Worldcrunch
What’s most interesting about this shot is not the Swiss wrestlers (or Schwingen) in the foreground — meaning no disrespect, guys — but instead the rapt audience in the background, all wearing their Sunday best.
MESSINA — From the moment the plane lands, it seems as if all the beauties of Sicily — its Mediterranean vegetation, its lemon trees loaded with heavy fruits, and its groves of broom and prickly pears — have gathered to welcome you. In the distance, Mount Etna, the “immense volcano” described by French writer Guy […]
Was this Tuareg going to the “fête du Mehri,” the spring celebration during which Algerians attend and participate in camel races? Or was he simply leading his mount to water in Ghardaïa, the city known as the “pearl of the oasis”?
We had a friend take this family shot in the spectacular theater of Epidaurus, in the sanctuary of Asclepius. The place is impressive, but unlike the Ancient Theater of Orange in southern France, it’s missing its scaenae frons (its decorated rear wall). Too bad we missed Maria Callas by just a couple of years: The […]
The swarms of motorcycles and rickshaws, known as samlo in Thailand, can be pretty scary for the uninitiated. But there are so many rental places that business is sometimes slow for the drivers.
To remember the iconic canopied path of the Oak Alley Plantation in Louisiana, I took both this picture and a piece of bark that had fallen down. I keep it in my living room, next to an ornate leaf from the Taj Mahal which had also fallen down — I’m not that kind of tourist! […]
Going up to Funchal’s Monte neighborhood in a cable car is very picturesque. But the way down is all about fun. Two gentlemen dressed in white and wearing straw boaters will take you downhill at relatively high speeds in these large wicker baskets they call “toboggans.”
The feluccas of Aswan, Egypt, with their huge triangular sails, are used to ferry visitors to Elephantine Island, to visit their rich pharaonic ruins — and where we were able to walk in two Nubian villages that a guide guaranteed were “genuine.”
Up on Moscow’s Sparrow Hills, newlyweds take pictures and tourists buy souvenirs. Grand-Mère (a.k.a. babushka) was contemplating a vast array of matryoshkas; we brought a couple of these Russian nesting dolls back — they don’t take much space in your luggage!
Driving through southern Algeria in the early 1970s was quite an adventure — and I’m not sure the state of roads has gotten any better since. Which means that the “Cape Town” direction on that sign in Ouargla was mostly for fun.
Can you spot the odd one out?
This hole in Repulse Bay hotel in Hong Kong is not merely the result of an architect’s whim. In accordance with the “invisible forces” of feng shui, many high-rises and hotels feature such “windows,” to let air flow naturally through the city. In this case, we were told by locals that the hole also allowed […]
In France, from the early 1980s until rather recently, you basically couldn’t turn on your TV without stumbling onto an episode of the American series Dallas. And though I have never actually watched the show, when I went to Beaumont, Texas, it all looked vaguely familiar.
How better to recover from the spookiness of a Transylvanian burial than with a Transylvanian wedding? It was incredibly hot on this July day in Romania, and I remember one of these wedding-goers offered me a sip from what I assumed was a bottle of water. I took a big gulp, and quickly found out […]
We saw what most agree are the three most impressive waterfalls in the world: Victoria Falls, between Zambia and Zimbabwe; Niagara Falls, between the U.S. and Canada; and Iguazu Falls, between Argentina and Brazil. If I had to choose one, it would definitely be what you’re looking at here. Niagara is awesome, but doesn’t have […]
Market places usually make for good, lively pictures. But here in Batalha in central Portugal, some of these young vendors were clearly bored out of their minds.
Ten years had passed since the collapse of the Soviet Union, yet there was still something end-of-an-era-esque in the imposing GUM, the State Department Store near Moscow’s Red Square. The banner reads “Summer Discounts, Up To 50% Off.”
To get to the stunning view over the Forbidden City from the top of Jingshan Park’s Coal Hill, you have two options: climb the 400 or so steps, or hire these porters and their sedan chair. However tempting that was, my wife (in the background) and I chose the former.
I used to be a philosophy teacher, with a penchant for Spinoza — meaning my mind tends to be of the logical and down-to-earth kind. But sometimes you’ve just got to wonder: Last year, looking out the window of my living-room, I saw these tire tracks left after a light snowfall. I grabbed my camera […]
We went to Finland multiple times. Once we even brought a Finnish dictionary with us to try and understand a few words of the very peculiar suomi language … Many headaches ensued!
Most of these locals were selling firewood on the famous market of Chichicastenango. Since it was already pretty hot on this Spring day, we were more interested in what another of the K’iche” vendors, of Mayan descent, was offering: deliciosos helados de crema, ie. “delicious ice cream,” as is written on the cart.
To be honest, with such strange feet, I’m not surprised Buddha preferred to lie down … To give you a rough idea of the size of this reclining Buddha in the Wat Pho temple, there’s a man at the bottom left corner of the slide.
Things were getting heated in West Berlin in the summer of 1967. The conflict was escalating between the government and the West German student movement, peaking with the police shooting dead a young protester just one month before we went there. This photo shows the ongoing construction of the Berlin Wall, six years after the […]
To perform the more than 1,400 works of the repertoire, Peking Opera artists have to be able to sing, dance, act, mime — as well as wield the occasional sword or spear.
I was told that on the spectacular road from Palma de Mallorca to the Sa Calobra Creek, there are more than 800 turns. Which didn’t discourage some fearless (reckless?) cyclists from racing downhill, in the middle of ongoing traffic.
I took this picture of Jain women, who had apparently taken a vow of silence, near the famous Taj Mahal. But what I remember best is that, since their religion advocates non-violence and deep respect toward all living things, several women used a straw broom to sweep before them so as not to crush insects […]
In 1950, Charles de Gaulle, head of the Free French Forces during World War II and for a brief period provisional president of France, was still trying to figure out how to transform himself from military leader to peacetime politician. He made this speech in Sochaux near my hometown. And though “le Grand Charles,” by […]
One of my biggest regrets in life is to never have learned to speak English — my comments here are translated by my grandson. This means that over the years, we had to find solutions to visit English-speaking countries: In 1992 for instance, we travelled with the France-Louisiane Association, and were guided in French through […]
Driving back from Switzerland to Montbéliard, where I’m from, you have to go through “heaven” — Le Paradis being the name of an isolated Swiss farm.
Presidential guards in Tunis take five during a cabinet meeting at Bardo Palace.
The sale of natural sponges from the Aegaen Sea has become highly regulated, meaning that sights like these must be pretty rare nowadays.
From the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland to Arizona’s Grand Canyon, we’ve seen our fair share of geologic wonders over the years. These fairy chimneys in Turkey’s Central Anatolia region are more modest, but still as baffling as the rest.
Our brand new Citroën BX may look like an antique to you now, but it was definitely more comfortable than a donkey to visit the dry but picturesque rural Alentejo region, in central Portugal.
Even if Romania’s growth rate was among the highest in eastern Europe when we traveled there in 1966, many shop windows were nevertheless empty. And things weren’t going to get better, as the country was just beginning to become familiar with a certain Nicolae Ceausescu. Interestingly, it’s in this city of Timisoara that the Ceausescu […]
This little village in County Kerry is nicknamed “The Little Whirlpool,” and it’s so peaceful it’s no wonder it was a favorite holiday destination for Charlie Chaplin and his family.
Some of you won’t know what I’m talking about — but when you’re using a projector, sometimes you come across a slide that was misplaced in the carousel, or a photo that was taken vertically. Which means that your audience (family members in my case) all tilt their heads sideways at the same time. And […]
Had this adorable young girl really come down from her remote Lapland to sell her reindeer hides in Helsinki? I suspect that even 46 years ago, Finns understood that folklore sells well with tourists.
Were these the ghosts of relatives of Catherine the Great, chatting in front of Saint Petersburg’s Winter Palace? Probably more likely employees of the city’s visitor center, as the residence of the Russian Tsars and emperors is now home to one of the largest and oldest museums in the world, the Hermitage.
These two watchmen, with their lamps and bludgeons, were on their way to their day jobs at Den Gamle By (“the Old Town“), an open-air historic musem and major touristic attraction in Aarhus, Denmark’s second largest city.
Visitors to Beijing should plan to see the changing of the guard in front of the Mao Mausoleum on Tiananmen Square. The marching is very distinct from Greek Evzones or Danish guards.