Joe Benning Photography

Travel & Photo Blog

  •   Reston, VA

In The Dordogne Valley

Along with Gerry Ponto we went took a train ride out to Sarlat in the French countryside for a weekend visit. Sarlat, in the Dordogne valley, has a reputation for being a stunningly beautiful village. It is undoubtedly that, and much more. Sarlat is surrounded by other beautiful and picturesque villages, complete with medieval castles […]

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In the ‘Hood

The last few days saw us taking several walks around the neighborhood where we are staying in Bordeaux. We also took a trip up to the Médoc Region where we—you guessed it—did a little more wine tasting. First: the ‘hood. We are staying at the Adagio Hotel while we are in Bordeaux. It’s kind of an […]

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Très, Très, Occupe

We have been very, very, awfully busy. Just this last weekend we visited the French section of the Basque Country. It is French enough, and Paris exercises sovereignty over it,  but apparently the people also consider themselves to be Basque which comes complete with its own language. Not an unusual situation in the world when […]

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More Adventures in Bordeaux

We continued our adventure in Bordeaux with a photo walk with a photographer around a few parts of town. On our walk we went to the public garden—a botanic garden that is open to the public. Both the public garden and nearby surrounding areas have Roman ruins that have been preserved through the centuries.  A […]

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Busy in Bordeaux

We have been awfully busy lately. Among other things, we have been looking at the architecture of the city, which is pretty incredible and we still have a lot to see. Below, for instance is a iPhone panoramic photo taken inside one of the churches in St Emilion in the Bordeaux region of France. In […]

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Welcome to Bordeaux!

Well, we made it. We made it in spite of the fact that on our scheduled day of departure Air France sent us an e-mail a little before 6:00 AM informing us that our flights were cancelled. Just like that. Not even an explanation—even in corporate speak—as to why. Based on news reports we surmised […]

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A Belated Welcome to 2024

January was a reasonably quiet month, although we did attend several local events. Among other things there was a conference at the CATO Institute and by Northern Virginia standards, quite a bit of snow. We also went to the Capital Arena in the District to watch the Washington Capitals face-off against the NY Rangers. The […]

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Walking in Memphis

“Put on my blue suede shoesAnd I boarded the planeTouched down in the land of the Delta BluesIn the middle of the pouring rain” —Marc Cohen, Walking in Memphis Toward the end of our Mississippi River cruise we stopped in Clarksdale, Mississippi while on our way to Memphis, Tennessee. While in Clarksdale, we saw one […]

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Vicksburg, Mississippi

Toward the end of our river cruise, we went ashore on an excursion with a tour group in Vicksburg, Mississippi. During the Civil War, Vicksburg was hotly contested because of its immense strategic value. During the war, the city was subjected to a 47-day siege by Ulysses S Grant. The siege ultimately proved to be […]

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