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.
Categories
The Mother Of All Parks
Tag: travel
Categories
Algerian Perspective
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 […]
Categories
Northern Mailbox
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.
Categories
Long Before The Quake
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.
Categories
La Paz Prayer
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.
Categories
Vanilla Siesta
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.
Categories
Snows Of Yesteryear
It’s a two-hour drive between my hometown and this picturesque village of Morat in Switzerland. On our way home through the still white-capped Jura mountains, my then 10-year-old grandson and I got into a merciless snowball fight. That’s the kind of warm memory that sticks far more than any quaint village scenery.
Categories
Rugs And Ruins
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.
Categories
Travel Wisdom — A Video Quote In 15 Seconds
Categories
Spiny Delicacy
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.
And it’s cheaper than you think …
Categories
Buddhist Carving
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.
Categories
Medieval Headache
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!
Categories
Egeszsegedre!
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!
Categories
Pigeon v. Macaw
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.
Categories
Welcome To Jakarta
Upon landing in the Indonesian capital, we were welcomed (straight on the tarmac) by a parade of men in traditional costumes.
Categories
Well-Guarded Microstate
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.
Categories
Superstitious Boats
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.
Categories
Modest God
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.
Categories
Andes Police
Working the day shift at the Machu Picchu police station looked like a pretty quiet job. No troubles even from the neighborhood llamas.
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.
Categories
Next Best Thing
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.
Categories
Nice Set Of Pipes
With 11,623 pipes, the organ inside the imposing Salt Lake Tabernacle is one of the biggest in the world. It is used to accompany the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, which we got to listen to during our visit, where we also learned about this uniquely American religion.
Categories
To Fallen Vikings
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.
Switzerland-born globetrotter Olivier Racine does things because he can. He wanted to give the North Korean dictator two gifts from his country, a giant Toblerone chocolate bar and a piece of the Matterhorn mountain. This excerpt from his recently publish
Categories
Our Lady Of The Rocks
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.
Categories
Greetings From The Desert
“As-salamu alaikum …” — “Wa-alaikum-us-salaam!”
Categories
Picasso No More
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 […]
Categories
Willkommen!
These two slightly creepy characters made of hay bales welcomed us on the very picturesque Black Forest Hochstrasse scenic route.
Categories
The Baroque Capital
The stunning facade of the Basilica di Santa Croce in Lecce, in southern Italy, is a good example of the exuberant architectural style that has earned the city its nickname of “capital of Baroque.”
Categories
Taxi International
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.
Categories
Rock Concert
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.
Categories
So Long, Aleppo Souks
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 […]
Categories
High Power
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.
Categories
Southern Terminus
This is the “world famous conch train,” as it was — and still is — advertised, at the southernmost tip of the Florida Keys.
Categories
Troublesome Visitors
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.
Categories
Dragon Art
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.
Categories
The President’s City
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.
Categories
Panoramic Dancing
These gaunt, alien-like musicians overlook Reykjavik, near the iconic Perlan observatory, giving an eerie feel to an already otherwordly landscape.
Categories
Seven Skirts
The fishermen“s wives of yore used to wear seven colorful petticoats; some say to represent the seven waves in a set, others say to keep warm while awaiting their husbands’ return. In the late 1950s, these women working at Nazaré“s seafood market already considered it folklore, as they found it doubtlessly easier to carry their […]