carnival time

Take some colorful costumes, feathers, masks and a band. Mix it with a mob of people and throw some herring from the balcony of the city hall for good measure. What do you get? Carnival in Dunkerque, France. Happy Mardi Gras!

snow dusting

paris meanderings

A few random photos from an impromptu trip to Paris the last couple days.

the moon never sleeps

The moon always seems to be up at odd hours in France... here it is, spotted at 8:30 in the morning today.

christmas in austria

I had the pleasure to spend a week celebrating the holidays in Austria with old friends and new. They even light the candles on their Christmas trees like my great-grandparents did! Spent Christmas day at a natural hot spring in the mountains... good way to balance out all of the Austrian cuisine!

scenes from paris

en route to amsterdam

fairytale land

Bruges, Belgium, is like stepping into a fairytale land; complete with candy cane lamp posts and singing elves and iced gingerbread pavement. Okay, not really, but it certainly looks like one!

out and about

Scenes about town from a recent stroll.

looking up

dancing in pas de calais

I attended a regional dance event in November and got back into newspaper shooter mode...

secret caves

Did you know that during World War I, over 25,000 British soldiers hid underground in a labyrinth of secret caves under the city of Arras, France?

About 60 feet underground, 25,000 Allied soldiers hid for eight days before the Battle of Arras in 1917. Originally the caves were medieval chalk quarries. There are about 12 miles of tunnels, and with these tunnels, soldiers were able to advance on the Germans.

And back above ground again...