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Travel

The author was recruited very temporarily by this traveling team of cyclists from Corsica when he arrived at Col du Soulor (1,474 meters/4,724 feet).

Where Lance Remains the King

Among the peaks, cirques and summits of the French Pyrenees, the greeting call to an American on a bike may always be “Armstrong!”

The Druid Arch in Canyonlands National Park

Travelers’ Tales in Utah’s Canyonlands

The trail is rough and hard to follow, marked chiefly by cairns; water is intermittent; and if something bad happens help is not at hand

The table is set with a heaping salad of beets, soft-boiled eggs, orange and avocado. Dressed with a zesty walnut oil vinaigrette, this dish goes exceptionally well with an anonymous red Gascogne blend from a wine shop bulk barrel.

Sleep Like a Pauper, Eat Like a King

Between grocery stores, wine shops, artisan bakeries and farm stands, I regain each calorie I burn in style and taste

The author, on tour in the Sauternes region of Bordeaux, loved the gold-hued sweet wine of the area but filled his bottle with local bulk red.

Tasting France’s Finest Wines

Sauternes is a village near Bordeaux that would have been cow town if dumb luck, microclimatology and royal wineries had not showered the region in fortune

The author points directly at the hole in a rock wall in Groléjac where he left two cans of strong beer. Come get them.

Free Beer in the Dordogne Valley: Come and Find It!

These beers should last for several hot summers and cold winters. Where exactly are they hidden? Here are the directions

For the traveler to India: film and literary preparation

The Great Books and Movies to Read and Watch Before Visiting India

A list of some of the best books and films about the subcontinent to take in before you go

At 100 Euros for 100 grams, these French black truffles had better not be from China.

Truffle Trouble in Europe: The Invader Without Flavor

If it looks like a black truffle, and if it cost you $1,500 a pound like a black truffle—-it may actually be a worthless Chinese truffle

The Dordogne River flows through some of the finest country of southern France. Truffles, cep mushrooms and wild pigs occur in the woods, while huge catfish and pike lurk in the slow eddies of the river.

Off the Road in the South of France

Ernest Hemingway popularized the cosmopolitan lifestyle of Paris, but he missed out every day he wasn’t walking through the forested hills of Périgord

Nicole Kidman and Clive Owen are the stars of HBO's fictionalization of the relationship between Martha Gellhorn and Ernest Hemingway.

Danger and Romance from HBO’s “Hemingway & Gellhorn”

A new made-for-television movie airing May 28 recounts the stormy love affair between the writer and the war correspondent

The deathstalker scorpion, a Middle East native shown here in captivity, kills several people each year and occasionally hammers its stinger into the hands of hobbyist collectors.

The Nastiest Critters Lurking Outside Your Tent

The bite of a Goliath bird-eater is hardly worse than a bee sting—-but it is among the nastiest things that could skitter across your face in the Amazon

These cyclists are enjoying another day on the trail in the Crocodile Trophy, in northeastern Australia, considered one of the most punishing bicycle races in the world.

Grueling Travel through Beautiful Places: the Madness of Extreme Races

The Crocodile Trophy mountain biking race is off-road, meaning gravel, rocks, ruts, puddles, dust and lots of crashing

A freakishly cold winter coated Rome's Colosseum in snow

The Snows of…Tenerife?

The white stuff can fall at any time and almost anywhere, from the streets of Rome to the subtropical Canary Islands

The Ginger Ninjas on the move in Guadalajara, Mexico. Where buses and airplanes would provide the horsepower for other touring bands, the Ginger Ninjas go by bicycle.

Rock, Pedal and Roll: Band Tours the World by Bicycle

“I believe the bicycle is one of the best, if not the coolest, machines ever invented,” says the frontman of the Ginger Ninjas

The Hawaiian islands, from left to right, Niihau, Kauai, Oahu, Molokai, Lanai, Kahoolawe, Maui and the Big Island.

Paul Theroux’s Quest to Define Hawaii

For this renowned travel writer, no place has proved harder to decipher than his home for the past 22 years

Poet Mark Strand

There is No Wind in Oslo by Mark Strand

Read the new poem by the American poet and professor

None

Going Places

Travel pushes us. Home pulls

U2 was here—and so were thousands of fans who managed to find the remote Mojave Desert location of the very Joshua tree depicted in the photo series accompanying U2's 1987 album. The tree has died and now lies in brittle bits and pieces.

From the Joshua Tree to The Slaughtered Lamb: Destinations of Story and Song

Should you go to Cephalonia, bring a copy of the Odyssey—perhaps the truest guidebook to this Greek island

A view from the train on the way to Tibet

All Aboard the Beijing-Lhasa Express

The writer casts aside concerns about comfort and political correctness to take the rail trip of a lifetime

King Juan Carlos, at right, stands with his guide from Rann Safaris as his dead Botswanan elephant lies propped against a tree.

World Wildlife Hunt

It takes $6,000 to shoot a leopard in Botswana. For $1,200, you can shoot a crocodile. Short on cash? There’s always baboons, which go for $200 a pop

Gig Harbor was named one of the 20 best small towns in America

Long Live America’s Small Towns

The author of our May article about the country’s best small towns was pleased to find that lots of small towns are thriving

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