Author: menata9@gmail.com

Carcassonne looks like it was cut out of an animator’s scrapbook of fantastic castles. But this is the real thing.

If you don’t like churches, don’t go to Venice. There must be a thousand, from tiny little niche tabernacles to huge crumbling domed cathedrals.

In the early hours of a summer morning I visited the Cistercian Abbey of Sénanque in Provence near the crumbling hill town of Gordes. It was completely silent, with not a soul about.

Wat Benchamabophit gleams white and gold in the late morning sun, two huge singhas (lions) guarding the entrance to the Bot (ordination hall).