Today I pick us up at the famous Arc de Triomphe. This monument marks the center of the Place de l’Étoile (or star square) where twelve avenues converge. I access the monument via an underpass and once above ground, I finally see how huge it is:  The friezes and sculptures found at the base of the Arc commemorate peace, resistance, …
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Happy Holidays!
 Two recurring themes in my travel photography are local children and CHANEL boutiques that I run across in foreign countries. Hey, I did say this is supposed to be about travel and fashion! Sometimes if I’m lucky, I manage to capture both themes in one shot as in the photograph above, taken in Tokyo. This is my first Christmas Eve blog and …
First Date
 After walking around the city, it’s easy to see that Paris has a wealth of phallic symbols, such as the Eiffel Tower, the Obelisk at the Place de la Concorde, etc…    Joke if you must also about France’s Napoleon complex, but whatever shortcomings we may think they have, I believe the Parisians have some serious bragging rights: look …
A Vietnamese-American in Paris
 I’ve not lived in Paris but have spent enough time there for each subsequent visit to trigger a sense of deja vu. The nice thing about visiting Paris is that it seems to take on a different hue each season, so even if you walk through the same neighborhood every single time it still feels like a new discovery, …
A Tale of Two Palaces
Note: click on any of the pictures in my blog to enlarge it. If you think about it, every time you put a bunch of people together, a leader emerges. I bet even in the days when man first started walking upright there was a designated cave captain. So whether you assume the top dog position by force or by birthright, …