Word: mansions
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...Jersey and Virginia are the only two states that elect chief executives the year after the country picks a new President, so the contests there - in Virginia the governor's mansion is open, and in New Jersey Democrat Jon Corzine is seeking re-election in a ferocious three-way battle - assume outsized importance in the political world as ostensible bellwethers...
...This is also the place to pick up souvenirs like cotton kanga (sarong-like wraps) as well as antiques, aromatic oils and spices. And there's no need to leave all this history behind to find a place to stay. Try 236 Hurumzi, www.zanzibar.org, a 22-room converted mansion with huge ceilings, ample atmosphere and a tiny rooftop restaurant where guests dine while reclining on pillows. Rooms are from $185 per night. More refined still is the Zanzibar Palace Hotel, www.zanzibarpalacehotel.com, another mansion with nine vast rooms (try the Dunia suite, with a rooftop bath and sundeck). Accommodation starts...
Voltaire once called it a home fit for a king - and for a few hundred years, it was. After the Hôtel Lambert was built in 1639 by architect Louis Le Vau on Paris's Ile Saint Louis, the mansion played host to French nobility, exiled Polish princes and members of the Rothschild family of banking fame. But for Qatari Prince Abdullah bin Khalifa al-Thani, who bought the property from the Rothschilds in 2007 for $88 million, the welcome has been far from regal...
...prince's plan to restore the mansion to its 17th century glory while adding air-conditioning, an elevator and an underground parking lot has run into opposition from preservationists, who say the project would be disastrous. Opponents scored a temporary victory in September when a Paris court blocked the $60 million renovations until a final verdict can be reached - probably in the next few months. Whatever the outcome, critics say that the Culture Ministry's initial approval of the project points to a serious - and worrying - unraveling of France's system of architectural protections. "[This] raises doubts about the ability...
...objection to the prince's plan is largely twofold: Paris Historique, which took the developers to court after the government signed off on the project, says the underground parking lot would threaten the stability of the now-dilapidated mansion. The prince's desire to restore the mansion to the way it looked in the 17th century has also upset Polish officials, who say this would require removing architectural details that were added when the Polish royal family owned the building from...