Worldcrunch
There is a well-known statue of Charlie Chaplin in Vevey, Switzerland, not far from my hometown, where the great American actor lived for 25 years. But what was he doing in Ireland? The quiet village of Waterville, County Kerry, happened to be a favorite vacation spot for the Chaplin family. See more slides from My […]
PARIS – Notre-Dame Cathedral continues to draw millions in the center of Paris. But how long before it starts to collapse? For now, at least, France’s most famous cathedral still stands tall and proud. But it’s not in great shape. Far from it. Pollution is eating away its stones. Detail work on the outside is […]
My grandson — Worldcrunch’s photo editor and once a chubby baby in my wife’s arms — has just made me a great-grandfather for the fourth time. Bienvenue to the world, Félix! The new dad’s two older sisters, posing in this family portrait in the Austrian Tyrol, have already given me three adorable great-granddaughters. While my […]
The Great Mosque of Kairouan, in Tunisia, is considered a model of Islamic art. Its minaret, one of the oldest in the world, served as a template for how many minarets were later built in neighboring North African countries, as well as Spain’s Andalusia region. See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World here.
Right now, with the 70th edition of the annual Film Festival underway, those 24 iconic steps of the Grand Auditorium in Cannes are strictly off-limits to the general public. Just a few days before the 60th edition, the carpet was still blue and anyone could proudly mount those steps in whatever off-the-rack outfit they might […]
The banks of the Neva River in Saint Petersburg were glistening like gold during this beautiful summer sunset. You can see the extra shine in Saint Isaac’s Cathedral, which may be because its dome is plated with pure gold. See more sides from My Grand-Père’s World here.
There are Hindu deities everywhere you look along the streets of the Nepalese capital. Here, wood-carved figures of Shiva and Parvati keep an eye on Kathmandu’s Durbar Square. Notice Shiva’s strategically placed left hand. See mores slides from My Grand-Père’s World here.
Climbing 400 or so stairs is all it took my wife Claudine and I to get to mingle with the gargoyles at the top of the Notre Dame cathedral, and enjoy an breathtaking view of Paris — including Montmartre and the Sacré-Coeur basilica. See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World here.
Photography works in mysterious ways. This frozen moment of some graceful Bulgarian folk dancers in Varna somehow looks terribly clumsy. See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World here.
The city of Fatehpur Sikri, founded in 1569 near Agra, served briefly as the capital of the Mughal Empire before it was abandoned, mainly for water scarcity reasons, only 16 years later. It’s one of India’s best preserved ghost towns. See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World here.
In the heart of the rainforest, in a place which for a long time was only accessible by boat, stands the improbable Teatro Amazonas, built during the late 19th-century rubber boom. See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World here.
Wisteria was in full fragrant bloom in the gardens of Suzhou during our spring tour along the country’s east coast. The city’s many waterways has given it the nickname as the “Venice of China.” See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World here.
A little monster was having fun in the Mouth of Hell, in Bomarzo’s 16th-century Parco dei Mostri (“Park of the Monsters’). See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World here.
Driving around Romania during one of the hottest summers I can remember, I got to see the many faces of daily life — in both sadness and joy. These traditionally dressed locals were bringing cake to a wedding. No sign of ice cream. See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World here.
The region I hail from in eastern France is a Lutheran Protestant enclave in a predominantly Catholic country. But the churches in my neck of the woods are considerably more subdued than Reykjavik’s Lutheran Hallgrímskirkja in Iceland. See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World here.
These rows of red chilies, drying by the side of a road in northern India, bring back culinary memories of a painful kind. My French stomach, unaccustomed to eating spicy food, definitely had a hard time appreciating some of the country’s delicacies … See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World here.
Ready for take off and marveling at the Andes in the distance, I took stock of the things I was lucky enough to see during my trip to Peru: from the heights of Machu Picchu to Lake Titicaca and its islands made of reed, to the incredible geoglyphs of the Nazca Desert and of course […]
The half-timbered Feathers Hotel in Ludlow, western England, is a gem of Tudor architecture. Strangely enough, when I took this picture, all I could think of was the time it must take to clean the inn’s dozens of diamond-paneled windows … See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World.
It is cold in the Lofoten islands of Norway, even in the summer. Not so cold that the fish freezes — just cold enough that salted cod can dry on racks in the sun and wind without rotting. The resulting delicacy, klippfisk, is pretty darn good. See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World.
Behold this mighty Kinnari statue, half-human and half-bird, keeping an eye on Bangkok“s holy Wat Phra Kaew temple. See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World here.
Taking a break from visiting Salt Lake City“s landmarks (including the Salt Lake Temple you can see in the background of this picture), we enjoyed a nice walk in the lush gardens at Temple Square. See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World here.
Brazil is a major banana-producing country. In Belem, the gateway to the River Amazon in the north of the country, these dock workers were unloading the day’s cargo destined for city markets. See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World here.
Among the ruins of one of the world’s oldest surviving Byzantine churches, about 30 kilometers northwest of Aleppo, stand the remains of the pillar of Saint Simeon Stylites. The fifth-century ascetic monk is said to have lived 37 years as a hermit, perched on a platform at the top of a column. More than 1,500 […]
There are several such typical watering holes and fountains along the winding roads of Corsica. They come in handy when your daughter is thirsty. See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World here.
During the Tito-era of communist rule in then-Yugoslavia, agricultural workers gathered every morning, tools in hand, and waited for someone to hire them for the day.
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.
Banff National Park in the Canadian Rockies varies widely in elevation, climate, and plant life, making it the perfect place to catch (from a respectable distance) an incredible diversity of wildlife in their natural habitat. That was one grouchy-looking bighorn sheep. See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World here.
Of the many vendors at the numerous markets I’ve visited through the years, the women selling herbs in Jakarta were probably the ones with the biggest smiles. See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World.
This was beyond a cross-country summer trip. From my hometown in eastern France, I had to drive across the whole country, heading for Britanny. I then carried on westward to the Finistère department. Then hopped on a boat for about an hour and voilà: I got to the small and picturesque island of Ouessant (Ushant), […]
Navigating the khlong canals of Bangkok is quite a different experience from being on a Venetian gondola. No rowing oars here, but the famous longtail engine – basically a car engine attached to a propeller. See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World.
These young Syrians in the western city of Homs paused from playing a mock game of war to look my way for a photograph. Current Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad, whose father had taken power two years earlier in Damascus, was about the same age as these kids. See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World.
Little penitent during a Palm Sunday procession in Andalusia, southern Spain.
There is more to folk dancing than the famous “Dragon Dance” … Feather Fan Dance, Ribbon Dance, Sword Dance — my wife and I spent an evening enjoying them all. See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World.
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 […]
As you may remember, I used to conduct a traditional French music choir in my hometown. This shot was from a memorable trip abroad, to Wales, where we’d been invited to the famed Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod folk festival. The tall and handsome man signing autographs like a celebrity was not only a strong tenor […]
Ten years had passed since the dissolution of the Soviet Union when my wife and I returned to Russia. The people were clearly hooked on the newfound entrepreneurial freedom, big and small scale alike. See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World.
Legendary 18th-century Scottish economist Adam Smith is buried at the Canongate Kirkyard in Edinburgh, in the shadow of the iconic cliffs of Salisbury Crags. See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World.
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.