The Palace of Versailles To say that the Palace of Versailles was the reason that the Ancien Regime of France fell is, to be sure, a total oversimplification of complex social and economic factors that were in play in late-1700’s France. To walk these halls today, however, it takes little […]
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Champagne on the Seine: A Booze Cruise with Views
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To the Kyrgyzstan Military Forces: Happy 22nd Anniversary!
Kyrgyzstan Military Forces 22nd Anniversary It isn’t every day I happen across a bunch of APCs and Mortars just hanging out in the middle of town. Given that it isn’t Victory Day or Defenders of the Fatherland Day and there doesn’t seem to be a revolution on, what could the occasion […]
Monet’s Garden: Biking to Giverny
Monet’s Garden: Biking to Giverny Much like the story of Monet himself, the story of a trip to Giverny starts most properly in Paris’ Gare Saint-Lazare. Looking very much the same today as it did when Monet lived just nearby in the late 1870’s, to wait for the train to […]
Buzkashi and Kokpar – The Central Asian Horse Game
Buzkashi and Kokpar – A Traditional Central Asian Horse Game “Central Asian Dead Goat Polo” For many foreigners I think the game of Buzkashi is THE stereotypical ‘Central Asia’ image. As far back as Rambo III’s premiere in 1988, where Sly Stallone joins in a game of Buzkashi deep in […]
Le Paradis Latin: A Paris Cabaret.
Le Paradis Latin: A Paris Cabaret Walking past in the middle of the day, you might never notice this switched-off sign or neon-less exterior tucked away on 28 Rue de Cardinal Lemoine on an unobtrusive street just near Paris’ student district. Return at night, though, and it beckons like a […]