“Why do you think I want this boat? All I want to do is sail away…”
Two weeks in Europe seems awfully short as I stare at my little desk calendar here at work. The days are boxed and marked out with a black felt-tip pen.
Why do I want to go back so badly? What draws me to it? Is it some longing for a childhood left behind? The place invariably meets my expectations after all these years; it did in 2000 when we returned for a few days. It’s hard to think I would appreciate it more now than I did when I was younger… I was always a bit solitary and pensive, and absorbed my surroundings on my own terms, and I knew what I was seeing was a place of beauty like none I had ever seen before, or was likely to see again (not in the same way, at least). I think, more than anything, I want to share those experiences with people. The thought of returning by myself repels me. But then I catch myself: It’s just my naiveté talking. I have experiences, strong feelings wrapped up in those places, all the more tumultuous since they’ve been dormant for so long, and even though the same foreign vistas might be moving across our eyes, what goes on underneath may be completely different, uncategorizable as better or worse, just different. I want to share the sights and places, but more than that, it’s some desire to include my companions into my memories, to fill some loneliness I didn’t know I felt. And that’s grossly unfair to them. We’ll create new experiences, new memories, sure, but between those and existing in that place for a few days won’t exorcise the loneliness I felt for the better part of those years. I don’t know what to do about it, if anything. I may just have to carry it with me.
sail away with me
what will be will be
snow cherries from france
“I knew a boy who would not share his pie, but he let me go sailing”
(tori)
but… are you insinuating that I’m a nut to go to France by myself? Thank the heavens that I happen to have a ‘supposedly selfish’ friend swinging through town, hehe ;)
les cerises de la neige
I don’t think it’s selfish to want a companion with whom to share your experiences, do you?
Oh, and do NOT go to the Musée D’Orsay, Sacré Coeur, or eat fondue at any little Alsacian restaurants near L’île de la Cité before I get there, okay? :o)
Re: les cerises de la neige
arg, ok ;)
hehe, see, these are the things I wanted to know before I started to figure out what to do.
and what things *should* I do before y’all get there (ie: what is not on your list?) I also want to do some random/cool non-touristy things, any ideas?
Gosh. Okay… We probably won’t have time to hit Versailles; it’s a little ways out of town (though the subway runs there frequently) and pretty much takes up most of the day. What else… I was going to say L’Arc de la Défense, but Donald wrote a report on that and will probably want to see it (though it’s a bit of a yawner). Napoléon’s tomb is another thing we won’t do, though you probably won’t want to either (it’s a big war museum–guns and cannons and armor, yay rah). Centre George Pompidou–probably not. And we probably won’t take a “boat tour,” floating down the Seine in a glass-top riverboat to the accompaniment of some tour guide recording.
That’s all I can think of off the top of my head. I mean, I’m sure we won’t have time to do everything on our list either, but I dunno what’s going to be done and not. I’ll let you know–we’re having another trip conference very soon. Landmarks that I know we’ll be juggling in our schedule:
L’Arc de Triomphe/Champ Élysées (we must walk down “your” street with you)
Tour Eiffel
Notre Dame/Sainte Chapelle/île de la Cité/Quartier Latin
Louvre
Musée D’Orsay
Gare de Lyon
Sacré Coeur/Montmartre
Montparnasse/Bastille
As far as non-touristy things… I don’t know. I want to just get lost in Paris at some point, though that’s bound to happen inadvertently anyway :o) See if you can find any concerts to go to, and I’ll poke around too. We’ll do loads of non-touristy things in Nice; I can tell you that.
Oh, and I sent your package on Saturday, too. The guy said 5 to 7 days. Just thought I’d let you know :o)
whoo hoo!
(note: that shout of joy was the culmination of the excitement of going to France and getting a package!)
careful, I might not be able to handle too much excitement, my head could explode or something, hehe.
yay! Now to figure out how to figure out where to figure out where/when the live music is gonna be ;)
We should meet somewhere fun when we get to Paris, like, say, in front of the second track from the left at the Gare de Lyon, or in the park on the south side of Notre Dame… The top of the Tour Eiffel would be fun, but logistically it would be a little hard. We’ll see, though. Just a thought :o)
haha, yeah I can just see it now…
‘meet me at the top of le tour d’eiffel in one hour for un cafe’ ;)
do they have coffee up there?
hmm… either way, you guys are taking the chunnel over, right? in that case… we should meet somewhere near there, right?
and do you know if I can leave a suitcase in a locker somewhere in the DG airport at all?
1. I believe they do have coffee up there. There’s a wonderful (albeit pricey) restaurant on the first “story” (out of three) of the Tour Eiffel; ate there a looong time ago.
2. Yes, I think we’ll be arriving at the Gare du Nord. More details to come about that.
3. If it’s like any other airport, you should be able to, yes.
nope, there’s a new law that they cannot hold luggage, so I’m going to try to get my brother to take back a suitcase for me straight to America, and whilst I’m in France I’ll just have to wash my clothes more often ;)
PS And of course I’ve already bought one “paris dress” haha, so I’ll have to save room for matching shoes