Prince Charles had the opportunity to revisit little-known ancestral ties on a recent trip to Romania. The heir to the throne, whose great grandfather’s cousin Marie married the crown prince of Romania and went on to rule the country with her husband after WWI, visited several villages in the country’s Transylvania region. There he told local journalists: “Transylvania is in my blood. I have family connections here and that’s why I am very interested in this region.”

And the 59-year-old royal’s interest goes beyond family links. He has been instrumental in injecting new life into the area – buying several properties in the 12th-century Saxon village of Viscri, 250km north of Bucharest. He’s also involved in several ecological farming projects and in the regeneration of the historic centre of neighbouring Sibiu city.
sursa:  Hellomagazine.com
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The Renault group is enjoying unprecedented global success with Logan, flagship vehicle of its Romanian subsidiary, Dacia. Romania has become a key component in the Group’s strategy of international expansion. After modernizing the historic plant in Pitesti, Renault has set up a design center and complete engineering center.

A mature automotive market

Romania has seen rapid economic development since joining the European Union in 2007. The gap with Western Europe has narrowed to the extent that this market is now considered as “mature”. Annual output now exceeds 300,000 units and demand is driven not by first-time purchases but by renewals.

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A dozen or so years ago, William Blacker ran off to live with the gipsies of northern Romania. That may not have been his original intention, but that is how it ended up. Wandering over the Carpathians into northern Transylvania he entered an enchanted world. Most travel was on horseback or by cart and sled, or feet clad in traditional laced boots, unchanged in design for centuries.

This chronicle of life in northern Romania, a place mercifully free of cars and television until very recently, is a jewel. It is a portrait of a complete world, with its glorious landscapes, its squabbling villagers – and above all the gipsies, whose main activities seem to be singing, fighting and procreation, and not necessarily in that order.

written by Robert Fox
sursa: telegraph.co.uk
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