Worldcrunch
Napoleon Bonaparte’s exile on the Italian island of Elba, about 50 kilometers east of the French emperor’s native Corsica, was still commemorated when I went there 47 years ago, although with slightly unflattering knick-knacks in souvenir shops.
If you want to catch a glimpse of the Emerald Buddha inside Bangkok“s Wat Phra Kaew, the most sacred Buddhist temple in Thailand, you first have to make it past the two imposing demon statues.
A saiga antelope’s head, dried seahorses, horn powder and God knows what else was in those jars … Much like La Paz, Singapore was a great place to buy exotic souvenirs.
Participating in the world-famous Fêtes de Cornouaille with my choir of traditional folk singing in Britanny, I got to take some candid snapshots of a life that was still very much turned toward the sea.
Among the many potential applications are the defense of digital copyright for photographers, and the end of the hassle of online passwords.
Larissa in eastern Greece is traditionally held to be the birthplace of Achilles. This would-be motorcycle hero was also destined to fall, caught by the heel by a local traffic cop.
I could tell you about the state of traffic in Indonesia, about the refined paintings adorning Bali’s rickshaws, or pretend I took this shot to show the hardships of precarious workers in Southeast Asia. But really, it boils down to the fact that I thought “Muncul” sounds like “my a**” in French.
On Moscow’s Sparrow Hill, tourists can buy nestling dolls or wooden chess boards while enjoying the view over the Russian capital.
When my grandson went on his honeymoon in Brazil two years ago, I advised him to go to Paraty, a highly picturesque colonial village south of Rio, with its very colorful harbor and cobblestone streets. He had better weather than I did.
Mountains, bison herds, petrified forests, geysers, waterfalls … Yellowstone is one the world’s great national parks. Founded in 1872, it is also widely considered to be the first.
Constantine, in northern Algeria, was French for about a century, from the middle of the 19th century until 1962 — just seven years before I drove down there with my family. My wife Claudine and daughter Cécile were gazing into the impressive ravine that surrounds the city, with the viaduct over the Rhumel river in […]
No matter where we went or how long, my wife and I would always take the time to write a couple of postcards to family and friends. And as far as I can tell, there’s no fixed rule for how many days it’d take for them to arrive.
Exactly seven years ago, a powerful earthquake killed hundreds and devastated parts of L’Aquila, in central Italy. And though the facade of the Santa Maria di Collemaggio remained intact, I feel lucky to have visited the basilica before the disaster: The cupola and several arches collapsed inside.
A couple of streets away from La Paz’s eerie Witches’ Market, complete with llama fetuses, this man praying at the Metropolitan Cathedral was relying on some slightly more conventional beliefs.
The secret of the French island of Réunion“s vanilla lies in its drying stage: the beans are laid out in the sun and intermittently put to rest in the shade.
Coming across the border after our stay in Syria, our first stop in Jordan was Jerash, the ancient settlement known as Gerasa. Sitting at an outdoor café, we gazed upon the “Pompei of the East” — and the rugs for sale right next to the Roman ruins.
From September to April in southern France, seafood lovers can participate in the “oursinades” festivals. Sea urchins are cut open, and you eat the gonads raw, with a squeeze of lemon.
Every single piece of furniture handcarved in the Chiang Mai area is unique, featuring detailed scenes from Buddhist scriptures in beautiful teak or rose wood. I would have brought one of these chests back home, but I feared they were too delicate to be shipped by plane.
Spectacular, arresting, remarkable … That is how many would describe the Fort-la-Latte castle, in northeastern Brittany. But I’ll add one adjective to the list: dangerous. Climbing down the steep dungeon stairs, I bashed my head against a stone lintel, which left me with a minor concussion!
The statue in front of the Tokaj-HétszÅ‘lÅ‘ cellar is a fair depiction of how I remember the visit. The Hungarian wine was indeed very good, which goes to prove that you can be French and still like foreign vintages. Egészségedre, as they say in the country!
The majestuous scarlet macaws flying about in Guatemala were a nice change from the birds I’m used to seeing in the streets of European cities.
Upon landing in the Indonesian capital, we were welcomed (straight on the tarmac) by a parade of men in traditional costumes.
I’ve taken my share of pictures of guards from around the world, but these may be the most original, keeping an eye on the Palazzo Pubblico in the tiny landlocked microstate of San Marino.
The colorful Maltese fishing boats called luzzus are said to date back to Phoenician times. They’re famous for the small pair of eyes drawn on their hulls — an ancient superstition supposed to ward off evil and bring protection to the fishermen.
On the Indonesian island of Bali, statues of gods near the entrances to buildings and homes often wear checkered sarongs around their waists. Modesty must be respected, I suppose, even for gods.
No matter what morro (hill) you’re viewing it from, Rio’s Guanabara Bay is always stunning. I took this shot from the Corcovado, famous for its Christ the Redeemer statue.
One of the few wonders of this world that my wife and I did not get to see is Cambodia’s Angkor Wat temple. Still, in Thailand we visited one of the finest examples of Khmer architecture: the Prasat Hin Phimai temple, which used to be connected with Angkor by the Ancient Khmer Highway.
Sweden boasts about 1,700 such runestones that feature the old Scandinavian runic alphabet. This one, outside of Gripsholm Castle near Stockholm, was erected in memory of fallen Vikings.
According to legend, the islets off the coast of Perast, in Montenegro“s beautiful Bay of Kotor, were built over the centuries by seamen who swore to leaving a rock at the bottom of the bay every time they returned from a voyage, until two man-made islands eventually emerged. And a church too.
“As-salamu alaikum …” — “Wa-alaikum-us-salaam!”
In the second half of the 20th century, countless painters would set up their easels on the Place du Tertre, on top of Paris’s Montmartre hill. Some no doubt were trying to channel Picasso, who used to live nearby. By this point, the great Spanish master had set up shop in the quieter climes of […]
These two slightly creepy characters made of hay bales welcomed us on the very picturesque Black Forest Hochstrasse scenic route.
Rickshaw, bajaj, tukxi, maruwa, lapa … From India to Peru, from Pakistan to Nigeria, the three-wheeled mototaxi has many names. But in Thailand, this colorful and chaotic mode of urban transport is just called a tuk-tuk.
Before it became one of Slovenia“s top attractions, Postojna Cave welcomed the likes of Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph and Benito Mussolini: Orchestras entertained them, making the most of the outstanding acoustics of the cave’s “Concert Hall” chamber.
When we drove from France to Syria in 1972, Hafez al-Assad — Bashar’s father, who ran the country until 2000 — had been in power for two years. You can see his portrait hanging behind this old pots and pans seller in one of the Old City of Aleppo’s covered souks. I imagine all of […]
I like the juxtaposition between this minaret and the improbable electrical entanglement in the foreground: Clearly, you needed to have faith to believe the whole thing was going to hold up.
This is the “world famous conch train,” as it was — and still is — advertised, at the southernmost tip of the Florida Keys.
The Alhambra palace, in southern Spain’s Andalusia region, is a jewel of Islamic architecture, a testament to Moorish culture in the country. There would have been even more beauty to admire had my fellow Frenchmen from Napoleon’s armies not destroyed several towers 150 years before we arrived.
Traveling in group tours as my wife and I usually did, you’re bound to visit some local craft workshops along the way. It’s always been a great opportunity to snap some nice pictures — here’s one I took in a pottery shop near Shanghai.
When we went to eastern Tunisia in the 1970s, Monastir-born Habib Bourguiba was then serving as the country’s first president, having replaced King Muhammad VIII when the monarchy was abolished in 1957.