In 1981 during spring break at Princeton, I photographed the cathedrals of Chartres, Bourges and Amiens for Polaroid Close-Up magazine, Vol. 12 No. 2. These photographs illustrated an article by Robert Mark, a structural engineer. In order to better understand the flying buttresses of Gothic architecture that supported these cathedrals, he constructed models that utilized polarized light to analyze the forces at work. In 1998 I had another opportunity to return to France and Spain.

On this trip after a few days in Paris, we visited Brittany, then drove down the western side of France to Spain. In Spain we went to Bilbao to visit the Guggenheim Museum and to Barcelona to see the architecture and cathedral of Antoni Gaudi. From Barcelona we returned to France visiting the medevieval city of Carcassonne which is on the Canal du Midi. We explored the canal and many towns ending up at the western end of the canal in Toulouse. From there a northward route to Bourges and return to Paris.