Go Green: Germany & France

The Solar Estate is home to some of the most up-to-date solar-home technologies in the world. At the Solar Estate, see the Plusenergiehaus®. A dynamically engineered solar home that generates more energy that it consumes, the Plusenergiehaus® sells its excess power back to the public power grid—at a profit of more than 5000 Euros a year.

Guten Tag and bonjour. The capital of Alsace-Lorraine, Strasbourg embodies the best of the German and French cultures once battling to control the area. Join a local licensed guide for a walking tour of Petite France, Strasbourg’s medieval quarter. The magnificently Gothic Notre Dame cathedral is the city’s spiritual center, while in the adjoining square the elaborately carved Maison Kammerzell, once a wealthy merchant’s house, gives evidence of Strasbourg’s healthy economic history.

Although construction began in the 11th century, this cathedral was completed in 1439. This sandstone structure is a combination of Romanesque (the choir) and Gothic (the nave) architecture.

One of the most energy-efficient automobiles on the planet, the Smart Car is also one of the most popular vehicles in Europe today. And they’re coming to America! Visit “Smartville”, home of the Smart Car.

Visit an organic or biodynamic winery. Utilizing natural techniques in grape creation, wine from organic wineries have become very popular for their clean taste. Biodynamic farms take the organic farm movement to a whole new level. Adding a layer of mysticism, biodynamic farms follow astrological signs for their planting and reaping cycles, and generally aim to create a harmonious union between the land and those who till it.

This city was made for walking. Stroll grand boulevards with sweeping views of the city, pristine parks with trees planted in perfect rows, and narrow streets crowded with vendors selling flowers, pastries and cheese. Then head to the Île de la Cité, a small island in the Seine, to see Notre Dame Cathedral. Look up at the great stone buttresses, grotesque gargoyles, and massive stained-glass windows.

Visit one of the original college towns. Since the Sorbonne’s founding in the 1100s, the Left Bank has attracted not only intellectuals but also the cafés, bookstores, and cinemas that tend to accompany them. It’s also attracted its fair share of famous residents – a plaque marks one of Hemingway’s apartments on rue du Cardinal-Lemoine, and the imposing neoclassical Panthéon holds the tombs of Voltaire, Rousseau, Victor Hugo, and Marie Curie.

The world's largest art museum, the Louvre is housed in a medieval fortress-turned-castle so grand it's worth a tour itself. You walk through the 71-foot glass pyramid designed by I.M. Pei and added in 1989, and step into another world-one with carved ceilings, deep-set windows, and so many architectural details, you could spend a week just admiring the rooms. But check out the art on the walls. The Mona Lisa is here, as well as the Venus de Milo and Winged Victory (the headless statue, circa 200 BC, discovered at Samothrace). The Louvre has seven different departments of paintings, prints, drawings, sculptures and antiquities. Don't miss the Egyptian collection, complete with creepy sarcophagi, or the collection of Greek ceramics, one of the largest in the world. (Please note the Louvre is closed on Tuesdays.)

The curious have been touring the Paris sewers since the 1850’s. Visit what Victor Hugo called the Paris below Paris, “…a Paris of sewers; which has its streets, its crossings, its squares, its blind alleys, its arteries, and its circulation, which is slime, minus the human form." Experience the Paris Sewers Museum, which is located beneath the Quai d’Orsay on the Left Bank, is a popular destination for anyone interested in how a major metropolitan city manages its waste and water recycling.

The ultimate palace, Versailles was built by Louis VIX, and housed the royal family and its groveling court from 1582, when the Sun King moved in, to the French Revolution. Everything in Versailles is worth a look, from the 250-foot-long Hall of Mirrors, with themed salons-"war" and "peace"-on either side, to Marie Antoinette's faux country hamlet. When being a queen became too much to bear, she would pretend to be a commoner, tending her sheep and wearing peasant clothes.

The steep hilly area of Montmartre has been associated with artists for years. The name Montmartre is attributed to the many martyrs that were tortured and killed here.