Sometimes it is good to be lost. Van Gogh’s sunflower painting left from France on the mail steamer Binna in late May of 1920. It arrived in Japan on December 12 of that same year. The new owner, Koyata Yamamoto was…
The FULL Travel library is available here You already know we're book hounds here at Around the World in Eighty Years. Heck, the name itself is an ode to the literature of travel. I never go anywhere without a…
At the juncture where France, Germany and Switzerland meet, Basel is a city of intricate layers with around 166,000 inhabitants. Arts and culture lovers will be in heaven here amid the theatres, galleries and museums that form a major part of…
From the ancient stone villages and fortified chateaux of the Knights Templar dotting the foothills that turn to the great wine plains of the Gare, Garrone and to Aquitaine it looks like a lonely outpost of bristling towers and domes…
Visiting Italy usually brings to mind Rome and Florence, pasta and cappuccinos, cobbled streets, frescos, museums and plenty of crowds. However, you can visit Italy and enjoy an entirely different kind of holiday that’s packed with hiking, yachting, lounging on…
Here is the last shot from my five weeks in Finland and France. From here on out I will get back to my goal of posting the photo on the day I took it. I spent most of my final…
Ok. This wasn't today. It was last week. But I loved this place. It was stunning and I wanted to share this photo. The Gavarnie Cirque is a glacier carved amphitheater-shaped valley located in the central Pyrenees. This is a massive chunk…
The tourist shops at the base of Gavarnie are just opening for spring. The old lady was wrapped in a coat and sat in the sun. "Take what you want," she said. She waved her hand without looking at me…
It seems odd from here at Lady of Lourdes I attended Mass for the first time in 25 years. I must have gotten caught up in all the excitement of a service at Lady of Lourdes. Or, maybe it was…
I walked straight up the mountain out of Bagnères-de-Bigorre at noon. The last of the autumn leaves were so thick they were like ice under my feet where the trail went steep; which was most places. I saw a Bearded…
Espelette France is famous for its...non-spicy chile. Being from New Mexico, I can't understand the point of chile without a little kick but so it is. The town even took out a patent on their chile then plastered stings…
On Saturday morning all the thin, winding streets of this little town filled with tables of garden vegetables, apple cider, fresh fish, deep red horse meat, piles of cheeses, home-made breads, flowers and clothes. The streets are packed and the…
