All is not bliss in the Elysian fields.

Accident in training is not life-threatening but is enough to end the career of trainer André Fabre's Classic winning colt

Whether you call in en route to Spain, or make a special trip, this cultured and historic city in southern France delivers a memorable stay.

From the Arc de Triomphe being crushed to the Eiffel Tower being struck with lightning or knocked over by a sandwich, here are the top ten films that feature Paris being destroyed.

John Lichfield on Paris's obsession with super-luxury hotels

It's a rare pleasure and a small one at that – but there's something about a provocative museum label that can really lift the spirits. I encountered one just the other day, while visiting the Getty Villa in Malibu – a reproduction Pompeiian mansion that houses his collection of ancient artefacts. One of the highlights here is the Getty Kouros – one of those highly formulaic sculptures of male youths that advance towards you out of Archaic-era Greece, one foot slightly before the other and the torso crisply etched. The Getty acquired the statue in 1985 from a Basle dealer in antiquities but its subsequent history hasn't been entirely unclouded, as its description candidly reveals. It reads like this: "Greek, about 530 B.C., or modern forgery". Come across this without foreknowledge, as I did, and you'll probably do a double take at the insouciance of that phrase. Quite a lot rests on that "or", you think. After all we're not talking about a decade here and there in date of origin, or a few hundred miles between the possible site of its creation. This isn't a conjunction linking two equally acceptable alternatives. It's very much an Either Or. It's the real deal or it's bogus.

Obliged to dress in white and summoned by text message, phone call or email to a secret location 15 minutes beforehand, the participants in Paris's Big Open Air White Dinner more than earn their supper.

The trees that line the Champs-Elysees normally stand in glorious isolation against a landscape of cobblestones and cars. But this weekend, Parisians who frequent the city's most famous street will find them restored to their natural habitat - as an explosion of greenery takes over the promenade to turn it into a giant garden.

It’s one of the most dangerous sports going, but Robbie Maddison isn’t afraid – he’s too addicted to the thrills of freestyle motocross for that

Caravans: A British Love Affair, BBC4<br />FM, ITV2

Mark Beaumont, 26

Like in any major city, the Parisian police are prepared for most eventualities late on a Saturday night. It can be safely assumed, however, that they experienced a first in the small hours of yesterday morning when they stopped four men attired in salmon-pink dresses under the Arc de Triomphe. Among the witnesses to the incident was Ana Ivanovic, who had been celebrating her first Grand Slam in a nearby restaurant.