Louvre: booking required for all visitors during the autumn holidays
From 17 October to 1 November 2026, during the French autumn school holidays, all visitors to the Louvre must book a timed ticket, according to the museum's official website. Exemptions include Amis du Louvre and CLEF+ members, disabled visitors and one companion, certified guides and ICOM members.
Tickets cost €22 for visitors from the European Economic Area and €32 for everyone else, prices in place since 14 January 2026. The museum warns against buying from unofficial resale sites, so book directly on the Louvre's official website.
France hits pause after dark
Night curfews are in force in several cities.
Paris: Place de la République and Les Halles are off limits from 23:00 Monday to 06:00 Tuesday
Paris: protests banned from 20:00 to 06:00 around République, Châtelet Les Halles, the Champs Élysées, Île de la Cité and the Senate
Lille, Douai, Wattignies, Denain, Nice, Bordeaux: minors without an adult must stay indoors from 20:00 to 06:00 on 19 and 20 October
Lyon: one night curfew in part of the city centre
Marseille: gatherings banned from 12:00 to 20:00
Extra perks
Pass holders get a DiscoverEU discount card. It helps with hotels, culture, sports and local transport.
Friends can apply as a group, so the trip does not turn into a solo snack mission. You can follow the Culture Route or make your own plan.
Free travel for young people in Europe
DiscoverEU is open. More than 40,000 free travel passes are ready. You can apply if you live in an EU or Erasmus+ country. Türkiye is included. Yes, free trains are a real thing. The last day is 15 October 2026 at midday in Brussels.
Who can apply
You must be born in 2008.
Winners can travel for up to 7 days. The trip must fit inside one month. Travel is by train and other green transport. You can go anytime from 1 March 2027 to 31 May 2028.
A British citizen's passport fell apart while they were traveling in Syria.
As there is no British embassy in Syria, the young person is currently stranded there.
Only 28 of these churches are left in the world.
A stavkirke is an old wooden church from Norway.
Today, these churches are famous in Norway. But some old finds show that churches like this were also in other places in northern Europe.
The Great Buddha of Bamiyan
The Great Buddha of Bamiyan was a very big statue in Afghanistan. It was in the Bamiyan Valley, on the old Silk Road. People made it in the 6th century.
🗺️Central Afghanistan, about 130 km from Kabul
The big Buddha was 55 metres tall. The small Buddha was 38 metres tall.
The statue showed ideas from Greek, Persian and Indian art. Workers cut it into the rock. Then they put mud and straw on it and painted it.
Many Buddhist monks lived there. They stayed in caves and monasteries. It was one of the biggest Buddha statues in the world.
In March 2001, the Taliban destroyed the statues with dynamite. They said the statues were against Islam.
Today the statues are gone. Only big empty holes in the rock are left.