Category Archives: Architecture

It was still cool and dim when we loaded our suitcases onto a small bus: the pre-dawn light was too low for me to get much of an impression of Casablanca, that fabled North African city that lends its name to gin-joints, stories, and popular imagination. I had arrived in the city early-evening the day […]

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It is just breathtakingly beautiful! I couldn’t believe I had finally made it – made it to Santorini, the southernmost island in the Cyclades.  Santorini is the largest part of a circular archipelago surrounding the Santorini caldera in the South Aegean Sea, southeast of mainland Greece. This was the site of the Minoan eruption about […]

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The American novelist, short story writer, and essayist, Henry Valentine Miller (1891-1980) was enamoured of Greece. I must say: I was too. I didn’t travel in the same style as Miller: he was there for nine months – originally at the invitation of author Lawrence Durrell – and spent his time in the company of […]

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I love how European cities have protected their historic centres. And, I love how one doesn’t have to forgo any modern creature comforts to enjoy these old quarters! Cahors, near Toulouse in the Occitan Region of Southern France, features an old-town centre of half-timbered houses, Renaissance windows, and narrow alleyways. I had never heard of […]

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The charming medieval town of Cahors in the Occitan Region of Southern France was full of delightful surprises. The centrepiece of the town is the beautiful St. Étienne Cathedral, a refuge on the famous Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage, and – along with the Valentré Bridge (see: A Pilgrim Pathway and a Medieval Bridge) – a […]

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