Tuesday 9 March 2010

Nara et Pouchkine


Most French cities are twinned with other towns. Not so Versailles, which merely entertains mostly cultural relationships with two royal or imperial cities: Nara in Japan and Pushkin, formerly Tsarskoye Selo, "the tsar's village", nicknamed the "Russian Versailles" near Saint Petersburg.
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La plupart des villes françaises sont jumelées. Ce n'est point le cas de Versailles qui entretient des relations d'amitié avec d'autres villes royales et impériales, à savoir Nara au Japon et Pouchkine anciennement Tsarskoye Selo, "village des tsars" ou "le Versailles russe" près de Saint-Pétersbourg.
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Photo of Nara courtesy of Japan Guide.com and photo of Alexander's palace in Pushkin courtesy of Wikipedia.

20 comments:

Chattahoochee Valley Daily said...

Two very interesting (and different) types of architecture.

Lowell said...

Well, that's fascinating. Nice pics, too. I can see the Russian connection, but it's more difficult to understand why Japan...

Bob Crowe said...

Nara is worth a visit, the ancient capital of Japan before Kyoto and Tokyo. However, the style is much more restrained than what the Bourbons gave your town.

stromsjo said...

The best is good enough! :)

Olivier said...

la classe à Versailles, on ne s'encanaille pas avec tout le monde ;o)) j'adore le temple japonais

Loree said...

Very different styles of architecture. I like the look of Pushkin.

VP said...

I like the idea behind your choice of sister cities. I don't know much of Nara but Tsarskoye Selo must be really a wonderful place.

P.S. - The English Tsarskoye Selo link doesn't work.

Dina said...

Why does Versailles not want to be twinned, you think?

Malyss said...

Nous sommes entre autres jumelés avec Nuremberg, ce qui m'a permis d'aller y faire de multiples sejours quand j'étais plus jeune.
Tes deux villes -amies sont bien tentantes...

tapirgal said...

For a minute I thought there was a very "unFrench" building in Versailles. I really like the concept of this post. Nice job!

Louis la Vache said...

Interesting pairing of the "culturally related" cities with Versailles - and interesting contrast of building styles between Pushkin and Nara.

Thérèse said...

Des villes qui n'ont certainement pas été choisies au hasard!

Catherine said...

Des choix judicieux et certainement pas dûs au hasard !

Small City Scenes said...

Stanwood doesn't have a twin city although it has been called 'Twin City' because there used to be an East Stanwood. The two towns merged in 1964 but the eastern part of town is still called East Stanwood. MB

Halcyon said...

Cool! Jackson does not have a twin city either (but probably not for the same reasons as Versailles).

I'd love to visit the Russian Versailles. It looks really nice.

B SQUARED said...

Differing styles, to say the least.

EG CameraGirl said...

Not twinned? Even East Gwillimbury has a twin city, a little place in China.

Rob Siemann said...

J'ai ete a Tsarskoye Selo il y a une vingtaine d' annees, et c'est superbe, j' ai adore.

Cezar and Léia said...

The Russian palace reminds me of another one also near Saint Petersburg, called Peterhof. Saint Petersburg is the most European of Russian cities and the most Russian of European cities... :)
God bless you!
Cezar

A l a i n said...

Très bon les échange culturel qui donne l'occasion de connaitre d'autre continent culture...