Show me a place on Earth where people would not have heard of the United States of America or would not have felt its influence. For good or bad, America is a such a strong superpower that only few countries dare to oppose politically, economically and militarily. Millions of people across the globe have been raised on American music and movies, and well over half of the world's population use technologies originating from the US on a daily basis. But America hasn't always been like that. In fact, it was very different from what it is today before Columbus officially "opened" it in 1492. Luckily, there are still some places in the US that can give us a glimpse of what it looked like in the old days. One of them is Taos Pueblo, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, located in northern New Mexico. 

We saw four out of five planned on our day trip from Paris. The reason we didn't see the firth one is because the forth one with its garden and adjacent forest turned out to be so beautiful and serene, we didn't want to leave and stayed until the sunset. The valley, nestled at the Loire River and its tributaries, offers over 80 castles (châteaux in French), 42 of them make up the UNESCO World Heritage Site. When you'll be planning a similar trip to the valley, I bet your biggest challenge will be which ones you pick to see.

Among all the things I like about the United States, their national parks is my favourite one. I always enjoy visiting them no matter the season and the weather. Since the first national park was created in 1872, the goal has always been to provide recreational opportunities with the conservation coming after. As a result, most of the America's national parks are very accessible that often draws big crowds, especially at those parks near major highways and cities. It obviously seems appealing to me that tourism brings more profit to some areas than traditional mining of natural resources, but I believe there should be a better way to control crowds since most visitors to the national parks come see the nature, not other people. So I was really glad that Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado, that I visited this past December, was still a hidden gem with fewer visitors come comparing to other "big boys" in the Southwest such as Grand Canyon, Zion and Arches.

I really enjoyed getting lost in Alfama, the oldest and the poorest neighbourhood in Lisbon. It resembled a gigantic maze with all its crooked backstreets, steep stairways, and tiny passages that make it difficult for two persons not to bump into each other. Over the centuries, Alfama grew organically or, I should say, chaotically with no particular structure and order. Maybe that's why it's the most authentic and beloved by some many people part of Lisbon?

Barbecue and a public library that looks like a giant bookshelf were the two things that drew me to Kansas City. Literarily located in the middle of nowhere the United States, Kansas City with its pretty bridges, old brick buildings and lovely fountains were such a relief to my eyes after seeing countless corn fields and farmyards for most of that day. Driving in prairies has its own charm, but may quickly become boring if you're more up for striking scenery rather than calming serenity of grass fields.

Normandy is not only for history buffs and art junkies. Those who admire nature will find some of the most beautiful places in the whole France located on the coast of Normandy. Yes, I'm talking about those stunning white chalk cliffs and natural arches of Etretat and endless waters of the English Channel.

Medieval French Town Honfleur entices you from the first glimpse. My favourite eye-catchers included narrow cobbled streets, manicured houses of Old Bassin harbour that squeeze one another and old mossy walls of the church of Saint-Etienne. But only after I left Honfleur did I learn that one of the greatest figures in the Canadian history and "The Father of New France", Samuel de Champlain set sails to Canada from Honfleur to found Quebec City in 1608.