Wine With Wanda

Saint-Tropez Time Out

Saint-Tropez, France (August 2013)

As construction crews and traffic jams create cacophony outside my Manhattan window, my thoughts slip back to Saint-Tropez. Not the over-the-top scene of mega-yachts, flashy cars, and unabashed garishness, but the quiet moments that I captured as we were leaving town. Serene at sunset, this is the Saint-Tropez that stays with me.

Travel Inspiration: Condé Nast Traveler Photographs -25th Anniversary Collection

"One's destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things."
Henry Miller


Perhaps the next best thing to going on a great trip is being immersed in gorgeous images of faraway places. Get some grand inspiration for your next journey with the latest entry in Assouline’s Condé Nast Traveler series. This 250-page  retrospective with over 110 illustrations celebrates the magazine's 25th anniversary with stunning images by renowned photographers such as Helmut Newton, David LaChapelle, and Brigitte Lacombe. It also includes essays from notable authors like Paul Theroux, plus maps and annotations from the magazine's editors and the photographers themselves. Go ahead and spark your wanderlust with striking works of architecture, lions and elephants, big skies, and compelling portraiture.

Condé Nast Traveler Photographs: 25th Anniversary Collection ($95) is available for purchase at ASSOULINE boutiques worldwide and online.

 

The Light of Venice

I recently crossed over into the world of E-books and while enthralled, I remain deeply in love with old-fashioned books. Nothing can compare to actually holding a book, feeling the weight of it in your hands, and the smell and texture of the paper. My E-reader is wonderfully convenient and clever but some books demand the timeless elegance of ink on paper - The Light of Venice is such a book.

Hardcover with 132 pages and over 60 illustrations, The Light of Venice features the black & white photographs of Jean-Michel Bert. "I always try to give my photographs a feeling of timelessness…. I never know the photograph I’m going to make, the photograph comes to me, it finds me," said Berts.
The Light of Venice features the architecture, bridges, and canals of La Serenissima in the ethereal light of dawn. Published by Assouline, The Light of Venice is $65 and available for pre-order. This is the 5th book in the The Light of series and the other featured cities are New York, London, Istanbul, and Tokyo.


Images courtesy of Assouline.

More than Words: Gare du Nord, Paris

Gare du Nord, Paris (France)

Don't underestimate the power of a picture. Images can stir the emotions and transport us to another time and place. My friend, Leslie J.Yerman, is a New York City based photographer who has had a lifelong love affair with capturing people and places. I adore Leslie's beautiful black and white image of Paris's famous Gare du Nord train station - it perfectly evokes the grandeur of the station and that ineffable feeling of waiting to begin a journey. I feel like the train could pull into the station at any moment!

Visit Leslie's website to view and purchase more of her stunning images.

A Thousand Words: Images of Cancun

A luxury resort, a traditional market, nature & wildlife, and wonderful people - all of these images are included in this short & sweet 93 second slide show of my trip to Cancun and stay at the Cancun Caribe Park Royal Grand all-inclusive resort.

Enough words, I'll let the pictures (set to the beautiful voice of Luis Miguel) tell the story!

Picture This: Prince Charles Boogies in Brazil

Manaus, Brazil Photo: Chris Jackson/Getty Images Mar 14, 2009

Take a Virtual Getaway: Life.com Opens Up a World of Amazing Photos

When I was a little girl, I just loved getting lost in the amazing photos in Life Magazine. In 2007, the print magazine went out of business for the third time in 70 years but the new Life.com website makes it possible to reunite with some of your favorite photos and discover new ones. "Your world in pictures" is the very appropriate tagline for this online treasure chest of millions of photos that can be browsed for FREE!

Life.com is a partnership with Getty Images and more than 3,000 new photos are added everyday. The site is divided into five sections; news, celebrity, travel, animals and sports. You can also search for your favorite pictures. I typed "Barcelona" into the search box and the site retrieved an impressive 16,394 results. The site also features collections of photos and in the travel section you can peruse Chile: Naturally Beautiful, World's Most Expensive Cities, Charles and Camilla's South America and many others.

You can share your favorite pictures with your friends on Facebook, MySpace and other social networking sites. Some images are also available for purchase.

So if you are sitting at your desk and daydreaming about taking a vacation, take a virtual getaway with the photos at Life.com.