This fossilized resin comes in the form of pebbles, often transparent and orange, sometimes with plants or insects. The Baltics have been trading amber for millennia, and Pliny the Elder wrote of this northern tribe "who themselves were astonished at the price at which they sold this material which they received from their sea".

Born at the turn of the ^19th and ^20th centuries, the Art Nouveau movement was based on the maxim "Function creates form, and form must be beautiful". Art Nouveau is most evident in architecture. No city in the world offers as much as Rīga, in terms of numbers, completeness of styles, beauty of facades..

This little gray-and-white bird is absolutely gorgeous! The Latvian people pay a great deal of attention to the ecosystem that surrounds them, with a particular fondness for this passerine bird with its high-contrast plumage and slender silhouette, the gray wagtail, to the point of becoming a true national symbol in Latvia.

Beer is the most widely consumed alcohol in the Baltic States. Each city is firmly attached to its own brand or brands, some of which have been exported for over five centuries. There are few specificities linked to a particular terroir, but rather to the method used in a particular brewery, based on the know-how of medieval German brewers.

You will quickly notice that in Rīga: the cat is king! Alley cat or racy, felines are in the hearts of Latvians. The number of families with a cat is twice as high as those with a dog. It is therefore not for nothing that the black cat on top of the 10 Meistaru Street has become one of the strongest symbols of national identity.

In the countryside, when the weather is fine, it's common to see storks perched on their nests. The white stork is a strong symbol of the Baltic states, and Lithuania in particular, where it is the subject of many tales and legends. Northern Latvia is the world's largest black stork conservatory.

Latvia's national insect is the two-pea ladybird - from its Latin name Adalia bipunctata. It protects plants from pests. Slow in nature, it knows how to defend itself, which is appreciated by Latvians. As for its name mārīte in Latvian, it derives from that of the goddess Māra, who embodies the power of the earth.

The sculpture of wooden crosses is a Lithuanian specificity. Both a symbol of national and religious identity, they can be found on roadsides, at the entrance to villages, near monuments or in cemeteries. They are between 1 and 5 m high, usually decorated with a small roof, floral or geometric motifs.

These popular songs, which in quatrains speak of everyday life, the gods and human feelings, were mostly composed by women. The oldest dainas date back to the ^10th and ^12th centuries, but the majority of these songs were created between the ^13th and ^16th centuries under Germanic rule.

The wagtail for the Latvians, the white stork for the Lithuanians, the only thing left for the Estonians was to adopt the barn swallow. The choice was made easy with its predominantly blue and white plumage which reminds the inhabitants of this country of their own flag. The bird's haughty bearing completes the mimicry with Estonia and its inhabitants.

Lithuania is the world's leading producer of flax. The landscape in the north of the country, especially in the Panevėžys region, is full of windmills, but not only that. They can be found all over the national parks. It was in Panevėžys that the flax industry developed and, for any purchase, this town is widely recommended.

According to Live mythology, birds don't migrate in winter. They stay in Latvia and hide to hibernate. That's why there are still live songs, sung at Easter to wake the birds. The last native speaker of this language died in 2013, making Live a dead language.