The Scriffiths

When I was 15 years old I participated in a short school exchange program to France during my summer school holidays. I went to school for a month in Lyon, went on a field excursion to the United Nations in Geneva, and spent a week in Paris with other participants in the program. It snowed on Christmas Eve night as I drove with my host family to their family celebration. I vividly remember seeing the Eiffel Tower for the first time, and eating an ice-cream cone while walking the streets of Paris on a cold mid-winter evening. »

We spent the weekend in Luxembourg City - the small capital of the small country surrounded by France, Belgium and Germany. We left on a Friday afternoon from Paris Gare de L’Est and arrived by train in the city less than three hours later. Going to Luxembourg occurred on a whim and we had no expectations. It seemed like a nice weekend getaway - a small city not far from Paris - and the chance to visit an entirely new country for the weekend. »

Provençal France is nothing short of magical. By some miracle, there still remain small, medieval villages built entirely from stone, perched on top of hills with sweeping views of vineyards and lavender fields, that have not succumbed to the throngs of tourism. Herbs and spices at the market in Cucuron Accessibility is difficult. The region is accessed by winding, narrow country lanes. Between fields of lavender, forests of oak and pine, cherry orchards and meadows of wildflowers, small villages lay forgotten in time. »

Bruges was one of the last places on my (extended) bucket list.* The little town in Belgium has lingered on the list for many years, floating around the middle, high enough to remain one of the few cities left on the list, but not quite high enough to go out of the way for it. But such is the ease and compactness of travel in Europe that we squeezed a visit in for a weekend trip while we were staying in Amsterdam. »

Antarctica is truly the continent of superlatives. It is the coldest, driest, windiest, highest place on earth. It is a place of unimaginable beauty. During one half of the year, in the polar winter, it is a frigid landscape submerged in total darkness where nothing but the most extreme and hidden forms of life remain. But then, during the other half of the year, summer arrives, and with it, light. Through this oscillation between the seasons, a dynamic process of freezing and thawing transforms the continent and its surrounding seas. »