Travel
- Paris, the Novel, by Edward Rutherford, historical fiction
- Seven Ages of Paris, by Alistair Horne, history - I listened to this sweeping history of Paris and enjoyed it very much. It’s 20 hours and 49 minutes long and worth every minute. The narration by Derek Perkins is superb.
- In Montmartre, by Sue Roe about the art scene
- In Montparnasse, by Sue Roe about the art scene
- The Paris Bookseller, by Kerri MaherEve, about the writing scene in Paris
- My Life in France, by Julia Child with Alex Prudhomme
- A Moveable Feast, by Ernest Hemingway
- Dawn of the Belle Epoque - The Paris of Monet, Zola, Bernhardt, Eiffel, Debussy, Clemenceau, and Their Friends by Mary McAuliffe
- Paris, City of Dreams - Napoleon III, Baron Haussmann, and the Creation of Paris by Mary McAuliffe
- Twilight of the Belle Epoque - The Paris of Picasso, Stravinsky, Proust, Renault, Marie Curie, Gertrude Stein, and Their Friends Through the Great War by Mary McAuliffe
- Washington Monument
- Library of Congress
- National Gallery of Art
- National Museum of Natural History, especially the Hope Diamond
- Constitution Gardens
- National Portrait Gallery
- Eisenhower Memorial
- Vietnam Veterans Memorial
- U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum
- Thomas Jefferson Memorial - Dedicated by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on April 13, 1943, the Thomas Jefferson Memorial stands in a straight line with the White House. Architect John Russell Pope, influenced by Jefferson’s taste in classical architecture, echoed the style seen in Jefferson’s two most famous buildings - Monticello and the University of Virginia Rotunda.
- American Red Cross National Headquarters
- The First Public Statue of Abraham Lincoln
- U.S. National Arboretum
- Capital Jewish Museum
- Smithsonian National Postal Museum
- Art on Call
- Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library
- International Spy Museum
- Mount Vernon
- Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center - Displays thousands of aviation and space artifacts, including the Space Shuttle Discovery, a Blackbird SR-71, and a Concorde, in two large hangars near Dulles Airport.
- National Building Museum
- Self-Guided JFK Walking Tour in Georgetown
- Peabody Room, Georgetown Public Library
- Tudor Place, Georgetown
- Decatur House
- Planet Word
- American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center
- Destination DC
- Have Camera Will Travel
- Travel Guide to Washington by Vito L. Tanzi, a talented local photographer
- Vintage Images of Washington
- The White House Historical Association
- Guides to Georgetown
- Amateur Traveler Podcast - Episode about Washington
- Trip Hacks DC Podcast
- Everything You Think You Know About the (Nonexistent) Georgetown Metro Stop Is Wrong
- National Park Service Calendar of Events - District of Columbia
- Washington Post Going Out Guide
- Washington, DC Events
- Washingtonian Events Calendar
- Axios D.C. - Things to Do
- Washington Open (Summer Tennis Tournament)
- Washington Photo Safari
- Joe Yablonsky - A local photographer who operates photo tours and classes.
- Art with Tosca - Washington Art Tours
- Off the Mall Walking Tours - “Get Off the Mall to explore the deep history of the Nation’s Capital”
- DC Design Tours - Historical and Architectural Guided Tours of Washington DC
- Trip Hacks DC - Private and public tours
- StreetMeet DC - Meetups for photographers
Rick Steves explains to Walter Isaacson why he believes travel is a vital force for peace. Watch on YouTube
A new Stuttgart-based travel blog:
U.S. Ambassador’s Residence, Paris
A video tour of U.S. Ambassador’s residence in Paris, known as the Hôtel de Pontalba.
C'est la grève - Guide to Strikes in France
I just learned that there is a site for keeping track of strikes in France. I added it to my guide for visiting Paris. The site lists strikes throughout France and is only in French but is easy to translate within your web browser.
Visiting Paris
I suggest places to visit in Paris and resources for learning about the city of light here. This list is updated as I learn more about Paris.
Suggestions are weloome.
Dorothea Lange at the National Gallery of Art, Washington
During her long, prolific, and groundbreaking career, the American photographer Dorothea Lange made some of the most iconic portraits of the 20th century. _Dorothea Lange: Seeing People _reframes Lange’s work through the lens of portraiture, highlighting her unique ability to discover and reveal the character and resilience of those she photographed.
Featuring some 100 photographs, the exhibition addresses her innovative approaches to picturing people, emphasizing her work on social issues including economic disparity, migration, poverty, and racism.
November 5, 2023 – March 31, 2024 - West Building, Ground Floor, National Gallery of Art
Star Power: Photographs from Hollywood’s Golden Age by George Hurrell at the National Portrait Gallery - March 1, 2024 - January 5, 2025
Read the Fine Print Before Buying Travel Insurance
If you buy travel insurance for a group tour make sure the payment of any claim from the insurer goes to you and not the tour company. Christopher Elliot explains that with some travel companies (e.g., Overseas Adventure Travel), “when you buy travel insurance with your trip, the insurance payment goes to the company, which then pays you.” And even then the tour company may be slow in paying the money or may never pay. If you choose to buy travel insurance, it’s better to buy it from the insurance company rather than the tour operator. That way if the insurer pays a claim they will pay it to you and not the tour company.
What’s more, the insurance company will have a claims procedure that will take time and effort. Without proper documentation, your claim may be denied. Be prepared to fill out forms and wait.
In addition, I suggest you consider buying cancel for any reason coverage, especially in current times. There may be political unrest, the risk of illness or other reasons that make you uncomfortable with the trip that won’t be covered by travel insurance. For an additional premium you can get cancel for any reason coverage which generally will pay 75% of what you paid for the trip. You will still lose money but a lot less than the full amount of the trip.
If you file a claim it may take the insurer a long time even to review it. You can expect to receive emails like this:
Thank You For Your Patience!
We are checking in to let you know we received your documents and we are still working to complete your claim. We sincerely apologize that our review process is taking longer than usual. We’ll provide you an update when your claim has been reviewed. You can check the status of your claim by logging into your profile or by visiting the link below.
If you have received more than one of these letters from us, please disregard the others.
On the other hand, if you travel a lot you may be willing to accept the risk of losing everything you paid the tour operator. Just don’t count on the tour operator to care about your level of fear or discomfort.
Buyer beware.
See also, Should Overseas Adventure Travel cover my airfare for a canceled pretrip excursion?
Books About Paris
Gregg Rutter, a photographer from Minnesota, recommends these books about Paris on episode 478 of the Join Us in France podcast:
Gregg later recommended the following books:
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress in Washington, DC is the largest library in the world, with millions of books, films and video, audio recordings, photographs, newspapers, maps and manuscripts in its collections. The Library is the main research arm of the U.S. Congress and the home of the U.S. Copyright Office.
Congress moved to Washington, D.C. in 1800 after holding sessions for eleven years in temporary national capitals in New York City and Philadelphia. Also in 1800, as part of an act of Congress providing for the removal of the new national government from Philadelphia to Washington, President John Adams approved an act of Congress providing $5,000 for books for the use of Congress—the beginning of the Library of Congress.
However, in 1814, the British burned Washington, destroying the Capitol and the small congressional library in its north wing. Former President Thomas Jefferson offered to sell his comprehensive personal library of 6,487 books to rebuild the Library of Congress. Congress accepted his offer in 1815. Jefferson’s concept of universality is the rationale for the comprehensive collecting policies of today’s Library of Congress.
The Library of Congress is among Washington’s top attractions. Every Library of Congress visitor must reserve timed-entry pass. Passes are available here. It’s worth planning ahead as slots fill up.
Sources: Library of Congress, Wikipedia
Report: Former Google CEO Bought Former Jackie Kennedy House in Georgetown
Former Google CEO ERIC SCHMIDT and his wife, WENDY, are the anonymous buyers of the historic Georgetown mansion that JACQUELINE KENNEDY ONASSIS used to own and that sold at auction for $15 million in November, a Georgetown neighbor familiar with the purchase told Daniel Lippman. The N Street house is formally called the “NEWTON D. BAKER House” after a former secretary of War and also known as the “Jacqueline Kennedy House” since she lived there for a year after JOHN F. KENNEDY was killed (she paid around $175,000).
Podcast: ‘Travel with Rick Steves’
Travel with Rick Steves is a weekly one hour podcast with guest experts and callers about travel, cultures and people. This, in my opinion, is the best travel podcast.
Steves is well-traveled, bright, articulate, positive and most of all curious to learn about the world and the people who inhabit it. Although Steves’s guidebooks and organized tours focus on Europe, the podcast covers the world.
Guests include authors and professional guides Steves uses for his tours and guidebooks. The information he provides is timely and accurate. For example, Steves has interviewed great authors such as Paul Theroux and David McCullough (1933-2022).
After listening to the interview of David McCullough, I was really charged up to get out and explore the world, in part because McCullough started his life and explorations in my hometown, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. McCullough has written extensively about the United States starting near home with the The Johnstown Flood. He was also a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. That’s the caliber of guest Steves can corral. And he does it once a week.
Even Smart People Get Scammed
I was tricked by a phone-phisher pretending to be from my bank, and he convinced me to hand over my credit-card number, then did $8,000+ worth of fraud with it before I figured out what happened. And then he tried to do it again, a week later!
You can’t be too careful. I think it’s great that at least some folks share what happened to them. It serves as a warning to us all.
See also:
Visiting Washington, DC
Places to Visit
Learning About Washington
Places to Stay
Four Seasons: Best Hotel in Washington
Events and Activities
Last updated: February 13, 2024
Be Careful if You Travel with Expensive Stuff
If you travel with expensive equipment, please be extra careful. This photographer — Manny Ortiz — was the victim of camera theft ($16,000) on a train in Italy. I am glad Manny shared his story.
Paris: Walking Along the Seine
I have loved Paris for more than 40 years. About seven years ago, I stumbled across Paris, Paris: Journey into the City of Light. The author, David Downie, is an American who has lived in Paris since 1986. He loves Paris deeply and knows it far better than I do.
Downie likes to walk. His book is divided into “Paris People”, “Paris Places” and “Paris Phenomena.” It is the places that interested me the most. For example, Downie describes a long walk along the Seine that I decided to replicate. It transformed my view of Paris because I learned how much of the city revolves around the river. I also learned just how small the city is geographically and how it seems that almost every centimeter of the city has been lovingly cultivated.
The walk begins at France’s gigantic national library — Bibliothèque nationale de France. This is the largest library I have ever seen; it houses more than 15 million books and journals. It is located near the Métro station Bibliothèque François Mitterrand right along the Seine. But not much else is nearby. The location feels desolate, modern and suburban, although the library remains within Paris’s Périphérique or beltway.
However, it was unclear to me from reading the book where the walk ended so I emailed the author who cheerfully responded with the details and even suggested a nice, reasonably priced restaurant for lunch right along the walk. The restaurant is La Fregate and is at the only spot on the walk where you have to go up to the sidewalk from the river.
I watched the city transform from stark, modern suburbs and eventually came upon Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower and on to its terminus at the Pont Mirabeau. I will never forget Le Pont Mirabeau after reading Guillaume Apollinaire’s poem in high school breathing life and love into the bridge. Seeing Le Pont Mirabeau at the end of this day-long walk was special.
The entire walk was about 10 km or 6.2 miles. The transformations within that short distance speak volumes about Paris.
At Downie’s suggestion, I also visited Buttes-Chaumont park which is even more impressive than Mr. Downie describes. He knows Place des Voges like the back of his hand so that chapter is exceptional.
On top of the wonderful details that make Paris come to life, Downie’s prose shows a love and mastery of the English language that I appreciate. This gem of a book will teach you so much about Paris and make you want to return again and again or just to go to Paris and remain as Downie has.
You can see some photographs of Paris I’ve made over the years here.