EUROPE
The Ispahan No, not the city in Iran or the Damask rose. This is a concoction of fragrant rose cream with chopped litchis and luscious, whole raspberries, sandwiched between two crunchy, startling pink macaron shells. And topped with a single raspberry and a velvety rose petal, complete with a glistening sugar dewdrop.Enjoyed in the Place Saint […]
Read MoreI M Pei’s sparkling masterpiece of an entrance – albeit controversial – to an abode of exquisite masterpieces. It is said that of the 8 million average annual visitors to the Louvre, nearly 50% come for the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo and the Pyramid! Until next time…happy travels no matter where life takes […]
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High up on the hills bounding the French riviera, like some lofty nests of birds of prey, sit the villages perchés. The perched villages, originally built as defensive fortifications against marauding pirates and invading armies, fell into disrepair postwar, receiving a new lease of life over the next decade, when coastal residents restored the crumbling buildings to their former glory. […]
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This giant flower sculpture of a West Highland White Terrier puppy is part of the permanent collection of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. Designed in 1992 by Jeff Koons – an American artist renowned for his “Neo-Pop art – for an art exhibition in Arolsen Castle, Germany, it was purchased by the Bilbao museum in 1997 (after a short stint in […]
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Y is for Yali. No, not that mythical creature from Hindu mythology, but the gorgeous waterfront mansions lining the banks of the Bosphorus! Derived from the Greek Yialos, meaning seashore, these 17th century mansions whose architectural styles can only be termed ‘eclectic’ were intended as summer abodes for the Turkish bourgeoisie, whose numbers swelled with the extension of the Ottoman […]
Read MoreUzes was an impromptu stopover on our way to the Pont du Gard, part of the 1st century Roman aqua-duct, built to supply water to Nimes. This lovely medieval village in the Languedoc province, lies at the source of the Fontaine d’Eure and is the starting point of the aqua-duct. The first thing that catches your eye […]
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Out beyond ideas of wrongdoingand rightdoing, there is a field.I’ll meet you there.When the soul lies down in that grassthe world is too full to talk about.~ Rumi Every time I read Rumi, I am filled with regret that I cannot read it in the original Persian, for I know how much is lost in […]
Read MoreThe Musée du Louvre is the most visited museum in Paris, perhaps in the whole world, and rightly so. I doubt I will ever find enough time to do justice to all it has to offer. But when you are done here, a short walk down to the Musée de l’Orangerie can be a highly rewarding […]
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This excerpt from the Book of Revelations, clearly cites what early Christians thought of the fabulous Altar of Zeus, on which Antipas was sentenced to death, when he refused to declare that the Roman emperor was “Lord and God.” “To the angel of the church in Pergamum write: ‘I know your works, and where you dwell…where […]
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After a long day of sightseeing, we rest our aching feet at a little cafe in the shadow of the Yeni Camii, the not so new ‘new mosque‘. This 16th century edifice underscores the fact that ‘new’ is relative here! We watch resident Stamboulis go about their daily lives as we sip Çay from little glass tumblers set over […]
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It was suffocatingly still. And silent. We started walking up a wide road, lined with what looked like crumbling little cottages. The asphalt seemed out of place, the heat bouncing off it in waves and enveloping us in a disquieting haze. Peering into a doorway, spooked by my own shadow, it was evident these structures were never […]
Read MoreThe stained glass windows of Sainte Chapelle, on the Île de la Cité in Paris, are a sight to behold. Fifteen such windows surround the nave and apse of the second floor chapel with a huge rose window at the opposite end. Two thirds of the 600 sq meters (6,458 square feet) of glass is […]
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The Urge To Wander 