Go Tripping: The Worlds Wildest Optical Illusions

Green Flash, St-Jean de Luz, France

The beloved of those with dreamy and quixotic imagination, the Green Flash (or Green Ray) seems to capture something of the overwhelming and ephemeral nature of existence. It's an effect seen at the end of the sunset, when a green spot or a green ray seems to shoot out of the sun. The grounds of the fantasy are complex and have to do with the refraction of light, the thickness of the atmosphere and the curvature of the earth. Try for a glimpse of it in St-Jean de Luz, the town featured in Eric Rohmer's moody film Le Rayon Vert.St-Jean de Luz is on the Basque coast, south of Biarritz.