Hi

The glass pyramid at the Louvre, the London Eye and the Millenium Dome. OMG - what were they thinking!

:-O I kinda liked the London Eye :-d Especially since I got the celebrity treatment.

Lourdes.

I'm waiting to hear PalQ's also-rans. Faina beat me to it, but I'd like to plan an entire itinerary around tacky places, but need more to work with!

London Dungeon. A (chikldish) colleague dragged me there in a trade for something I wanted to do. It was so pitiful it was actually funny. (And he did admit afterwards that it had been a mistake).

Any Madame Tussauds's is a close second.

Surely the tourist stalls around the monuments in Pisa qualify -- although the monuments themselves, including that "tacky" leaning tower are astonishingbly beautiful.

I'll also vote for ANY and EVERY one of those street performers in gold or white paint who stand like "frozen" statues.

Folks, I think you had bad French teachers. That "s" is pronounced in front of the silent "H" so it would be
Lay-zall

This is a fun thread. Don't even start on the USA, please, I would be posting for hours. I find graffiti on ancient buildings tacky...no, more than that...criminal!

Linda - in this case, you are incorrect: Les Halles is pronounced "lay ahl". Not all "s's" elide with aspirate vowels and this is a perfect example.

Tackiest thing I can recall is all the souvenir shops leading up to the cathedral at Lourdes -- the worst (best?) are the plastic bottles in the shape of the Virgin Mary. Screw off her head and you can put holy water in there to carry home with you!

Lourdes takes the prize for me. The tackiest thing (among the many) was the handcart full of dirt (sorry "Lourdes earth" )which sold paper cups full to the faithfull. At least you could stop the holy water spilling into your luggage!

Rosemary

wow thank you Sandra, I didn't think there were those exceptions in French. Now, I'm very confused.

Linda, you had a bad French teacher ? ;)

There are two cases. I can think of for the other is "Les-Houche" near Chamonix (where the first Winter Olympic Games were held). There it is pronounced with Z sound as "lehzuhsh", again my trancription may not be perfect but you get the point.

Just for info, there is no liaison with French nouns beginning with h that are of non-Latin (usually Germanic) origin - hence les halles, les haricots, le houx, le houblon, etc., but l'honneur, l'heure, l'hôpital, etc.

I don't know if I find anything in europe tacky, touristy yes, but not takcy. I think we should all keep in mind that no matter how much we try to fit in, speak the language, dress in styles--- we are visitors and you can never hide it. Somebodies tacky item is someones one euro memento of europe. That one euro item may mean more to someone who spends hundread on flat ware in toledo.

The services and expensive shops will go into a new building at ground floor and basement level being built now between Kings Cross and St Pancras station and from the southern side of the square in front of the stations we shall see the two stations, as first planned. The pictures at http://www.fodors.com/forums/threadselect.jsp?fid=2show the frontages at the St Pancras side and the Kings Cross side, and the attractive St Pancras International station, which will keep much good Victorian brickwork on display, as it was first built by Irish “navigators” or navvies for brewers of Burton upon Trent (the Irishmen liked the idea of a station sub-cellar to house enough beer for all London. So long as they have good access for walking passengers it could be good.

Upper floors of St Pancras station were built as a grand hotel, and will go back to that function: expensive, impressive, centrally placed.

Presently, Waterloo International is not bad when you go to Paris, but when you arrive from Paris you walk 300 yards, pushing a trolley uphill, from the station exit to any transport except taxis, and those cost a lot. In fact, they should call the station there “London Eye”. The changes will leave a large question: what will the owners do with all that prize-winning space at Waterloo now used by international trains ?

Ben Haines, London
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Living in a converted church, my friends have for years made a habit of bringing me back the most hideous religious tatt they can find on their continental sojourns. I now have a shrine in my bathroom cupboard that features, amongst many other things...

- a 3D holographic postcard of St Catherine of Siena's skull - turn the card left and right for full effect
- a Pope statue that glows in the dark
- a glitter framed picture of Jesus with a swicth that lights up the eyes
- a St Francis statue with moving animals.

Needless to say I am not Catholic...or religious.

Can I also put in a big vote for Leicester Square? Why would you ever go there? And Wenceslas Square in Prague is also hideous.

I can't beieve someone voted for the pyramic outside th Louvre, it's beautiful. As is the London Eye. Some of you people have no appreciation for anything newer than the 18th century.

Sorry: that was a reply to another question

Ben Haines

Leicester Square is just somewhere you pass through on the way to a theatre or a chinese meal in Soho.

I'd vote for Land's End for a UK entry.
The fact that it is such a beautiful area seems to make it worse.
If only the National Trust had managed to buy it.

andechs monastery...don't like that place at all.

Kate, no one has bought you a glow in the dark crucifix yet? They had lots of those for sale in Rome, in all sizes.