Imagine a river so green it looks like melted jade, snaking through cliffs taller than a cathedral. Welcome to the **Verdon Gorge**—also known as **Gorges du Verdon**—a place often called the “Grand Canyon of France.” Only here, instead of red desert rock, you get alpine cliffs, turquoise water, and fields of lavender nearby.

In a quiet patch of green above the River Thames, not far from the bustle of London, lies a hilltop that quietly commands the world’s time. This is the Royal Observatory, Greenwich—home of the Prime Meridian, keeper of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), and arguably the most important line on Earth that you’ll never actually see in daily life... but absolutely can *stand on* here.