scuba divers a chance to cavort underwater with sharks.
At the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport, octopuses reach out and touch participants in the "Animal Encounters" program, while Lea the sea lion has been known to blow a kiss. Dolphins Plus in Key Largo and Discovery Cove in Orlando also offer swimming with dolphins.
None of these once-in-a-lifetime experiences comes cheap, however - shark dives run $190 in Maui, while the two-hour Harbor Seal Splash at the Virginia Aquarium is $125.
And while the activities are promoted as safe, fun and educational, animal rights activists have criticized a number of "swim with dolphins" programs, contending that the interaction is stressful and ultimately harmful to the animals.
NAACP sanctions
COLUMBIA, S.C. -- The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has reaffirmed economic sanctions against South Carolina's tourism industry at its 95th Annual Convention in Philadelphia.
In the resolution, approved in mid-July, convention delegates said "the State of South Carolina continues to exhibit a Confederate mentality in responding to the interests of African Americans living within its borders, evidenced most notably by its insistence upon having the Confederate battle flag flown in a sovereign position at the Capitol."
The civil rights group renewed its call for the flag to be placed in a museum or other place of historical significance.
The state removed the flag from atop the Statehouse in 2000 and placed it at a monument on Statehouse grounds.
The NAACP's resolution also encourages the NCAA to maintain its moratorium against championship events being held in the state until the flag is moved.
Marion Edmonds, communications director for South Carolina's state tourism agency, said in response: "We respect the right of every organization to express their opinion, but that doesn't change the fact that we extend a hand of hospitality to everyone."
