Art & culture

• 21 The labyrinthine streets of Carcassonne
  The director, who is behind recent TV series The Good Wife and The Pillars of the Earth, as well as movie greats including Thelma and Louise and Blade Runner, has described Labyrinth as "a wonderful...

• 22 'Fado', the music of Lisbon
  The music of a country is one of the keys to its culture; Argentina has the tango, Spain has flamenco, and Portugal has fado. It's a musical form that draws on many different historical and cultural elements,...

• 23 Oslo, capital of peace
  On the day of the award ceremony, all eyes wll be on Oslo Town Hall, the imposing red building where the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize will be presented to this year's joint winners: President of Liberia, Ellen...

• 24 A German Christmas market in the Midlands
  You don't need to travel to Germany to get a taste of authentic German Christmas traditions: our own city of Birmingham has been a partner city to Frankfurt for nearly half a century, and in the run up...

• 25 Advent comes to Germany
  From the northern coast to the Alps in the south, hardly a city in Germany can resist setting up their own Christmas market and stuffing it full of music and handicrafts, tempting scents and delicious...

• 26 Twilighting in Washington State
  Up in the far northwest of America, on the border with Canada, the State of Washington is a land of contrasts with mountains, deserts, steppe landscapes and active volcanoes. Its Pacific edge boasts a...

• 27 Christmas carols and concerts in Vienna
  In Vienna, it's Advent rather than simply Christmas, that is celebrated with a pure magical passion. First there are all the little markets selling crafts and knick-knacks and home-baked goodies that blossom...

• 28 On location in the Moroccan desert
  When it comes to making a Hollywood blockbuster, cast and crew travel all over the wolrld to get just the right location and ambience for the different scenes. This was certainly the case for the team...

• 29 Autumn colours in Kyoto
  Recently the readers of U.S. magazine Conde Nast Traveler name Kyoto the best Asian city, ahead of Bangkok and Hong Kong in a survey whose result pays tribute to the time-honoured cultural wealth of the...

• 30 Puerto Rico: more than just rum
  It's not just Johnny Depp who has found Puerto Rico the perfect location: from the classic 1963 Lord of the Flies, to the up-coming Treasure Island starring Eddie Izzard as Long John Silver, the cluster...

• 31 Stromboli: volcanic fire and passion
  Some say that without the scandal surrounding the extramarital affair between Roberto Rossellini and Ingrid Bergman during the filming of Stromboli, the film would have sunk into insignificance. There...

• 32 In the land of the hobbits
  When Peter Jackson was 18, he took a train ride across New Zealand's North Island – one of the two islands that comprise the country. On the trip he read The Lord of the Rings, the great J R R Tolkien...

• 33 The gastronomy of Spain's Navarre region comes to London
  Navarre – or Navarra as the Spanish call it – is a region way up in the north east of Spain, on the border with the French region of Aquitaine. Best known outside the country for its capital...

• 34 Austrian castles and palaces
  Each of the castles and palaces dotted across Austria has its own particular story and its own particular points of interest. Whether it surveys the city below from atop a limestone outcrop, boasts a tragic...

• 35 Bruges, the home of fine chocolate
  From November 6th to December 8th, at Choc'in Brugge, you can meet the best master craftsmen, visit the Chocolate Museum, enjoy themed menus in high-class restaurants, participate in workshops and tastings,...

• 36 The Elvis influence
  The link between Liverpool and Memphis goes way back to the days of the cotton trade, but, as the exhibition Elvis and Us clearly demonstrates, it didn't stop then. This first-of-its-kind, interactive...

• 37 Leonardo in London
  Under the title 'Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan', the exhibition draws together paintings from collections around the world in an unprecedented display of the rare surviving works of...

• 38 Le Marais, the chic district of Paris
  Spreading along the right bank of the Seine, Le Marais is the perfect setting for a getaway: with galleries and museums, pavement artists decorating the streets outside the bustling cafes and restaurants,...

• 39 YSL retrospective in Madrid
  The exhibition, on display at the Fundacion Mapfre on the elegant tree-lined boulevard Paseo de Recoletos in the centre of the city, is the first hosted in Spain to look back on the life and work of the...

• 40 Beijing's Forbidden City: the kingdom of 'The Last Emperor'
  The great Forbidden City of China lived up to its name for five and a half centuries. Originally the imperial residence where no one could enter or leave without the emperor's permission, from 1420 it...