CAROLINE SMRSTIK, PORTUGAL Beautiful creatures and pleasures of the flesh await discovery in the in-between region of Portugal.

CLAIRE BERlINSKI, PARIS In which three generations of Berlinskis, finding themselves in possession of a château and an Armagnac distillery in Nouvelle Aquitaine, spend a week impersonating the French landed gentry without being arrested. A family memoir.

CLAIRE BERLINSKI, PARIS only recently abolished slavery and by most accounts still practices it. It ranks at the bottom of every human development index. Yet Mauritanian desert nomads are plainly happier than rush-hour commuters in Paris. Why?