Taking Leave of France.
categories:
- “travel”
Greetings kind reader, thanks for stopping by. Sitting on a NorDelta (Or DelWorst?) flight direct from charles de Gaule’s airport to the land of 10K Lakes. (Down to 7,984, best visit soon.) I remarked to those who must listen (aka “Family”) that I thought this would be one of the last-ish direct-to-MSP flights, as Delta has nothing but their promises to keep them operating long-haul into MSP. I mean really, why would anyone bother, with Chicago an hour away? Of course, this is the logic that built the god-awful hub-and-spoke system we were assured deregulation was supposed to have eliminated approximately 20 years ago. And we keep believing them... I’m assuming that all maintenance agreements in MN are long gone, even though the state subsidies that built them will never be paid back. You place your bet, you takes your chances in this brave new world.
I enjoyed the trip, although it was nothing like the daring risk-a-minute unabated thrill rides that the posters promoted. I like this, actually, I’m more for a bit of following rather than hacking the brush. The problem I find with trail breaking is it’s tiring and as often problematic . I’m there for the “soaking” not necessarily the “discovering.” For example, most French locks use spring-loaded pins, their mounted “upside down” to common US practice. There’s also a very typical mounting that makes the modern lock look evocative of the old-style Victorian locks. I’m just guessing, but I’d wager that it is this desire to be similar to what was once familiar is what motivates this. (Oh, and most pins in locks are spring-loaded: it’s just that mounting them the EU way means we’re totally dependent on the springs. Mounting them such that gravity helps a bit, allows for something like normal operation w/o perfect springiness. And this is NOT a feature, it’s just the way things are.)
I am done with the Louvre, and guilt and filigree, for my lifetime now. I can stand in front of a Louis Catorz (I’ll have to look up that spelling) peice of furniture and all I can think of is “How much?!” Coco and I did have a wonderful few minutes contemplating the business of photoing the tapestries and doing a reasonable job of colorizing them back to something like their original appearance. I’d offer something like a daylight view, a candlelight view, and a modern lighted view, so people could get some idea of what they looked like 300+ years ago. But though there are treasures abounding there, I’m just not interested in wading through the florid and gold leaf and crowds and IM Pei’s idiotic pyramid (Hello, vents?!) to ever venture there again. I was pretty sure before this trip, now I’m certain.
But I am overwhelmed by the absolute value of travel. The simple being-there of it makes it all worth it. I want to register for a motorcycle trip in or about the EU, I think that would be a smashing way to see stuff. Godness knows, though, I’ll never be good at lane-cutting. Can’t wait to get home, looking very much forward to seeing friends and family. Even the parents’ damned dogs, which I’ve agreed to release from jail. (A large farm where they can run through miles of fields and chase pheasants: yep, that must really suck.)
I wonder what it would take to make a foundation to put people on a trip overseas? It could be part of a tour, so as not to feel too alone or at-risk, but just put them someplace new and weird and wonderful. I wonder if work could do that for employees pick them by a lottery? Oh wow, make it a company sponsored tour!
On a personal note, I was yet again reminded why VJG is not merely a psychologist by training, but a damned smart person: she pointed out that a number of issues I thought I had with old flames turns out to be unresolved feelings, entirely my own to be worked on. Let the digging and discovery begin. And now to home, to make this into a launching for The Teen, something that puts her on her feet for the rest of her life. Ok, for a while, since stuff changes all the time.