Encounters on Europe’s eastern borders: Lithuania and Poland

Encounters on Europe’s eastern borders: Estonia - Latvia

With a further twelve countries having recently joined the European Community, two young French photographers set out to meet these eastern Europeans whose countries represent 40% of the territory of the European Union and over 100 million inhabitants.

Our journey continues through the new countries of the European Community. After Estonia and Latvia, we take a look at Lithuania and Poland.

Lithuania - Arriving in Vilnius, the capital, on a grey, rainy day.

Lithuania - In a fashionable bar in Vilnius, Le Cosy.

Lithuania - Meditation by a lake near Trakai, 30 km (19 miles) west of Vilnius. Trakai is the old mediaeval capital of Lithuania. It is surrounded by around sixty lakes and is now a tourist attraction and holiday resort.

Lithuania - The European Community reminds people of its investment in infrastructure on numerous hoardings.

Lithuania - Typical wooden house, 50 km (31 miles) south of Vilnius.

Lithuania - Vargas and his wife run an organic farm. They breed hens and goats to make cheese that they sell at the markets or under the same principle as the CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) in the UK.

Lithuania - Landscape in the Lithuanian countryside.

Lithuania - Between Vilnius and Valkininkai

Lithuania - Celebrations at a diploma award ceremony for women from a Lithuanian village. This diploma comes at the end of a course on managing stress and change...

Poland - The Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw (Warszawa). This colossal building, a "gift" from comrade Stalin in 1955, arouses mixed feelings to say the least. A symbol of Soviet control over the country, it has nonetheless become the emblem of the Polish capital. The fourth biggest tower in the European Union at 237 m tall, the palace can be seen from all over the city and up to 30 km (19 miles) away. Standing at the heart of Warsaw’s business district, it has taken on something of a Big Ben-like appearance since a clock 6 metres in diameter was installed in 2000, making it the highest clock in the world: you can tell the time from over 3 km away.

Poland - Local library in Warsaw.

Warsaw - Pope John-Paul II is still very much present. His image, like an icon, occupies a place of honour in many public places: in this case, a post office.

Poland - In the mountains at Rytro, the house of an elderly person who lives alone with a dog and a cow. One of the mayor’s deputies, proud of his town, drove us there in the fire brigade’s 4x4.

Poland - In the Polish mountains, on the border with Slovakia. A group of young Polish people, accompanied by Catholic nuns, returns from a visit to the ruins of a castle overlooking Rytro.

Poland - In a bar similar to those of the socialist era, a former soldier sports his stripes.

Poland - Interior of a restaurant, by the side of the road from Lublin to Cracow (Kraków).

Poland - Lublin, in the east of the country. This average town, with a mediaeval centre that is still intact, has not managed to take full advantage of the economic development in the west of Poland.