A Must-See in Pushkin, AKA Tsarskoye Tselo To the list of places I don’t know I need to see when I head to Russia is Pushkin, also known as Tsarskoye Tselo (‘czar’s village,’ I am told). Not far from St. Petersburg, it is home to the Catherine Palace (named for Catherine I of Russia, not…
Tag: Catherine the Great
Visit Versailles via ‘Farewell, My Queen’
Does anyone understand Marie Antoinette? How someone, anyone, the queen of France could be so entirely oblivious about what was going on all around her entirely befuddles me. Every time I make excuses for her—she was too young for her role, her husband was supposed to be in charge—I can’t help but think of another…
The Oblivious Queens of Versailles
Visiting Versailles, the palace of French kings, and the Conciergerie, the prison where Queen Marie Antoinette spent her last days, one can’t help but wonder, How could it possibly have ended like this? Elements of the story do make sense: the queen seemed largely unschooled, her spouse weak, her home far removed from any squalor….
Standing in the Tracks of Chariots and on the Paths of Heroes
For me, there’s no greater experiential learning than walking back through time via travel. The chariot tracks in the streets of Pompeii made life in the first century that much more real to me. Seeing row after row of crosses in the Normandy American Cemetery in France made the sacrifices of those soldiers that much…