Worldcrunch
I had to be quick to snap a photo of this little fellow in Banff National Park in the Canadian Rockies, before it dashed back into its burrow. I’d always assumed it was a groundhog, like those I’m used to seeing in the French Alps. But looking at it now, I’m quite sure it’s a […]
The woman and the boy in the foreground were walking toward the members of my guided tour to try to sell knick-knacks. There were only two of them selling souvenirs in front of the Royal Tombs, and my fellow visitors and I had the whole Petra site pretty much to ourselves — which I’m told […]
I’m not sure the exact date, but it was the month of July when my then wife-to-be Claudine and I climbed the 400 steps of Notre-Dame, only to be startled by the sudden (very) loud ringing of the Parisian cathedral’s bells. Just a few months later, back in our native eastern France, other bells would […]
This shot dates back from the very first of my 11 trips to Greece. My wife (whom you can see in the car) and I had driven our Simca Aronde from France through Italy, then onto a ferry, and up the Epirus mountains — to finally park smack in the middle of the ruins of […]
In the lobby of my hotel on the shores of the Black Sea, locals in full folkloric attire were dancing to traditional tunes. It felt strangely familiar, having had my own experiences preserving the music and folklore of my local traditions.
Before we were able to feast on these luscious oranges and grapefruits of Florida“s many roadside stands, my wife and I had gotten off to a rather bumpy start in the “Sunshine State.” Landing in Miami, the first item on our list was to find our hotel. I knew it was “on the seafront” and […]
We often flocked to Italy for Spring, as weather there tends to be better than in my sometimes rainy neck of the French woods. But mornings can be a bit cloudy — nothing to worry this woman at the center of the picture, who was diligently setting up deckchairs, waiting for the sun to warm […]
In the background, one of Treptower Park“s massive monuments commemorating Soviet soldiers fallen during World War II. In the foreground, real-life Soviet soldiers still trooping around the USSR-occupied section of Berlin.
Fruit vendors were a common sight when we drove through Brazil“s Minas Gerais state. My wife Claudine didn’t have to wait long: It took this woman no longer than three minutes to expertly slice this fresh pineapple.
Sarajevo’s Baščaršija square is known as “Pigeon square.” There are moments when the birds are everywhere. In this shot, you may have to look a bit harder to spot them.
Our travels didn’t exactly involve many days at the beach. But as we drove in the Turkish heat, we paused here and there so our 13 year-old little mermaid Cécile could splash around. Times like these, my wife Claudine and I regretted never having taken swimming lessons when we were kids.
Our trip to South Africa took us to Kruger National Park, where we got great views of zebras, crocodiles, giraffes — you name it. But we got closest of all to this little guy in a Durban hotel room.
Since turtle shells are used in traditional Chinese medicine and their meat is considered a delicacy there, this bit of Guangzhou’s street market is definitely not a pet sale.
One of my two granddaughters used to live in Özdere, a quiet village on the Turkish coast near Izmir. I went there a couple of times, taking the opportunity to visit the nearby ruins of the Ancient Greek site of Ephesus — and snapping this picture on the street, of a much more modern kind […]
Like their Easter Island counterparts, the giant statues of Tiwanaku, in western Bolivia, are shrouded in mystery. For example, the stone used for this “Monk” monolith comes from a quarry nearly 100 kilometers away.
For millennia, Aleppo was a city of riches, a significant stop on the Silk Road. Sadly, many parts of the Ancient City — including its famous souks — have now been destroyed in the ongoing Syrian Civil War.
On the waterfront of Salvador da Bahia, a fellow Frenchman was busy bargaining for a plate of Bahian acarajé. The body language of sidewalk commerce is understood all around the world.
The capital of the southeastern Italian region of Puglia boasts one of the largest ports on the Adriatic. On this scorching hot summer day, both human and cargo traffic was quiet. On the same trip, on the west coast of Italy’s boot, was a different story.
When my wife and I toured northwestern Spain in the early 1970s, we made sure to visit the Roman aqueduct of Segovia. Two years later would mark its 2,000th birthday.
This family was looking at musicians playing outside the beautiful Jain temple of Ranakpur, in western India. Only after pressing the shutter did I realize the kid had noticed me, and was smiling at my camera.
The Courtyard of the Maidens is one of the most popular destinations in Udaipur, in the Indian state of Rajasthan. With its marble elephants and its lotus fountain, the garden was a perfect oasis of peace and quiet in the middle of the bustling city. For maidens and thirsty travel photographers alike.
It took 14 tourists — including my wife and I — to eat a gigantic omelette made with a single ostrich egg. But when it came to riding one at this South African farm, I thought better to let my fellow travelers make fools of themselves!
Whenever I go back to the boxes of slides from my two trips to Syria, in 1972 and 1996, and look at the archeological wonders, I inevitably ask myself: Is this still standing. Sadly, the answer is usually “no.” Years of civil war and looting have left the ancient capital of Apamea with a similar […]
Over my years of travels, I’ve seen major changes to cityscapes around the world as new buildings arrive. Manhattan is obviously a different story.
This is the capital of Belize, the tiny state in Central America. Unlike colorful cities in neighboring Mexico and Guatemala, I remember the capital Belmopan as a particularly uninspiring subject, its drab streets dotted with banks and jewelry stores — and this one theater.
Oh, to watch the sun setting over the Ganges and the ghats of Varanasi …
Feel the novelty fatigue growing inside? But it is not just the vintage feel of the reissued Nokia 3310 that makes it convincing, it is something deeper.
This was the end of the road for us: Driving with my family from France in our Peugeot 404, our goal was to go as far north as possible, by way of Denmark and Sweden. What I didn’t know was that back then, about 100 kilometers north of the Norwegian capital Oslo, roads were in […]
We traveled to the historical Spanish region known as Old Castile to soak in some of its timeless quiet for a night in the only hotel of a small village. A pack of howling stray dogs decided otherwise … See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World here.
In Greece, everywhere you go and everything you see can easily take on a mythological aura. When you’re well-versed in the ancient Greek texts — as a high school philosophy teacher like me was bound to be — a seemingly mundane pier like this might actually seem to be the mooring for Charon’s boat, carrying […]
When the famous pelicans of Mykonos get tired of all the attention, do they take a break and fly down to the calmer shores of Cyprus? See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World.
Glimpsing through the crack of the imposing brass doors was as much as we were going to see of the Royal Palace of Fes: Visitors are (still) unfortunately not allowed in. See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World.
Starting in spring, to protect passersby from the heat, Seville deploys its sails-like awnings along the calle Sierpes, the city’s main commercial street. See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World.
I’m an analog kind of photographer: I started taking pictures in the 1950s, when film was still somewhat expensive — meaning that even though I now own a digital camera, I’ve never really gotten used to taking lots of shots of the same subject. But some of the world’s wonders, like the Taj Mahal, are […]
On the northwestern coast of Wales, my wife Claudine was pacing the ramparts of Harlech Castle, looking out toward the peaceful Welsh countryside. Some 700 years ago, watchmen walking the same path would have been looking at the sea, which has since retreated. See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World.
The sap harvested from these Pará rubber trees on the Indonesian island of Java coagulates in the yellow collection cups, and voilà, here’s your rubber latex. Or as we say in France, caoutchouc ! See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World.
Sunda Kelapa, the old port of Jakarta, was the perfect place to snap some portraits of Indonesian stevedores at work. Balance is everything. See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World.
Sorry, little spider monkey of Crococun zoo, near Cancun: My favorite zoo is still Hamburg’s Tierpark Hagenbeck. See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World.
Like elsewhere in Syria’s largest city, parts of the Great Mosque of Aleppo, where this man was praying peacefully more than 20 years ago, have since been destroyed.
Now that“s what I call street art…!