It has been fun looking and remembering as I see each photo. I have learned so much over the years about the places I have visited. People ask me all the time if I get tired of visiting the same places or museums or churches, etc. And the answer ia a resounding "No, never!" I learn something new about each place every time I visit. I see this very clearly as I look through the albums. I can see how much I've learned with each trip as I read the captions which I write for each photo. I am taking the captions and taping them to the back of each photo along with noting the year that I took the photo.
This weekend I watched a set of web videos which Rick Steves had on his website. I very much enjoyed the ones I was able to watch. (They are now available to watch at any time on his website.) The first video was about the joy of travel and I made a few notes that I want to share with all of you because they reflect my feelings as well and are why I want to actually live in France. I welcome your thoughts on any of these points.
Why I love to travel and want to live in France:
1) Europe has great community traditions which connect them in a very special way, not just as relationships to each other but also their relationship to the earth and their history. Every city or village has festival days to celebrate the crops or the farm animals. These festivals go back centuries as their ancestors would have celebrated each harvest or butchering to appreciate that they would have food through the winter months. Parades dedicated to their local saint are a reason to have feasts and usually include the locals dressing in traditional folk costumes and enjoying folk music and dancing. Even as an outsider, you are encouraged to take part in their festivities.
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| Dancing the Sardana in a street in Barcelona |
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| A statue in Barcelona of the tradtional Catalan folk dance, the Sardana |
2) Everywhere you go you are standing on centuries, sometimes, millenniums, of history. Last fall Andy and I spent ten days in what I now refer to "my little corner of France". We came across a sign outside one of the medieval towns that we wanted to see which directed us to a fairly recent discovery of a large estate dating to the time of the Romans. The story is that the woman who owns the land had always heard the family legend that their land was on top of Roman ruins. So one day about fifteen years ago she took a shovel with her out into the pasture and started digging. Her neighbors saw her and decided to help and "voila", she uncovered the remains. They are still digging and painstakingly working to uncover the entire estate complete with baths, water works, many rooms which still have remarkable mosaic floors. And they believe that the next field has a second estate most likely built by wealthy Roman military men who moved their families to Gaul (the Roman name for France). It was fascinating. And made us wonder how many other ruins there are all over Europe that have yet to be found. And all around you there are castles and abbeys and churches and walled towns that date back one thousand to fifteen hundred years.
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| The water heating system of the Roman estate |
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| A fully intact mosaic floor at the Roman estate |
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| The 1200 year old city of Carcassonne in southern France |
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| The 1300 year old monastery island of Mont St Michel in northern France |
3. I love France because there is still an emphasis on family values and social ethics. France still enjoys leisurely lunches with friends and family. Eating or drinking is never an end unto itself. Meals are social occasions to be spent talking and visiting and discussing just about everything. Or you meet friends after work (or I've seen kids meeting after school) at a local sidewalk cafe, sit outside, order something to drink and visit. The French have been described as a country of introverts in the presence of strangers and I think this is a perfect description. You always greet everyone with a "bonjour". You treat shop keepers and waiters and cashiers as though you are visiting their homes. You are respectful and I promise you will be treated in kind. Politeness and social awareness are very important. We Americans like to "make ourselves at home" everywhere and tend to ignore other cultures' behaviors and expectations. But, as they say, "when in Rome . . . "
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| Read the bottom 2 lines. I included this just because I love it! |
4. Shopping is done every day, not because they run out of food or don't buy enough or don't plan ahead. It's because market day and standing in line at the bakery is a chance for visiting and catching up and they love it. Besides, you can't beat freshly made French bread!! Markets sell only produce that is in season and the produce comes from local farmers so you know it's fresh and healthy and ready to be eaten immediately. You won't find green bananas and hard peaches and unripe tomatoes. If it isn't in season then you won't find it at the market. Which gives you a wonderful chance to find some new recipes to use with those, quite likely, unfamiliar fruits and vegetables.
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| The flower market in Nice |
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| A produce market in Siena |
I want to live in France, not just to have adventures, but to learn everyday something new about the place where I'm living or about who I am in that place. And as I learn I will pass along that info to all of you through my blog.
Thank you for reading this post and following me around those bends. Merci mes amis!!
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