If Massachusetts's most popular part for the tourists is the coastal region, with Boston, Cape Cod or Salem, it would be a pity if you do not try to take the Highway 90 (the Massachussetts Turnpike), in order to explore the western part of the State, bordering the State of New York in the Berkshires.

The Berkshires

This northsouth oriented chain was once the domain of the Mohicans, member of the Algonquin nation. Crossed by many excursion paths, the most famous of them being the Appalachian Trail, strewn by charming ski stations, punctuated by an ensemble of small towns still faithful to their rural authenticity.

From North to South :
At North Adams, an autumn foliage festival is held during September-October.

At Dalton, where the American Dollars were once printed, you can visit the Crane Museum.

At Pittsfield, attend the South Mountain Concerts held from June to October.

At Hancock Shaker Village, discover the way of life of the religious Shaker community.

At Tanglewood, the Berkshire Music Festival is held every summer.

At Stockbridge, attend the Berkshire Theatre Festival in July and August, discover the Berkshire Garden Center and the Old Corner House.

At Great Barrington, stay in the Bostonians's favorite estival station, loved for its charms and its ideal location, its art galleries and its fine cuisine restaurants...

During summer, from June to September, New Yorkers or Bostonians come here, from an equal distance, to attend many musical and theatrical festivals.

Old Sturbridge Village

95 km southwest of Boston. A fascinating reconstruction of a New-England village at the beginning of the 19th century. Do a tour in carriages drawn by oxens, see the live example of weaving, candle-mouldings, ironwork and other handicraft industries almost extinct.

The Thanksgiving feast, celebrated by millions of Americans on the 4th Thursday in November, is originally from the city of Plymouth, in the Massachusetts. On this occasion, many events are organized across the State. At ld Sturbridge Village, famous living museum located in the region of the Berkshires, the Thanksgiving feast is an occasion to revive fully the festivities of a New England village of the 19th century, with culinary demos followed by a traditional Thanksgiving dinner.

Boston

An intellectual city, with highly regarded universities, Boston is a metropolis appreciated by tourists for its tortuous and paved streets of Beacon Hill, still lit by gas reverberators, bordering the magnificent 18th century houses.

Boston played an important role in the development of the USA. It was indeed in this very city where the Boston Tea Party happened, in 1773 - a rebellious and decisive act against the English colonial authority.

Follow by foot the Freedom Trail.  It is perfectly marked. You will see the Bulfinch State House, birthplace of Benjamin Franklin, the place of Boston Massacre, the residence of Paul Revere, Faneuil Hall (the cradle of liberty), and the Old North Church.

John F. Kennedy Sr. (1917-1963) and Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) were two among many famous persons native of Boston.

Adams House

The Adams family was, in the 18th and the 19th century, one of the biggest American families. John Adams and John Quincy Adams were both presidents. Charles Francis Adams was the American Ambassador for Great Britain during the Civil War. Henry Adams was a famous writer, and Brooks Adams one of 19th century's most renowned historians.

The family property, in Quincy, some dozen miles south of Boston, is today open for visit.

Cambridge

At the other side of the Charles River you will find Cambridge. Visit Harvard, the country's oldest, most ancient university, founded in 1636. Its architecture bears the mark of several eras, from the colonial Massachusetts Hall (1720) to the contemporary styled Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, created by the French architect Le Corbusier.

The famous M.I.T., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is also located in Cambridge. The Kresge Auditorium and the M.I.T. Chapel, designed by Eero Saarinen, are particularly interesting.

Lexington and Concorde

The war of independence, the American Revolution, was born here, on April 19, 1775. About an hour driving from Boston, we will arrive to the Revolution battlefields.

We will also discover here the residence of Ralph Waldo Emerson, as well as the Walden Pond, loved so much by the writer, transcendentalist and philosopher Henry David Thoreau.

Born in 1817, Henry David Thoreau was the author of "Walden", or "Life in the Woods", published in 1856, telling about his isolated existence in Walden Pond. Nonconformist and individualist, Thoreau is the symbol of individual rights facing the abusive constraint of the community.

Born in Boston, in 1803, Ralph Waldo Emerson was a philosopher and writer, founder of "transcendentalism", which can be defined as "poetic mysticism".

Salem

A well-conserved colonial village, remained famous due to the witchcraft judgements occurred in 1692.
Many restorated 18th century residences are open for public here, including the seven-pinion house, with its torn stairs and its secret rooms.
In the proximity, Marblehead is an important yachting centre.

Plymouth

60 km south of Boston, on the coast, we arrive at Plymouth, where the Mayflower pilgrims landed in 1620, on the Plymouth Rock, to establish the first permanent colony in the north of Jamestown (the latter being created only in 1907). Visit the Plimoth Plantation, an integral reconstruction of the first Puritan colony's original village, extending on a surface of 40 hectares.

Cape Cod

The Pilgrims, actually, landed firstly at Provincetown, 188 km from Boston, in the point of Cape Cod.

The entire cape is a beautiful summer station, with magnificent sand dunes, abrupt cliffs, forests, and about 300 km of beaches.  In Sandwich, magnificent collection of local glass at the Glass Museum.

Hyannis possesses its Melody Tent, where musical comedies are presented in the round theater. If you get invited to a "clambake", where freshly collected clams are baked on burnt rocks, just accept the invitation! Otherwise, you can taste this speciality at restaurants.

Every year from mid September to end of October, the activity beats fully in the peatbogs of Massachusetts. The cranberry harvests are still called "Cranberries" or "Ataca" there, either dry or with flood. The second technique, very unique, is to flood the peatbogs and transform the vegetations into ponds.

The farmers will collect then a harvest of red bays with beaters which causes the fruits to get into the surface. It's an astonishing show where the red color of the fruit melts with the chatoyant tones of Indian Summer.

It is in the State of Massachusetts, where Cape Cod is located, that the commercial production of Cranberry started in the USA, back in 1815; Henry Hall discovered that the small bushes grew faster when a layer of sand is added on the soil. Originally, these red bays were used by the American Indians, who used cranberry as condiment, dyeing but also as cataplasm. The cranberry plantations are open to visit all year long.

Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket

Beyond Cape Cod, two charming insular stations are located : Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. Edgartown, once a whale-fishing port, is the oldest establishment of Martha's Vineyard. Its narrow streets are bordered with old beautiful houses. Gay Head, another Vineyard village, was an Indian reserve.

The island of Nantucket, whose name means "far away island" in Indian language, although it is only 50 km away from the Cape Cod Peninsula, possesses a vast natural richness, evoking its rich maritime past. The magnificent residences belonged to the rich ship owners of the era, as well as the Whaling Museum testifying this glorious past. The museum, situated in an old candle factory, preses a large collection of objects : a whale-boat, skeleton of a whale and an exceptional series of scrimshaws made from whale bones, carved or sculpted.

Loved by the artists, Nantucket, with its paved streets and elegant houses dating back to the age of whale fishing, can be visited with a bicycle or on foot - discover its beaches, its spectacles and its summer theaters. A ferry service connects the two islands, departing from Wood's Hole. In summer, you can also visit both islands with the ferry boat departing from Hyannis.