(Second of two parts)

En route to the Atlantic coast on our June 2015 driving adventure in southwestern France, my wife, Gail, and I drove 400 kilometers from Collioure to Lourdes, where we found a hotel row stretched along the banks of the Gave de Pau.

After negotiating a good rate of $78 at the 4-star Hôtel Le Méditerranée (23, av du Paradis, Lourdes; www.lourdeshotelmed.com), we joined the stream of visitors, mostly foreigners and many in wheelchairs, making their way to...

(Second of two parts)

One of the attractions of barge cruising along the Canal du Midi in France is the opportunity to bike on the towpaths that line its entire 150-mile length. On a partially hosted cruise with European Waterways aboard the classic, Dutch-designed barge Anjodi in June 2015, my wife, Gail, and I took advantage of the biking options along our route from Le Somail to Marseillan. 

The Anjodi carries a bicycle for each passenger, and we found their new...

In 2005 I made a vow that in 10 years I would revisit a topic of increasing concern at that time: “Is the US airline industry moving in the direction of becoming a monopoly?”  Forty-seven years ago, in 1968, Simon and Garfunkel lamented to a war-weary American public, in the famous line from the hit song “Mrs. Robinson,” “Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?” Today a reeling American travel public can ask, “Where have you gone, Continental, Northwest, TWA, US Air (now American Airlines) and...