Planning a September trip to France

    September is one of the very best months to visit France．Not only will you enjoy plenty of sunshine and warm weather, but the tourist season is beginning to wind down—which means cheaper airfares, lower prices at hotels, and fewer crowds．{#blank#}1{#/blank#}

●Go wine tasting

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#}And there are plenty of wine-related events and festivals around the country．So September is a great time to visit the vineyards around the country and go wine tasting．The Bordeaux, Loire and Burgundy regions are all lovely and great places to visit vineyards．Besides that, going to the castles of the Loire region in between visiting vineyards on such warm and Sunny days is also very enjoyable．

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    The temperatures are slightly lower，but plenty of sunshine makes for perfect conditions to enjoy a barge cruise on the canals of France．With such comfortable weather and beautiful scenery at this time of year, nothing equals hanging out on the deck of a barge．

●Visit the museums

    Many museums in France have extended opening hours during the summer to accommodate the extra tourists and locals. And some museums also have extended opening hours into September．Wandering around the Louvre will take you into a wonder world，where you can enjoy the world-famous art．{#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    Besides the above，riding a bike through France's villages is also a welcome activity for young visitors in September．You can shop for the most fashionable clothes or goods here．You can see the beautiful and fantastic scenery along the road．{#blank#}5{#/blank#}

A．Take a barge cruise.

B．Enjoy the music concerts.

C．So, don't hesitate and start to plan your September trip to France flow!

D．France is a beautiful country．

E．September is the beginning of the grape harvest season in France．

F．Going out of the Louvre, you can walk to the modern and fashionable Champs Elysees to do some shopping．

G．If this is your first trip to France, here is some handy information to help you get started planning your vacation!

    You are given many opportunities in life to choose to be a victim or creator. When you choose to be a victim, the world is a cold and difficult place. “They” did things to you which caused all of your pain and suffering. “They” are wrong and bad, and life is terrible as long as “they” are around. Or you may blame yourself for all your problems, thus internalizing(内化)your victimization. The truth is, your life is likely to stay that way as long as you feel a need to blame yourself or others.

    Those who choose to be creators look at life quite differently. They know there are individuals who might like to control their lives, but they don't let this get in the way. They know they have their weaknesses, yet they don't blame themselves when they fail. Whatever happens, they have choice in the matter. They believe their dance with each sacred(神圣的)moment of life is a gift and that storms are a natural part of life which can bring the rain needed for emotional and spiritual growth.

Victims and creators live in the same physical world and deal with many of the same physical realities, yet their experience of life is worlds apart. Victims relish (沉溺)in anger, guilt, and other emotions that cause others—and even themselves—to feel like victims, too. Creators consciously choose love, inspiration, and other qualities which inspire not only themselves, but all around them. Both victims and creators always have choice to determine the direction of their lives.

    In reality, all of us play the victim or the creator at various points in our lives. One person, on losing a job or a special relationship, may feel as if it is the end of the world and sink into terrible suffering for months, years, or even a lifetime. Another with the same experience may choose to first experience the grief, then accept the loss and soon move on to be a powerful creative force in his life.

    In every moment and every circumstance, you can choose to have fuller, richer life by setting a clear intention to transform the victim within, and by inviting into your life the powerful creator that you are.

Beijing Imperial Court Food

    Imperial Court Food(宫廷菜) is a style of food with origins in the Imperial Palace and it is well-known for the original features of the raw materials and carefully selected ingredients(原料). In addition, the dishes are decorated with different colored vegetables and fruits in various shapes. Each dish has a special name, such as Yu Feng Huan Chao. And some of them even have short stories. Today, Imperial Court Food has become an important school of Chinese cooking with several places offering this special taste. While expensive, it is worth trying.

    Restaurants of Imperial Court Food

    Fangshan Restaurant

    Fangshan Restaurant is the most famous one offering the first-class Imperial Court Food. The restaurant is made up of three parts and it can hold 500 people eating at the same time. It is decorated in imperial style with the design of dragon and phoenix. Here is the best place to experience the life of the Chinese emperors in former days. Now, it serves nearly 800 kinds of Imperial Court Dishes. Among them, Man-Han Banquet is the most famous.

    Li Jia Cai Restaurant

    The dinner here is served by set menu starting at ¥298/person. That is to say, a guest cannot order a dish but a set of dishes. There are no chemicals in the dishes and all tastes are natural. This restaurant has welcomed many famous people including Bill Gates, the former premier of Britain, John Major, and Chinese superstar Jackie Chan.

    Yushan Restaurant

    The layout of the restaurant follows the imperial palace. When eating in the restaurant, diners are served by waitresses in traditional imperial clothes.

    Da Zhai Men

    The dishes and snacks cooked in this restaurant are worthy to have a try. And, the traditional performances at night is one of the restaurant's attractions.

    Royal Palace

    Both of the food and service of this restaurant are so good. You can also enjoy some wonderful performances in this large courtyard.

Do you like spicy food?

    What's your opinion on spicy food? Some people cannot handle even the smallest amount of chili-red pepper-in their dinner while others can't get enough of it.

    Scientists have long been puzzled by why some people love chili while others loathe it. Plenty of research has been done on the subject, dating as far back as the 1970s. Previous results showed that a love of chili is related to childhood experiences, and cultural influences affect our taste buds too. But the latest study has found that a person's love of spicy food may be linked to his or her personality more than anything else, CBC News reported.

    "We have always assumed that liking drives intake-we eat what we like and we like what we eat. But no one has actually directly bothered to connect these personality traits with intake of chili peppers,"said Professor John Hayes from Pennsylvania State University, who led the study.

    But before you look at the study, you should first know that "spicy" is not a taste, unlike sour, sweet, bitter and salty. It is, in fact, a burning sensation that you feel on the surface of your tongue. This got scientists thinking that maybe a love of spicy food is brought about by people's longing for thrill, something they usually get from watching action movies or riding a roller coaster.

    In the study, 97 participants, both male and female, were asked to fill out questionnaires about certain traits of their personality, for example, whether they like new experiences or tend to avoid risks. They were then given a glass of water with capsaicin, the plant chemical that makes a chili burn, mixed into it.

    By comparing the answers to the questionnaire and what participants said they felt about the spicy water, researchers found that those who tended to enjoy action movies or take risks were about six times more likely to enjoy the spicy water.

    Interestingly, we used to believe that the reason some people can withstand spicy food is that their tongues have become less sensitive to it. However, this latest study has found otherwise. "It's not that it doesn't burn as badly, it's that you actually learn to like the burn," Hayes explained.

    Britain and France are two important countries in Europe. They are neighbors, separated only by the 20-mile seaway of the English Channel. And for most of the time that the two countries have existed, the French and the British have been rivals or even enemies. One conflict between the two countries lasted over 100 years, and the British and French were at war through the 18th century.

    There is no fighting now, of course. But there is still a strong sense of rivalry (敌对) between the two nations. That's why a recent survey in the UK caused a major shock.

It revealed (揭露) that one third of the British people would like to live in France. It also showed that twenty-one percent of British people would actually prefer to have been born in France.

    Many reasons were given. France has a better climate and a more relaxed lifestyle, with some of the longest holidays in Europe. It is thought to have better public services in every area from health to transport. People in France work shorter hours and enjoy longer vacations. And think of the food and wine!

    Estimates (估计) of the numbers of Britons living in France range from 100,000 to half a million. But it is not one-way traffic. Around 15,000 French people per year come to live in Britain, mainly settling in London. They are attracted by higher pay in Britain, lower taxes, a more dynamic lifestyle. Now it seems that people can go to the place that suits them best.

    Plastics remain one of the most - used materials for making many things. Things made of plastics can be very strong and last a long time. Plastics are also much lighter than metal and can easily be formed into different shapes. Plastics can take hundreds of years to break down on their own. And very few kinds are highly recyclable.

    A team of researchers working at the US Department of Energy says it has created a kind of plastic that could lead to products that are 100 percent recyclable. It recently reported the discovery in a study in the journal Nature Chemistry.

    The researchers say the new material is a plastic polymer (聚合体)called polydiketoenamine, or PDK. The team reports the material can be broken down in parts at the molecular (分子的)level. It can then be built up again to form plastics of different shapes, textures and colors. The researchers say this process can be repeated over and over again—without the plastic material losing any performance or quality.

    "Most plastics were never made to be recycled," lead researcher Peter Christensen said in a statement. " But we have discovered a new way to assemble plastics that takes recycling into consideration from a molecular perspective. "

    Many plastics have different chemicals added to them to make them more useful and powerful. The problem is that these chemicals attach to the monomers (单体), which remain in plastics even after the material gets processed at a recycling plant. The research team reported that, with the newly discovered PDK material, the monomers could be recovered and separated from any chemical additives.

    Next, the researchers plan to develop PDK plastics "with a wide range of thermal and mechanical properties. These plastics could be used for many kinds of cloth, as well as things such as 3D printed materials and foams. In addition, the team is trying to include plant - based materials in the process.