Diana still rests in peace this summer but almost every other place associated with the late Princess of Wales has been thronged with visitors.
Admirers of the "People's Princess" have been flocking to the palaces where she once resided, the paths she once trod and to the churches where she prayed. Naturally the list of must-do locations includes the tunnel in Paris where Diana died 10 years ago in a fatal car accident on Aug. 31, 1997.
The stations in Diana's life in London and Paris have become places of pilgrimage for tens of thousands of tourists from all over the world. Amid the hubbub, Diana's final resting place on a small island at the Spencer family seat in Althorp has remained a rare oasis of calm. Her remains are kept here in a small mausoleum that visitors can only view from a discreet distance.
PHOTOS: AGENCIES
It was not far from this tranquil spot that Prince Charles first met his future first wife. Diana's parents, the aristocratic Spencer family, had invited the heir to the throne to a hunting party at their home, a 90-minute drive from London. Four years later, Diana Frances Spencer exchanged vows with the eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II at St Paul's Cathedral in London and became the Princess of Wales.
Twenty years after that initial outing with Charles, a hearse brought Diana's coffin back to Althorp. "Since then Althorp has become renowned throughout the world," said Diana's brother Charles, the ninth Earl of Spencer. He held a moving eulogy at her funeral in Westminster Abbey on Sept. 6, 1997, which included the words: "Today is our chance to say thank you for the way you brightened our lives, even though God granted you but half a life."
Ten years on and Britain is keeping the memory of Diana very much alive. Those who wish to retrace her steps can choose from a comprehensive itinerary. Althorp near Northampton is a good place to start or end a tour. The Spencer estate is open from the beginning of July until mid September.
PHOTO: AGENCIES
A small museum with many exhibits from Diana's former home in Kensington Palace is dedicated to her life as a child, a wife, a mother and as a patron of charitable causes. It offers no insight, however, into Diana's many alleged love affairs or into her life in the public spotlight during which she was a wily manipulator of the media.
Visitors to Kensington Palace in London are offered a glimpse of Diana as a vamp. It was here that star photographer Mario Testino took pictures of her for the magazine Vanity Fair just a few months before her death. The giant prints adorn two rooms at the palace that was once at the center of her universe. They show a beautiful and attractive Diana, radiating confidence.
For those Diana fans with less time to spare, it is possible to organize a compact, Diana-themed holiday too. Three or four days ought to suffice but such a trip should combine London and Paris, since any recollection of her life and times must include the place where the princess died.
Staying overnight at the Ritz Hotel in Paris is an option for the more affluent tourist but the average budget should extend to drinking a champagne cocktail at the hostelry's Hemingway Bar. Visitors can walk out onto the Place Vendome through the revolving door used by Diana and her erstwhile companion, Egyptian playboy Dodi al-Fayed on that fatal evening.
From the Place Vendome it is only a 30-minute walk to the road tunnel at Place de l'Alma where Diana was fatally injured. The Flame of Liberty that sits above the entrance is a place of pilgrimage for people from all over the world. It is worth noting though, that this memorial was actually here long before Diana met her death. The metal sculpture of a flame has been flickering in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower since 1989 when it was awarded as a gift to the city by the International Herald Tribune.
Some careless visitors even risk a brush with the police by walking down into the busy underpass and allowing themselves to be photographed in front of pillar number 13, the spot where the Mercedes limousine carrying Diana and Dodi crashed into the concrete. Officially, Paris distances itself from such tourists.
"We do not wish to profit from the death of the princess," said an official.
From the golden flame it is only a short trip on the Metro to the Gare du Nord, the main railway terminus on the northern edge of the city center. The Eurostar train takes just 2.5 hours to reach Waterloo station in central London - 20 minutes of which are spent traversing the Channel Tunnel. On leaving the station, visitors in search of Diana's old haunts should cross Westminster Bridge on foot to Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament.
They can take a right turn from here into Downing Street, where the prime minister of the day, Tony Blair, coined the name "People's Princess" or a left one to Westminster Abbey where Elton John sang Candle in the Wind at a televised memorial ceremony on Sept. 6, 1997. It was seen by hundreds of millions of people around the world. The road straight ahead leads through St James's Park to the railings outside Buckingham Palace.
Ten years on, Diana is still omnipresent in London and it is virtually impossible to go anywhere without seeing her face - not just at the newspaper and souvenir shops either. Even the National Portrait Gallery in Trafalgar Square was unwilling or unable to opt out of paying homage. An exhibition of Diana photographs includes the work of paparazzi and professionals alike.
The official "The Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Walk" is marked by 90 circular plaques set into the ground to guide visitors along a route stretching 11.8km. The most essential section is from Kensington Palace through Hyde Park and past the extensive Diana memorial playground to a fountain dedicated to the late princess - the work of North American designer Kathryn Gustafson.
One building is notably missing from the Diana Walk through London, namely Harrods department store. Yet no journey in her footsteps is complete without a glimpse of the capital's central shrine to the memory of Diana and Dodi, erected by Mohammed al-Fayed in his luxury store. It shows Diana and Dodi gazing lovingly into each other's eyes as they release an albatross into the sky. A whole range of devotional items are on sale too, yet faced with so much adulation some visitors are tempted to let the word "kitsch" pass their lips, albeit under their breath.
If you go: London and Paris
Getting there: Vietnam Airlines offers economy class return flights from Taipei to Paris starting at NT$20,140 excluding taxes. To book, visit www.zuji.com.tw. Malaysia Airlines offers discount seats for two return tickets to Paris for NT$20,148, excluding taxes. To book, visit www.eztravel.com.tw. Long-haul, low-cost Oasis Hong Kong Airlines offers return tickets to London from Taipei starting at NT$17,702, excluding taxes. Visit www.eztravel.com.tw. Single tickets are recommended for those who want to combine the two capitals in one trip. The best connection between the two cities is the Eurostar express train. More than a dozen of them ply the route between Waterloo and Gare du Nord from 5:50am to 8pm every day. The journey takes around two hours and 35 minutes and tickets cost between NT$3,906 and NT$14,599.
Climate: The average summer temperature in Paris is around 25°C, while in August 30°C is not uncommon. London's weather is actually better than its reputation. August has an average of just a few rainy days and in most cases the rainfall lasts only a few hours at the most. Temperatures range around 22°C although dog days, on which it can get as hot as 30°C, are not unknown.
Currencies: Legal tender in France is the euro and the pound sterling in Britain.
Tourist Information: Britain and France maintain numerous tourist offices around the world, but probably the best overview can be obtained by visiting the following Web sites: www.visitbritain.com, www.franceguide.com, www.visitlondon.com, de.parisinfo.com/, www.althorp.com, www.hrp.org.uk/KensingtonPalace, www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/hyde_park/diana_memorial.cfm www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/gettingaround/walkfinder/walkdetails.asp?id=36
SOURCE: DPA AND TAIPEI TIMES
Taiwanese chip-making giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) plans to invest a whopping US$100 billion in the US, after US President Donald Trump threatened to slap tariffs on overseas-made chips. TSMC is the world’s biggest maker of the critical technology that has become the lifeblood of the global economy. This week’s announcement takes the total amount TSMC has pledged to invest in the US to US$165 billion, which the company says is the “largest single foreign direct investment in US history.” It follows Trump’s accusations that Taiwan stole the US chip industry and his threats to impose tariffs of up to 100 percent
On a hillside overlooking Taichung are the remains of a village that never was. Half-formed houses abandoned by investors are slowly succumbing to the elements. Empty, save for the occasional explorer. Taiwan is full of these places. Factories, malls, hospitals, amusement parks, breweries, housing — all facing an unplanned but inevitable obsolescence. Urbex, short for urban exploration, is the practice of exploring and often photographing abandoned and derelict buildings. Many urban explorers choose not to disclose the locations of the sites, as a way of preserving the structures and preventing vandalism or looting. For artist and professor at NTNU and Taipei
In the run-up to World War II, Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, head of Abwehr, Nazi Germany’s military intelligence service, began to fear that Hitler would launch a war Germany could not win. Deeply disappointed by the sell-out of the Munich Agreement in 1938, Canaris conducted several clandestine operations that were aimed at getting the UK to wake up, invest in defense and actively support the nations Hitler planned to invade. For example, the “Dutch war scare” of January 1939 saw fake intelligence leaked to the British that suggested that Germany was planning to invade the Netherlands in February and acquire airfields
The launch of DeepSeek-R1 AI by Hangzhou-based High-Flyer and subsequent impact reveals a lot about the state of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) today, both good and bad. It touches on the state of Chinese technology, innovation, intellectual property theft, sanctions busting smuggling, propaganda, geopolitics and as with everything in China, the power politics of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). PLEASING XI JINPING DeepSeek’s creation is almost certainly no accident. In 2015 CCP Secretary General Xi Jinping (習近平) launched his Made in China 2025 program intended to move China away from low-end manufacturing into an innovative technological powerhouse, with Artificial Intelligence
RSS