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CASTLES, CHÂTEAUS, AND COUNTRYSIDE

Thursday, June 23, 2022

In today’s newsletter, we explore six historic European villages … and seven that are ideal for romantics and foodies. Plus, the mystery of Mexico’s Palenque and a surprising new mecca for rap music.

PHOTOGRAPH BY TINO SORIANO, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION

Who needs big city hustle and bustle on vacation? We’ve found six historic villages in Europe where you can climb castles, linger over coffee, and stare at a river or a verdant valley. And seven others known for the Brontë sisters, Monet’s lily pads, or as Camus’s resting place.

“Forgotten by developers and never annexed into suburbs, many of these places seem suspended in a past age,” Raphael Kadushin writes for Nat Geo.

Catch our historic picks here. (Pictured above, Italy’s San Gimignano; below, France’s Château de Chambord.) And see our selections for romantics and outdoor adventurers.

PHOTOGRAPH BY BETTMANN, GETTY IMAGES

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STORIES WE’RE FOLLOWING

PHOTOGRAPH BY MAGGIE STEBER

Largest python in Florida’s Everglades captured carrying 122 eggs (pictured above)

Why some animals evolved to sacrifice themselves

How gladiators trained before their Roman smackdowns

Fossil-finding ants amass huge haul of ancient creatures

A mecca for rap emerges in the birthplace of blues and jazz

The mystery of the Maya jungle city of Palenque

PHOTO OF THE DAY

PHOTOGRAPH BY @TIMLAMAN

Showing off: The Vogelkop superb bird of paradise puts on quite a show. Its fake blue eyespots and bright breast shield are set against a black cape, photographer and Nat Geo Explorer Tim Laman tells us from West Papua, Indonesia. More than 677,000 people have “liked” Laman’s series of bird photographs on our Instagram page. Read more here about these extraordinary creatures.

WATCH THEIR COURTSHIP DANCE

OVERHEARD AT NAT GEO

PHOTOGRAPH BY JINGYU LIN

How one law changed lives: One Kari played college lacrosse in the 1980s; another Kari currently plays at the same school for the same coach. College sports have radically evolved during that time, but there’s one constant: Title IX of the Higher Education Act, enacted 50 years ago today, ensures that no person is excluded from university programs “on the basis of sex.” Listen to Overheard podcast host Amy Briggs ask Kari Briggs Novak and Kari Buonnano (pictured above with Princeton coach Christine A. Sailer) how Title IX has affected them.

Related: The fight for gender equality in schools

Related: How the gap between boys and girls in school athletics has narrowed

IN A FEW WORDS

QUOTE

I look at the fish that broke the record in 2005, and it was killed and sold for meat. Now we’re tracking the world’s largest freshwater fish. It’s such a contrast. It means that all is not lost.

Fish biologist, Nat Geo Explorer

From: Enormous stingray sets world record for largest freshwater fish

LAST GLIMPSE

PHOTOGRAPH BY COREY ARNOLD

City life: Raccoons have gotten smarter, and it’s partly our fault. Garbage cans fit for a buffet and window bars that serve as ladders make life easier for citified animals (pictured above, a mother raccoon and her offspring atop a home in San Francisco). It isn’t just raccoons that are settling in: Black bears, coyotes, and other mammals are adapting to city life in shockingly savvy ways, Nat Geo reports.

MEET THE NEIGHBORS

This newsletter was curated and edited by David Beard, Heather Kim, Jen Tse, and Monica Williams. If you want our daily newsletter, sign up here. Have a good weekend ahead.

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