New York Habitat Blog

September is vendange time in the South of France. It certainly is a good time to visit Provence vineyards and why not try grape picking for a day or more if you do not fear backbreaking. Still, it is not easy to know until about a week before what grapes will start being picked and when exactly, so lodging may be tricky, especially since accommodation that used to be provided for grape pickers as part of the deal has become the exception. We do have a selection of apartments and villas still available for the vendange season.

If you would like to go picking but do not want to bend so much and prefer shade, then try olive picking, it is the right time for that, too!

Or else, if you just want to enjoy vendange traditional festivities without breaking your back and staining your fingers, then you may prefer les fêtes de la vendange.

Here are just a few examples of a number of cities and villages where you can enjoy vendange celebrations:

• Tarascon for its wine fair and vendange festival (October 7 and 8 )
• Avignon for its Côtes du Rhône festival (mid October + 3rd Thursday of November)
• Oppède, Luberon (3rd weekend of October)
• La Tour d’Aigues, Luberon, for “la Gouleyade” (November 11)

New York in Song
“Angels Sing In New York City”
 The Empire State Building

See all the stars – so fine tonight…
The angels sing in New York City

These are lines from the song “Angels Sing In New York City” by the German band Modern Talking. 

If the angels really do sing in New York City, chances are they are perched atop the Empire State Building.  Stretching more than a quarter of a mile into the atmosphere, this manmade miracle can’t be far from heaven itself.  To see for yourself, visit the famed Observatory.  From the 102nd floor, you will have the most breathtaking view of the entire City.  Particularly at night, when the city lights are sparkling, it is truly a thing of beauty and an experience to remember.

And speaking of lights, one of the City’s biggest mysteries is the ever-changing colors at the top of the building.  Far from a random rotation, each color is chosen for a special significance.  There are those you would expect – red & green during the December holidays; and red, white & blue for patriotic U.S. Holidays such as Independence Day (not to be mistaken for blue, white, and red which is used to honor French Bastille Day!).  Then there are other color patterns carefully selected to honor special causes and events; such as pink and white for breast cancer awareness and purple & white for Alzheimer’s disease awareness.  Perhaps the color light that can have the most different meanings is red.  When the Empire State is dipped in red it can be honoring the Red Cross, representing The American Heart Association, highlighting Multiple Sclerosis awareness, or just celebrating Valentine’s Day.

And while February is still a while off, a Valentine’s Day deadline is fast approaching.  Each year a select number of couples are chosen to get married on the 80th floor of the Empire State Building.  Couples are chosen on the basis of essays that must be submitted to the building’s public relations staff by no later than November 30, 2006.  So start writing, and check out http://www.esbnyc.com/ for details on how to apply, as well as much more info about the building’s lights and history. 

Just think – you can have your wedding at an international landmark and then celebrate your honeymoon in one of New York Habitat’s fabulous vacation rentals!  Whether you’re getting married or just visiting, we have great apartments and bed & breakfasts for your stay.  Click here to book your trip today!

With all the tourism attractions the City has to offer, it’s impossible to see everything.  But you don’t want to miss the grandeur of The Empire State Building for your own special New York memory.  From the stunning Observation Deck high up in the clouds, the Big Apple has never looked so big – or so small.  And who knows, when you’re that high up – and if you’re very quiet – you just might hear an angel sing in New York City after all.

Photograph provided by francois-roux-photography.com

When planning your trip and looking through our lists of apartments, you have in mind the price range in which you are looking, but the rental price is displayed in the destination currency and you are not always sure how much that means and if it actually really fits your budget.

Many of you wrote to say how useful you find our descriptions and photos, yet some of you pointed out what a great help it would be to be able to read the accommodation prices in your own currency.

Apartment price in the currency of your choice

Until quite recently you could only do that by selecting the currency from the search pages, in our Advanced Options, under Include currency (sample here)

New York Habitat recently added the currency converter in each detailed apartment description as well, so that even if you did not select your currency in the search page, you can easily display the price of the apartment you are looking at in the currency of your choice.(sample here)

Apartment price in the currency of your choice

Prices displayed for each apartment are in the currency of the country where the apartment is: USD for New York, Sterling Pound for London and Euro for Paris and the South of France. The currency converter can display the shown price in US $, Aus $, Sterling £, Canadian $, Euro, FRF, ¥en, Deutsch Mark and Swiss FR.

N.B. The currency converter is based on an average of international rates from multiple known financial sites and is compiled every day; therefore it fluctuates on a continuous basis. New York Habitat is only giving this average as an indication and is not liable for any discrepancy with the official rate of any given date.

The most common complaint we hear from tourists is that they never have time to see enough of the City. Want the fastest way to see all of NYC? Try the New York City Marathon, where you can literally run through all five boroughs of the City in a single day! The course of the race, held this year on November 5th, covers parts of Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island.

85,000 professional and amateur runners are already scheduled to participate. And there may still be time to join them. While general applications for this year’s race are no longer being accepted, there is a special offer that is currently still available on the event’s official website (www.nycmarathon.org). A certain number of guaranteed entries are being held for participants who will agree to run the race as a means of raising money for one of the charities selected by the event. So you can not only have the thrill of running the marathon, but you can get the added rush of knowing that you are helping others. There are a limited number of these special slots left, so act quickly! For more details visit their website and click on “The Event/Charities”.

Read the entire story here… »

High Line Project - District Map

77 years ago, the New York Central Railroad constructed a nearly 2 mile stretch of elevated railroad tracks to shuttle freight up and down Manhattan’s lower west side. This elevated line, spanning 22 city blocks, literally passed through 2 factory buildings as it wound its way uptown to end near 35th street. (The deaths of many pedestrians on the 19th century street-level tracks was one factor in the High Line’s construction ) For decades, the High Line allowed factories and meatpackers on the lower west side to move manufactured goods, produce, and meat products without disruption to traffic below and without danger to pedestrians. 

Unused since 1980, and partially demolished in the 1960’s, this “High Line” will soon spring to life again. ( In 2001, Former Mayor Rudy Guiliani attempted—and failed, to proceed with demolition of the High Line.)  Friends of the High Line, a community-based non-profit organization, has spearheaded efforts to save this historic structure and launched the 2003 competition to choose creative solutions to convert the High Line for public use. 720 entires were received! This conversion will play a great role in the dynamic revitalization of the lower west side of Manhattan. 

The new High Line will not bring rail traffic, but will emerge as one of New York’s most innovative and interesting urban renewal projects seen in decades. The design team of  Diller Scofidio + Renfro is currently at work on the project. Four principles guide the design: “Keep it Simple, Keep it Quiet, Keep it Wild, keep it Slow.”
The design encorporates an elevated promenade with various types of vegetation. The designers hope that High Line visitors will stroll slowly while contemplating their surroundings as they experience  the notion that nature reclaims the man-made.

Why not consider a New York apartment rental on the far west side near the High Line? To view design plans and support this exciting renovation, go to: http://www.thehighline.org/