Search Results for: Byzantine

Today was our last day to tour in Paris, and it was a full day. After beginning at Rue Cler, we made the short walk to Les Invalides, which is, among other things, a museum of French military history. Les Invalides’s collection of suits of armor was fascinating. I was struck by the difference between the … Continue reading “Carolingian & Crusader Travel Journal: Day 10”

If you are like me, most of what you were taught in school regarding the motivation for the First Crusade is wrong. It’s wrong because it is based on biased anti-Christian Enlightenment writers like Gibbon and Voltaire. Voltaire, for example, wrote that the crusaders were motivated only by “the thirst for brigandage” and that “Christianity is the … Continue reading “Carolingian & Crusader Travel Journal: Day 7”

Today we began at Mont St. Michel, one of the most visited and photographed sights in the world. Mont St. Michel is a monastery built in the 8th century on a rock off the coast of Normandy, France. It is completely surrounded by water and is connected to land only by a causeway. The monasteries were … Continue reading “Carolingian & Crusader Travel Journal: Day 4”

On August 23, 2012, we start our Carolingian & Crusader Tour of Europe. As with our other travels, I’ve developed a reading list to help us prepare for the trip and enhance the experience. The books below are listed in the order I recommend you read them if you are new to the subjects–not that … Continue reading “Carolingian & Crusader Travel Journal: Reading List”

The GSB 2012 summer travel journal theme has been decided and the destination set. The time period is 750 A.D. through 1100 A.D. (The Carolingian Renaissance through the First Crusade). The place is the former Carolingian Empire (France, Germany, Belgium). The people are Charlemagne & Godfrey de Bouillon (and others). If you live in the … Continue reading “Carolingian & Crusader Travel Journal: Introduction”