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Observations from…cities, highlands, islands, and fjords

Published by DJB

Having now completed my initial 2022 trip as a study leader/educational expert for National Trust Tours, I’ve been reflecting on our Scottish Highlands and Islands | Fjords of Norway tour. Before looking ahead to the Mekong River excursion this fall, join me as I make a few observations and wrap up the odds and ends of this experience.

Glasgow

I loved Glasgow.

We began in that city when our Thursday arrival put us on the ground a day before our “official” start time. We came early in order to adjust our internal clocks and — more importantly — see this dynamic city that was once a powerhouse of the industrial revolution. Glasgow is now experiencing a renaissance fueled by youthful energy, the arts (culinary and cultural), and a can-do spirit that extends back to the city’s founding. After a short lunch (and a longer nap), we took to the streets, eventually walking to the Finnieston neighborhood to have the first of a number of creative and delicious meals we would enjoy over the next three weeks. Somewhat surprisingly, our evening at The Gannet also turned out to be the most satisfying culinary experience of our 22 days abroad.

*The Gannet in Glasgow (credit: The Gannet)*

A good night’s sleep and an early morning walk around our hotel the next morning led me to truly appreciate the architectural riches of the city.

Morning views, before the streets were filled with people

Looking up is always a delight in a city like Glasgow

Enjoying the historic design of a local arcade, before the shoppers arrive

Candice and I were also eager to see first-hand the places where architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his wife, the artist Margaret Macdonald, did some of their most important work for tearoom entrepreneur Kate Cranston; places where “artistic taste allied with domestic comforts.” After a breakfast at the Buchanan Street Tea Room, we walked the few blocks over to Sauchiehall Street to the restored Willow Tea Rooms, where we had the chance to see the full effect of the Mackintosh/Macdonald vision.

We also went in search of other Mackintosh designs in the city and hit the jackpot at the Glasgow Art Club.

Gallery in the Glasgow Art Club, with freize by Charles Rennie Mackintosh

Charles Rennie Mackintosh frieze detail for the Glasgow Art Club

Having read that Mackintosh designed a frieze early in his career for the club, we found the building’s location on the map, knocked on the imposing front door, and asked if it was possible to see the Mackintosh frieze. The kindly staff member said, “Sure, no one is in the room right now. Just go through that door and down the hall, and you’ll see it.”

What a treat!

One writer for The Guardian noted that “The world is now awash with Mackintosh mugs, tea-towels, brooches, earrings, cushions and mirrors ― a plethora of chintzy merchandise adorned with the trademark floral tendrils and abstract grids. What was once provocative is now the stuff of the gift shop.” Suffice it to say the world knows a great deal about Mackintosh. But it is something else to see his work on site, as originally designed, still inspiring wonder in the eyes of the beholder.

Scottish Highlands, Orkney and Shetland Islands

Friday afternoon we left Glasgow to the sound of bagpipers and boarded the small cruise ship Le Dumont-d’Urville, which was our home for the next seven days. (And it was a luxurious and welcoming home in every way.) Saturday morning found us in the very rainy town of Fort William in the Scottish Highlands; yet, as the tour directors always say, these visits go rain or shine. So, with rain gear in hand we took the bus to visit the National Trust for Scotland’s Glenfinnan monument. As the NTS website notes, Glenfinnan is a moving tribute to those who died fighting for the Jacobite cause in 1745, framed by dramatic Highland scenery. A much more modern tourism moment is the opportunity to “immerse yourself in the magical setting of a Harry Potter film location and witness the ‘Hogwarts Express’ steam train crossing the world-famous Glenfinnan Viaduct.” I was actually more taken with it than I expected, even dodging the rain drops!

The “Hogwarts Express” crosses the Glenfinnan Viaduct

The Glencoe Nature Preserve, another stunning area protected by the National Trust for Scotland (NTS), was a treasure to explore in spite of the threatening clouds. NTS has a thoughtful and engaging interpretive center, complete with a large map that shows the extent of their holdings in this area.

Sunday we toured the Isle of Skye, visiting the town of Portree with its natural harbor and small shops. We drove along the Sleat Peninsula and ended our day with a visit to Eilean Donan Castle, located on an island where three great sea lochs meet on the west coast of Scotland.

Monday brought us to Kirkwall and the Orkney Islands. I have written about Orkney and its treasures, such as Skara Brae and St. Magnus Cathedral, but I did want to capture a picture of the small town of Kirkwall as well as one of the ubiquitous stone fences that cut throughout the Orkney landscape.

Stone fencing near Skara Brae on the Orkney Islands

Our final day in Scotland found us in the Shetland Islands and the little town of Lerwick. We decided to focus on the town with its inviting streets and small plazas.

It should be no surprise that we found time to spend in the local independent bookshop, where I picked up a couple of books by Orkney author George Mackay Brown.

Shetland Times Bookshop (Credit: Kenneth Shearer via shetlandtimes.co.uk)

Wrapping up in Norway

Having already written about our visits to Edvard Grieg’s home, the majestic fjords, and the UNESCO World Heritage site of Bergen, I’ll simply leave you with this picture of the stunning Sognefjord.

I ended one of my lectures by noting that old places matter because their materials and appearances connect with human souls through emotions and memories. For some, those places may be mountains or streams. For others, buildings, neighborhoods, and streetscapes are involved.

While we toured some of the world’s most famous landscapes, heritage can be found everywhere – not just in special districts. As we saw every day on this tour, natural and cultural heritage are intertwined in a continuum. When we consider the places we visit, we can see that their significance lies not only in the past, but also in in the present.

The places we saw and the lessons we learned in the cities, highlands, islands, and fjords can be taken back, in our hearts and minds, to the places that we love. Being moved is, simply, one of the reasons we travel.

Enjoy.

More to come…

DJB

For other posts on my reports and impressions from the Scottish Islands and Norwegian Fjords National Trust Tours trip click here for Orkney, here for the fjords and Bergen, and here for the Edvard Grieg home.

Image of rock fence on Orkeny and all other images by DJB unless otherwise noted.

The past and future of Norway’s rich and fragile cultural environment

Published by DJB

The chance to see some of the world’s great landscapes — areas where the built and natural environments come together in often spectacular fashion — is one you don’t pass up when the opportunity arises. Just two short weeks ago, I was fortunate to have that chance, participating as one of the study leaders in a National Trust Tour of Scotland and Norway.

It was a remarkable experience.

During the tour I spoke with our travelers about the different approaches to heritage conservation and preservation in the U.K., Norway, and the U.S. and considered what helps build thriving and sustainable communities. Another study leader from Tufts spoke on efforts to support green energy in Scotland and Norway. These topics worked surprisingly well together. Trying to understand the history of the cultural environment helps us see the various intersections — historical and environmental — between past, present, and future.

Mountains, glaciers, and hamlets are all part of Sognefjord (DJB)

This cultural environment is a part of our shared heritage as global citizens, worthy of preservation and conservation. Norway’s Sognefjord — with traditional farmsteads and villages flanked by soaring mountains and glaciers — can take one’s breath away.

Sailing into Sognefjord, where the small village along the waterfront is dwarfed by the snow-capped mountains (DJB)

We had the opportunity to not only admire this cultural environment from a distance, but to also see these mountains, cascading waterfalls, intriguing hamlets, and individual farmsteads up-close from our seat on the Flam Railroad branch of the world-renowned Bergen Line.

Scenic train travel in the time of covid.

Natural and man-made elements co-exist alongside the Bergan railroad line from Flam (all photos by DJB)

The natural landscapes were the main attraction for many of our travelers, yet we also visited several special communities along the way; places that are very different in many respects from our hometowns but that also share characteristics and histories that we can learn from and perhaps be moved by.

The historic wharf area of Bergen, Norway: a UNESCO World Heritage Site

As one of urban Norway’s most picturesque spots, the historic wharf area of Bergen ― known historically as Bryggen ― is a UNESCO World Heritage Site with a long history linked to German bachelor merchants, traders, and the Hanseatic League.

Individuals of the Hanseatic League came to Bergen some 150 years after a port was established. And much like Garrison Keillor’s fictional Norwegian bachelor farmers in Lake Wobegon, these real-life German bachelor merchants were good at what they did, and they soon established a thriving German colony within Norway.

A model showing the historic look of Bryggen

From this foothold, their presence and influence began to grow. They acquired ownership of the Bryggen area, constructing more buildings for trade and homes for their workforce. What we can see today is enough to get an idea of how the area must have been like for those who lived and worked during the Middle Ages.

The structures that remain perpetuate the memory ― the stories ― of one of the oldest large trading ports of Northern Europe.

These are stories that tell of ingenuity in design. The two- to three-story buildings are spaced apart with only narrow, covered passageways between them that run in a grid system alongside the docks, making the best use of scarce land. During the winter the bachelor merchants lived in the wooden buildings with the covered passageways serving as private courtyards.

Small alleyways between the main buildings

We also learn stories of resilience. Small stone communal storerooms or warehouses were located at the back of the district to protect the most valuable goods against the risk of fire. Bergen has been damaged by a number of fires through the centuries and has been rebuilt each time, closely following the previous property structure and plan as well as building materials and techniques.

Stone warehouse (on the right) at the rear of the main group of structures

Living conditions in the early years were dark and cramped. Yet community was important, so the Germans built assembly rooms to gather, relax, and enjoy warm communal meals, games and religious ceremonies.

King Olav III helped establish Bergen as an important center of life in Norway through the twin power of the church and state. But it was those German bachelor merchants and their backers who had a vision for a commercial hub that could import items from other parts of the world while sharing goods from northern Europe. Their vision for the community grew through the Industrial Revolution, as the area’s bounty of wood and fish was traded via the new steam ships. As a result, Bergen became Norway’s most international city. Surnames of German, Dutch and Scottish origin are plentiful, many originating from the Hanseatic era.

Scenes of Bergen outside the UNESCO area

But there has also been a vision for the future that protects and celebrates the past. The traditional pattern of rebuilding the community after its many fires left the main structures preserved as a working reminder of the ancient wooden urban structures once common in Northern Europe. Today, some 62 buildings remain of this former townscape, a vision that has turned the community into a tourist magnet.

And nearby, the Fantoft Stavkirke, a rebuilt 12th century wooden stave church, showcases another important piece of the Norwegian past.

We were on a tour where one of the sponsoring organizations was the National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States. You may or may not have heard of the U.S.-based National Trust, but chances are good that are aware of the National Trust of England, Wales, & Northern Ireland. The British National Trust, as it is commonly known, is the largest such group in the world and one of the oldest.

But the title of oldest National Trust actually goes to The National Trust of Norway. Established in 1844, Fortidsminneforeningen has had a central role in the creation of nationwide heritage management programs in addition to focusing on the protection of many of the country’s remaining stave churches.

In Bergen today we see a mix of public and private investment working to save historic buildings and landscapes, serving local residents in the fishing, shipbuilding and associated industries along with visitors coming to the area for tourism. Norway’s Directorate for Cultural Heritage — overseen by a professional in the field with the wonderful historical title of “National Antiquarian” — has special responsibilities for heritage conservation in the medieval towns of Oslo, Tønsberg, Trondheim, and Bergen.

It is a delicate balance at the best of times. And with Europe coming out of the pandemic, growth pressures are sure to increase.

But in using “cultural environment” to describe the focus of their work, Norway emphasizes the importance of an integrated approach to conservation and preservation. Environmental, cultural, and land-use planning go hand-in-hand.

It is a good lesson to take back to the places where we live.

More to come…

DJB

Candice and DJB alongside the majestic Kjosfossen

At Myrdal’s mountaintop station (credit: Christine Berwyn)

For other posts on my reports and impressions from the Scottish Islands and Norwegian Fjords National Trust Tours trip click here for Glasgow and the Scottish Highlands, here for Orkney, and here for the Edvard Grieg home.

Image of Sognefjord by DJB

An appetite for Paris (with a side order of Glasgow)

Published by DJB

The restaurants, bistros, and sidewalk cafes throughout Paris are as much a part of the city’s aura as its architecture, monuments, and culture. When we chose Paris as the place to celebrate our 40th anniversary, we did so in part because of the expectation of the culinary experience. We also made the choice because, for some inexplicable reason, Paris was a city we had missed in our travels.

It was past time to rectify that oversight.

Exploring new cuisines is one of the joys of travel. So it was with great anticipation that we undertook our recent trip to Paris (with a visit to Glasgow and other environs included in the opening ten days). On the culinary front, this trip brought surprising delights and created new memories.

We are fortunate in having a number of friends who share our love for food and who have lived in or regularly travel to France. Restaurant and food recommendations came pouring in during the weeks before our trip, more than we could have sampled if our stay were twice as long. Knowing of our love for reading, we also received suggestions for books to consider. While at the Red Wheelbarrow Bookstore at the suggestion of Janet Hulstrand, I came across two that we purchased. Sweet Paris: Seasonal Recipes from an American Baker in France by Frank Adrian Barron became a family birthday gift for Candice. The second was an “evocation of a now vanished Paris” — where food was at the center of the story. Naturally, I picked up that one for myself and quickly devoured this gem of a book.

Between Meals: An Appetite for Paris is a memoir by the well-known New Yorker writer A.J. Liebling, who captured his love for Paris, food, “and for pleasure itself” in his last book before his death in 1963. While definitely a piece of its time (especially when it comes to women), Liebling’s writing remains juicy and irresistible even today. He first came to Paris as a student in the 1920s. As James Salter writes in the introduction, “the frankness and sexuality of the city were dazzling, especially to Americans who had known only the Puritanism of their own country, its materialism, indifference to art, and ignorance of history.” Liebling joined those who “came to France to breathe new air.”

And Liebling breathed it deeper than most. His appetites were expansive. And his writing always draws you in. As one reviewer of his body of work put it, “Every sentence he wrote contains a kick, a bounce, and a leap.” He knew how to make the reader laugh, “but for a reason: A window opens when a man laughs, a window through which you can insert an idea.”

A Parisian girlfriend described the rather unattractive Liebling as “passable”, a descriptor which became the title of the last chapter. Between Meals is, in fact, much more than passable: It is a delight. If you scroll to the bottom of the post, you’ll find one small excerpt to demonstrate why and to tempt you to read more.

Unlike Liebling, Candice and I made our arrival in Paris a few years after our student days and late on a Friday evening, tired after a day of travel. The city was flooded with football (soccer) fans for the Championship League final between Liverpool and Real Madrid. An Irish Pub at the end of our block became one of many unofficial headquarters for the fans of Liverpool and we could hear them singing and cheering late into the evening. We walked in the opposite direction and quickly found a nice sidewalk cafe where we could share a pizza and wine to come down from the pressures of airline travel in the age of covid.

Early the next morning I was out on the streets looking for pastries, fruit, eggs, tea, and coffee — the fixings for my traditional breakfast which I prepared for the family each day we were in Paris. I found all within three blocks of our temporary home…the best being the pastries at LIBERTÉ, the tea at Mariage Frères, and the coffee at the nearby Malongo.

Mariage Frères Paris France (credit: *Norio NAKAYAMA from Saitama, Japan –* https://commons.wikimedia.org)

Our local pastry shop in Paris (credit solosophie.com)

We had spur-of-the moment bites at streetside cafes, took in lunches near our daily venues, and enjoyed long-planned celebratory meals at local restaurants to savor the finest of modern French cooking during our time in Paris. Claire joined us late on Saturday. After a whirlwind tour of the Louvre the next day, the three of us settled in on the large terrace along Rue de la Seine at La Palette, a busy cafe with a long tradition and a loyal local clientele who enjoy the basics of the bistro tradition. We kept it simple with wine and a generous fromage plate. It was a great beginning.

Andrew arrived on Monday morning, and after dropping off his bags (well, the one that made it on time) we headed to Le Christine, a Michelin guide restaurant, for our first Parisian meal together with the entire family.

Andrew and Claire toast everyone’s safe arrival at Le Christine (DJB)

Over the course of the next eight days, we generally took two of the three meals outside the apartment. At these meals we enjoyed a wide range of food and discovered the occasional connection to some other part of our lives. Andrew’s experience on our final Sunday in the city was both surprising and somehow totally natural. He heard the individuals at the next table mention a piece of obscure organ music, turned to them and asked, “are you organists?”

Well, it turned out that Cathy Rodland and her colleagues from St. Olaf College in Minnesota were organ professors. Cathy was the teacher for one of the organists at the National Cathedral, where Andrew sings in his day job. They were in Paris for eight days to visit and play organs. We all began sharing contacts and struck up a nice friendship, with a shared love of Taylor and Boody Organs from Staunton being part of the connection.

Andrew with Cathy Rodland from St. Olaf College (DJB)

On Thursday we took a Sweet and Savory French Gourmet Food and Wine Tasting Tour of the Montmartre neighborhood. We saw the markets which many residents visit on a daily basis (as opposed to the weekly trip to the supermarket), and sampled cheeses, meats, chocolates, and wines in a delightful overview of the food scene in this historic village in the city.

Sampling chocolates on the Montmartre Gourmet Food and Wine Tasting tour (CCB)

We ate at numerous restaurants and bistros, including these favorites:

Le Petit Medicis — A very small bistro with terrific escargot, a lovely view of the Luxemborg Gardens, and a friendly staff.
l’isolotto — This small Italian pizzeria was tasty, with the added advantage of being located directly across from our apartment door.
Au 35 — A lovely local restaurant recommended by our friend James Schwartz, where we celebrated our last evening together for this trip to Paris.

One of many fine dishes we sampled in Paris, this one at Au 35 (DJB)

Candice had selected Kitchen Galerie Bis (KGB) for her birthday dinner, and it did not disappoint. There was an innovative tasting menu that, as the website notes, brings “together numerous cultural influences,” with the lead emphasis clearly coming from Asia. “Roots, fresh herbs, broths, vegetables and citruses have carte blanche and whimsically draw new culinary lines.”

It was the highlight of the Paris cuisine tour.

A portion of the dessert offering at KGB

At the end of a flavorful birthday dinner at KGB

But…did I mention that we began the trip in Glasgow? It was in that city, pulsating with new youthful energy, that we had the culinary surprise of the trip.

We arrived in Glasgow a day before meeting with the other travelers on the National Trust Tours visit to the Scottish Highlands, Outer Islands, and the Norwegian Fjords. We certainly wanted to adjust our internal time clocks, but we were also interested in visiting works by the famous Scottish architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh. We ended up eating a good Scottish breakfast at the Mackintosh Tea Room on Buchanan Street before visiting the restored Willow Tea Rooms on Sauchiehall Street. Well worth the visit.

Exterior to the restored Willow Tea Rooms (DJB)

Second floor of the restored Willow Tea Rooms (DJB)

But in the early evening the night before, we walked the thirty minutes from our hotel to the Finnieston neighborhood. And it was there that we had the most amazing meal of our 22 days abroad.

A statue of architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh overlooks the Finnieston neighborhood (DJB)

The Finnieston neighborhood of Glasgow (DJB)

The Gannet is always ranked among Glasgow’s top restaurants, and we soon discovered why. The setting and staff are warm, professional, yet unpretentious. Our waitress, a lovely Scottish woman named Tess, could not have been more welcoming and knowledgable.

And the tasting menu with wine pairing was sumptuous. Take a look at the sample menu and scan the photographs below and on the website, and you’ll see what makes a reservation hard to acquire during the dinner hour.

A delightful sampling to tease the palate at The Gannet (DJB)

The perfect pairing to go with our dessert at The Gannet (DJB)

After a delightful two-hour meal, topped off with dessert and the Maury Grenat No. 02 fortified wine, we were headed back downtown to remember this special meal…and to anticipate the delicacies ahead.

More to come…

DJB

A little sampling of the writing of A.J. Liebling:

In the restaurant on the Rue Saint-Augustin, Parisian actor and gourmand Yves Mirande would dazzle his juniors, French and American, by dispatching a lunch of raw Bayonne ham and fresh figs, a hot sausage in crust, spindles of filleted pike in a rich rose sauce Nantua, a leg of lamb larded with anchovies, artichokes on a pedestal of foie gras, and four or five kinds of cheese, with a good bottle of Bordeaux and one of champagne, after which he would call for the Armagnac and remind Madame to have ready for dinner the larks and ortolans she had promised him, with a few langoustes and a turbot — and, of course, a fine civet made from the marcassin, or young wild boar, that the lover of the leading lady in his current production had sent up from his estate in the Sologne. “And while I think of it,” I once heard him say, “we haven’t had any woodcock for days, or truffles baked in the ashes, and the cellar is becoming a disgrace — no more ’34s and hardly any ’37s. Last week, I had to offer my publisher a bottle that was far too good for him, simply because there was nothing between the insulting and the superlative.”
A.J. Liebling in the chapter “A Good Appetite” in “Between Meals: An Appetite for Pais”

Image: Looking at the temptations in a window of a bistro in Paris by DJB

The books I read in May 2022

Published by DJB

Books start conversations. Each month I have a goal to read five books on a variety of topics and from different genres in order to learn and to start conversations with readers and others I encounter along the way. Here are the books I read in May 2022. If you click on the title, you’ll go to the longer post on More to Come. Enjoy!

Magnus, the second novel of George Mackay Brown, was published in 1973 (and republished by Polygon in 2019). It is the fictional account of the real-life murder of Earl Magnus of Orkney who “walked calmly, knowingly and completely unarmed to a terrible death at the hands of his cousin Hakon Paulson.” Told through the eyes of several peasants, it is both atmospheric in capturing the spirit of the islands, and descriptive in recounting the hardships and terror of life in the 12th century. Poet Seamus Heaney once remarked that Mackay Brown passed everything “through the eye of the needle of Orkney.” That is true in Magnus, where Brown takes off on a dream flight in the midst of the description of the killing of the 12th century martyr to meditate on the murder of famed German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer at the hands of the Nazis near the end of World War II. This is a serious and powerful work from one of Scotland’s most accomplished 20th century writers.

The 9.9 Percent: The New Aristocracy That is Entrenching Inequality and Warping our Culture (2021) is philosopher and historian Matthew Stewart‘s wide-ranging survey and urgent call to action on wealth inequality. Most of us assume we are not “rich” because we are not billionaires, allowing us to fall into the 99% and scapegoat the world’s wealthiest individuals. Stewart reframes the issue, noting that the really wealthy make up only 0.1% of the population. When you examine the top ten percent to find the people who control more than half of the country’s wealth, it is those other 9.9% — looking a great deal like many of us and our friends — who are doing so many things to entrench inequality in our system. There are many suggestions and conclusions in this brilliant work which are worthy of mention. In the end, Stewart calls for a strong recommitment to liberal democracy, which works to raise everyone up and which he describes as a truth machine. Its most fundamental premise is that every step in the direction of reason is also a step in the direction of justice. Highly recommended.

Bedside Essays for Lovers (of Cities) (2012) is architect Daniel Solomon‘s call for all of us to understand and care for our cities. In this short collection, Solomon is focused on what makes cities vibrant, livable, and sustainable; places where we would all want to live. Cities are complex, with innumerable moving parts, and the need to find solutions that work is made more urgent by factors such as climate change, justice, and inequality. Solomon’s voice is an important one, as he as argues that we need to pay more attention to nurturing “continuous cities” where “new buildings, new institutions, and new technologies don’t rip apart the old and wreck it. They accommodate, they act with respect, and they add vibrant new chapters to history without eradicating it.”

Beeswing: Losing My Way and Finding My Voice 1967 – 1975 (2021) is British singer-songwriter Richard Thompson’s witty, moving, and un-ponderous (to use one reviewer’s description) memoir of his early musical career in Fairport Convention, as a session guitarist for hire, and then in a musical duo with his wife Linda. The work is as well-crafted as Thompson’s music and is a delight to read. Throughout there are unforgettable lines, thoughtful passages about tragedy and resilience, insightful descriptions of 1960s London, and laugh-out-loud stories.

Edvard Grieg: His life and music is a 2002 work written by Erling Dahl, Jr. and published by the Edvard Grieg Museum — Troldhaugen. It was an excellent short intro for those — like me — who may have heard a number of Grieg’s compositions through the years but do not know much about the life, influences, and work of Norway’s most famous composer. The Hungarian composer Béla Bartók said that “Grieg was the first to cast off the yoke of Germany.” There is much packed into this short biography, but I was most fascinated by Grieg’s connections to, and love of, Norwegian folk music. That connection flowered in an especially creative period in the mid-1870s, when he lived in western Norway. The well-received work from this era has been seen as a group of highly personal, heartfelt compositions.

Enjoy reading!

More to come…

DJB

NOTE: To see which books I read in January, February, March, and April, click on the links. You can also read my Ten tips for reading five books a month online.

Image: My to-be-read pile from a couple of years ago…some of those books remain in the pile, which grows along the lines of Strega Nona’s pasta bowl.

The joys of returning to travel

Published by DJB

Preparing to return home after more than three weeks of professional and personal international travel, I am reminded first of our privilege to be able to move about the world so freely and second of how much we’ve missed these connections with new places, new friends, and new ideas during the pandemic.

There will be several more posts in the coming days and weeks before I exhaust what I have to say about the things we’ve seen and learned in our visits in Scotland, Norway, and France, but I’ll just end this post with a quote from Pico Iyer that I like to use in my talks.

We don’t travel …in order to move around – you’re traveling in order to be moved. And really what you’re seeing is not just the Grand Canyon or the Great Wall but some moods or intimations or places inside yourself that you never ordinarily see…

More to come…

DJB

Image of Arc de Triomphe by DJB

The City of Light

Published by DJB

One of the many names people use to describe Paris is the City of Light. According to the website Culture Trip, there are more than 296 illuminated sites in Paris, “if you count everything from hotels and churches, statues and fountains, national buildings and monuments, and out of 37 major bridges in Paris, an impressive 33 of them are illuminated to full glory each sunset.”

While many assume the name comes from recent illuminations, such as the Eiffel Tower, the name goes back to Louis XIV, the Sun King, and his attempts to make Paris a safer city through the addition of streetlights.

Whatever the origin, the city now comes to life every night. On our recent trip, we’ve taken to the streets a few nights to capture scenes of the City of Light.

Subway entrance near our Parisian apartment (DJB)

One of the city’s 33 illuminated bridges (ABB)

The first two evenings we were in Paris, the city was flooded with football (soccer) fans for the Championship League final between Liverpool and Real Madrid. An Irish Pub at the end of our block became one of many unofficial headquarters for the fans of Liverpool, and we could hear them singing and cheering late into the evening.

Liverpool fans invade Rue Saint Andre-des-Arts (DJB)

Candice rests in our Parisian home as day turns to night (DJB)

An illuminated clock from the old train station that now holds the Museum d’Orsay (DJB)

A tour boat full of revelers and sightseers along the Seine (CHB)

What’s a night life in Paris without the opera? Andrew chose Rossini’s The Barber of Seville for his adventure in the city, and we thoroughly enjoyed the delightful, slapstick of Count Almaviva, Rosina, Bertha, and Figaro.

Candice and Andrew at the Opéra National de Paris for Rossini’s Le Barbier de Seville (DJB)

The ultimate prize in any night tour of the City of Light is the illuminated Eiffel Tower. We walked along the river for some 45 minutes one evening, catching glimpses along the way until we turned the corner and caught the full view.

A magnificent memory.

More to come…

DJB

For additional posts in this series of photographs of Paris, click here for Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

Image of a Paris illumination by ABB.

You cannot take a bad picture in Paris (well, truth be told, actually Giverny): Part 3

Published by DJB

An early morning wakeup on Thursday (following a night at the opera…but that will come later), then rides on three trains including an hour on yet another wonderful European train system, and we found ourselves at impressionist painter Claude Monet’s gardens and home in Giverny.

Claire, Andrew, and Candice take in the French countryside outside Paris (DJB)

Claude Monet’s gardens at Giverny are like his paintings — brightly colored patches that are messy but balanced. Flowers were his brushstrokes, a bit untamed and slapdash, but part of a carefully composed design. Monet spent his last (and most creative) years cultivating his garden and his art at Giverny, the spiritual home of Impressionism (1883-1926).
Rick Steeves “Paris”

The flowers that greeted us upon our arrival at Monet’s gardens (DJB)

All four of us were mesmerized by the beauty of the gardens and landscapes. We took hundreds of pictures, many of which include other people because there were a great many visitors on group tours and school field trips during our day at the site. One could find isolated spots however, for moments of quiet reflection.

Enjoy this sampling, and — as always — the family photos are at the end of the post (but there are some good ones, if I do say so myself!)

The water garden is one of the most recognizable subjects in painting, and a visit shows why.

Andrew takes in the famous water garden boats (DJB)

Views through the gardens to see the pond (CCB)

Monet’s home is only mildly interesting, but there were features we all chose to capture, including the kitchen, dining room, and studio.

Dining room…for 8 children…at the Monet house (CCB)

View of the gardens from the house (CHB)

Finally, with so many luscious backdrops, the urge to take family photos in this setting is irresistible. Here’s a look at the Browns, set amidst Claude Monet’s beautiful gardens at Giverny.

Candice on the bridge at the water garden (DJB)

Candice and DJB in the gardens of Giverny (CHB)

More to come…

DJB

For other posts in the series on pictures of Paris, click here for Part 1, and click here for Part 2.

Image: Bees at work at Giverny by CHB

You cannot take a bad picture in Paris (Part 2: The Versailles edition)

Published by DJB

One day after reviewing a new book on wealth inequality, we visited Versailles…ground zero for the inequality that led to the French revolution! Ah well, c’est la vie! (And by the way, you have to scroll all the way to the end before you run into the obligatory family shot!)

Panorama of the main facade of Versailles (DJB)

We’ll capture our day at Versailles in this second post of the ongoing series You cannot take a bad picture in Paris. (Click here for Part 1.)

As you can see in the panorama, we choose wisely as to crowds (not insane, as was the case with the Louvre) and weather (picture perfect, pun intended.)

Like every other visitor, we were entranced with the Hall of Mirrors — the most famous room in Paris. But the crowds — seen in the picture below — weren’t bad. Compared to a 2016 visit to the Sistine Chapel, we felt practically alone in this magnificent venue!

Walking into the Hall of Mirrors, with hundreds of our new-found friends (DJB)

A focus on the chandeliers and ceiling of the Hall of Mirrors (DJB)

A nice view looking outside from inside the chateau…which makes for a nice segue to the gardens (CHB)

Of course, the gardens of Versailles are at least half the reason for visiting, and our cameras caught multiple views that we wanted to capture for our memory banks.

Claire and I were talking this morning about how we approach photography. She’s the artist, always looking for the angle to make the picture more interesting. I’m more the documentarian, looking to capture the scene in its totality. There’s no better example than our two versions of the same scene:

Here’s my panoramic view of the vista into eternity. BTW, I love the little child’s playful gesture in the lower left. (DJB)

And Claire’s take on the same scene (CHB)

One of more than 300 fountains still in existence at Versailles (DJB)

View across the garden fields to a temple (DJB)

We ended our day at Versailles at the Queen’s Hamlet, a remarkable landscape to find in the Parisian suburbs, to say the least!

Structure and lake at the Queen’s Hamlet (DJB)

Another house in the Queen’s Hamlet (DJB)

All in all, it was a lovely day. As we were trying to get a family selfie in the Hall of Mirrors near the end of the house tour, a very kind fellow tourist offered to take a shot for us. It turned out rather nicely, I would say.

Family portrait taken in the Hall of Mirrors by an anonymous and helpful fellow traveler who took pity on my attempts to get a group selfie.

As for more photographic reporting from our trip to Paris, I’m sure there will be, as I say, more to come…

DJB

Image: The gates to Versailles by DJB

We have nothing to lose but our illusions

Published by DJB

It wasn’t something I’d planned, but the juxtaposition of reading a book on the historical and current effects of wealth inequality while traveling through Glasgow, the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, the Fjords of Norway, and then Paris has provided an interesting backdrop for contemplating our current and future status as a nation.

The National Trust Tours portion of our trip was not of the ADC (*) variety by any stretch of the imagination. While we did have a visit to one castle and one cathedral, they were not the highlights of the wonders we saw. We were able to perceive, however, how three different countries and multiple cultures have addressed their own issues of inequality through the years.

The 9.9 Percent: The New Aristocracy That is Entrenching Inequality and Warping our Culture (2021) is a wide-ranging survey and urgent call to action by philosopher and historian Matthew Stewart. Most of us assume we are not “rich” because we are not billionaires, asserts Stewart. This allows us to fall into the 99% and scapegoat the Jeff Bezos, Elon Musks, and Peter Thiels of the world. (Note: Those three deserve a great deal of scorn, but that’s for another book.) Stewart reframes the issue, noting that the really wealthy make up 0.1% of the population. When you examine the top ten percent to find the people who control more than half of the country’s wealth, it is those other 9.9% — who look a great deal like many of us and our friends — who are doing so many things to entrench inequality in our system.

There’s a great little vignette in the book that is quite telling. Lizzie Magie, a feminist and part-time game designer, invented a board game she called The Landlord’s Game. One could play it by buying properties, creating monopolies and charging rents to others. But Magie included a second way of playing that was intended to illustrate the ideas of the progressive economist Henry George. “When players acquired a monopoly, they had to pay money into a common fund, so that individual success enriched everyone. The game ended when the poorest player doubled his or her original stake.”

Parker Brothers bought the game from Magie for a small sum of money and did not pay her royalties. Thus, they had a monopoly on the game that became known to millions as Monopoly. The company went on to earn millions of dollars from the game, a male engineer claimed credit for the feminist inventor’s idea, and the ugly capitalist form of the game replaced the pro-social variant.

Magie spent the end of her life working part-time in a government office. As one reviewer noted,

For any aspiring novelist trying to capture the layered hypocrisies and cruelties of American life, this historical episode is enough to inspire despair. It would be hard to invent a more perfect encapsulation of predatory corporate behavior, masculine arrogance, and cultural amnesia about the true sources of wealth and the urgent need for a system that distributes it more fairly.

Entrance into the 9.9% begins at about $1.2 million in assets and extends to those with about $20 million in assets, although Stewart notes that the figure will no doubt climb by the time the book is published. All of a sudden, we’re looking in the mirror, facing a necessary reassessment. And what does Stewart see that is causing such outrageous inequality in America today? We are increasingly dominated by monopolies (Google, anyone?); we totally misunderstand how wealth originates; we fight to reward those who become wealthy as a result of the work of others; we totally misunderstand our existing tax system; and we create fictions to support our inequality.

Stewart takes chapters to examine the behavior and beliefs of the 9.9 percent in a specific domain such as fitness, merit, housing, parenting, gender, education, real estate, race, and more. Many of them are stand-alone brilliant. Barely a page passed in this book where I didn’t underline something for further reflection, and often the entire two-page spread looks like my ink pen went crazy.

There are many suggestions and conclusions in this work which are worthy of mention…but that would make this review too long. Here’s one that will have to sit in for others:

Liberal democracy is misunderstood if it is represented, as it often is today, merely as a device for tabulating the opinions of a population. Liberal democracy does not in fact take its start from the assumption that human beings are largely self-sufficient rational actors in need of some minor assistance in maximizing their pre-existing preferences. On the contrary, its most basic assumptions are that humans left to their own devices are generally unreasonable.

The point of the separation of powers, the checks and balances, the inherently public character of deliberation and legislation, the election of representatives, the guaranteed rights, especially of expression, and all the other mechanisms of a functioning liberal democracy is to ensure as much as possible that the understanding on which public action takes place is accountable to reason. Properly conceived, liberal democracy is a truth machine. Its most fundamental premise is that every step in the direction of reason is also a step in the direction of justice (emphasis added).

As I mentioned, this trip provided an interesting backdrop for considering Stewart’s thesis. During the Norwegian portion of our visit, the local guides were quick to point out ways in which the country’s focus was on the common good. Yes, taxes were high, but the benefit was to a healthier, more productive, better educated, happier country.

Chandelier in Napoleon III’s apartment in the Louvre in Paris

View of one of the rooms in Napoleon III’s apartment in the Louvre

Stewart’s final chapter begins in 1785 with Thomas Jefferson in France, contemplating the playgrounds of the aristocracy. While doing so, he fell into conversation with a minimum wage peasant woman, and she told him of the brutal circumstances of her life. He came back to his apartment and wrote to his friend and political ally James Madison about the need for a progressive tax system in America — on property, on inheritance — to refrain the takeover by the oligarchs that he saw in France. Jefferson wasn’t the only founding father to advocate for what today is attacked as socialism. Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Adam Smith (the founding father of modern economics), and Thomas Paine all had similar proposals.

The sad fact of the matter is that every country in the history of the world that allows the rich to build up massive wealth and extreme inequality crashes and burns to various extents. Rome, England, France, and more come to mind. Stewart rightly worries that America is on the same path. And yet the answers are fairly clear and well known.

American history considered in its broadest sweep makes abundantly clear that collective action through a democratically elected government has been and must remain an indispensable tool in advancing the cause of equal justice. The idea that the market or civil society, left to their own devices, will organize a fair tax code, break up monopolies, ensure universal access to health and education is and always has been fatuous. It is usually the mantra of those who rely on the hidden powers of government to sustain their own privilege.

And those who rely on those hidden powers and false tales most often look like us: the 9.9 percent. To reach the place where our awareness is clear that our happiness depends on understanding our actual relations with other people and our place in nature, we only have to “lose our illusions.”

Highly recommended.

More to come…

DJB

*Another Damn Castle and/or Cathedral tour (take your pick)

Image of the Eileen Donan Caste in Isle of Skye, Scotland, by DJB

You cannot take a bad picture in Paris (Part 1)

Published by DJB

It took less than an hour in the beautiful City of Light for Claire — our official family photographer — to observe that “you cannot take a bad picture in Paris.” Two days in, I fully agree.

Here are a range of photos, with little or no description and in no particular order, from our first few days in the city where the family has gathered to celebrate a birthday and an anniversary. As I’m fond of saying, more to come.