The controversial Pompidou Centre in Paris has reopened after a 27-month facelift costing about $684 million.
The arts centre, which apart from its exhibits is popular with tourists because of the views it offers over the city, has been condemned as looking like a gasworks. Before its closure for alterations, visitors would ride its escalators for free, visiting only for the view. Now they will have to pay for that privilege. The renovations vastly increase the space for exhibitions, and like the building or not, it contains treasures by Picasso, Cezanne and other great artists.
Ski at the Winter Games resort A number of four-day/three-night packages are available at Yongpyong in South Korea, which will host the winter Asian Games. Yongpyong is Korea's largest ski resort and has the longest ski lift in Asia (3,700 metres).
The Korea Travel Service (KTS) packages are priced from $3,990 for adults ($3,590 for children) to $4,880 (children $4,580), depending on the day of departure, and include return air ticket to Korea, connecting return flight to Kangnung with shuttle bus transfers, and three days' skiing. Discounts on ski rental and lift passes are offered. Contact KTS at 2301 2313, fax 2368 2539.
A picnic for three million For sheer magnitude and ecological audacity, few millennium events can match La Meridienne Verte, the showcase of the Mission 2000 project planned by the French Government. Last November, tens of thousands of schoolchildren planted saplings along the Paris meridian, snaking 600 kilometres.
On July 14, the Green Meridian will provide shade for the Incredible Picnic, when more than three million people are expected to celebrate Bastille Day with their own bag lunches or with local specialties on sale at the picnic sites.