By Shaan Merchant A day in Brihuega during the lavender bloom requires only one set plan: Get to the fields by sunset, to view an unexpected, lush swath of purple as far as the eye can see, with the orange glow of the Spanish sun directly behind it. Brihuega, a small medieval town in the roughly 4,700-square-mile province of Guadalajara and about an hour’s drive from Madrid, is surrounded by farmland, villages and nature preserves of brown and soft-green hues. But each year i

By Emily Anthes Over the last two decades, a flurry of scientific studies have demonstrated, over and over again, that dogs are social savants, highly attuned to human cues. But even as canine cognitive science flourished, few researchers bothered to probe the social skills of cats. After all, dogs were descended from the social gray wolf and had been intentionally engineered to perform specific roles alongside humans. Cats, on the other hand, were descended from the solitary

By William Fleeson The Canal du Midi, entirely hand-dug and hailed as an engineering marvel on completion in 1681, offers a refreshing alternate take on French travel: a bikeable path through the towns and landscapes of the country’s south. Traversing Occitanie, the canal gives cyclists of all skill levels access to parts of France that are rich in history, yet sometimes passed over by visitors with (only) Paris on their mind. When I discovered that the canal was manageable f

Denise Rivera, Patricia Vigoreaux, Ada & Gilberto Monzón By JUDY GORDON-CONDE and JENNIFER CONDE-POWERS Inspired by the art of “En la barbería no se llora (In the Barbershop you don’t cry)” from the artist Pepón Osorio, present at the Museum of Art of Puerto Rico Gala, was held at the renowned Grand Salon at the Sheraton Puerto Rico Resort & Casino. The exquisite event was designed with a “Nuyorican Baroque” flair, with more than 850 fabulously dressed guests enjoying the ce

A variety of French wines in New York, July 13, 2024. These easygoing bottles — red, white, rosé and sparkling — are perfect for relaxing and just right for watching the Paris Olympics from afar. (Tony Cenicola/The New York Times) By ERIC ASIMOV The Summer Olympics begins in late July, and I have to say, I’m with all the Parisians renting out their apartments and fleeing their city. If the Games were in New York, I might do the same. Who needs bigger crowds, hyperinflated pri

Max, a 2-year-old German shepherd, Belgian Malinois and husky mix, photographed in Greenlake Park in Seattle on June 14, 2024. Scientists around the world are peering deep into the bodies and minds of cats and dogs, hoping to learn more about how they wriggled their way into our lives, how they experience the world and how to keep them living in it longer. (M. Scott Brauer/The New York Times) By SETH KUGEL Every dog has its day, and July 14, 2004, belonged to a boxer named Ta

The Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts, one of three museums in the arts district known as Plateforme 10, in Lausanne, Switzerland, June 13, 2024. The district is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Surrealist Manifesto — a series of 1924 publications whose authors include the French artist André Breton — with multiple exhibits. (Darren S. Higgins/The New York Times) By SETH SHERWOOD Every year is an Olympics year in Lausanne, Switzerland, a city of stone buildings, tile roof

By Ceylan Yeginsu It’s set to be another scorching summer, with extreme and prolonged heat waves forecast across many parts of the United States and Europe. The stifling conditions could impact millions of travelers and wreak havoc on vacations at some of the world’s most popular tourist destinations. Multiple heat-related deaths among tourists have been reported in Greece and Saudi Arabia in June following extreme temperatures in the Middle East and Aegean regions. Even thos

By Esther Zuckerman How did a cat named Schnitzel win the starring role of Frodo in “A Quiet Place: Day One”? He impressed director Michael Sarnoski with his nonchalant confidence, rugged looks and intelligent face. “He had a lot going on behind his eyes,” Sarnoski said in an interview last week, when the film made its theatrical debut. “A lot of the other cats were really adorable but almost too cutesy, like they would be in a cat food commercial. And Schnitzel had a little

By Christopher Kuo When Hurricane Beryl intensified into a Category 5 storm last week, it broke records and left a trail of damage across the Caribbean. The first named hurricane of the season, Beryl is the earliest Category 5 Atlantic hurricane ever recorded, and also the first Category 4 hurricane to form in the Atlantic in June — a portent of what experts say is a hurricane season that will be much more intense than usual. It was also abnormal because of where it formed, f