Donald Pittenger writes:

Dear Blowhards --

We're off to France for three weeks starting Monday 18 May on a trip conceived before the market crashed; I cashed in frequent flier miles early to get decent flights, so we're kinda locked in.

I don't pack a computer on overseas trips due to weight, hassle and uncertainty about Internet connections. Normally, this would mean I won't be posting until after my return the evening of 8 June.

Okay, okay, if you'll stop your cheering for a moment I'd like to add that you will be able to read some new posts by me during those three weeks. That's because I've drafted half a dozen of the critters and placed them where Michael can dribble them out at his discretion and convenience.

One downside is that I'm probably not going to respond to comments requiring my attention. I don't plan to visit an Internet cafe while in France, but just might do so anyway to check email and 2Blowhards. If I do read comments, I'm not sure about replying because French keyboards differ from the American variety and not all Internet cafes there have computers with American keyboards.

One thing I will do is keep some pieces of scratch paper in my shirt pocket so that I can note interesting things for future articles. Plus, I'll be carrying my trusty digital camera in the hope I can find enough grist for a photo essay or two.

We'll be spending a week in Paris and then will rent a car ard visit places including Rouen, Mont-Saint-Michel, Amboise, Sarlat (in the Dordogne), Aix-en-Provence, Nice, Lyon and points between. If all that won't provide blog-fodder, I should seriously consider turning in my blogging license.

Later,

Donald

The Loire Valley is a remarkable place, I stayed for a month back in May of 1986 in Amboise. I went to school to learn to speak fluent french but I failed miserably. I still have trouble with english too. Da Vinci is buried in the Saint Hubert Chapel in Amboise and there are some fine wineries in the area. Enjoy!

Posted by: Darby Shaw on May 15, 2009 5:56 PM

Hi Donald

I've just spent two months in Paris, staying in the Bastille/Marais, away from all the draughty boulevards and dick-waving architecture of various Bourbons and Bonapartes. (Frigging alpha-males!)

Highlights were pastry from Gerard Mulot, consumed in the lovely Place des Vosges, conceived by the one great Bourbon, and the best monarch one could hope for in tricky times; quiet museums in the Marais, especially Cognacq-Jay and the Carnavalet; Roquefort cheese from the Carles family, smeared with lavender honey; strolls along the Promenade Plantee, a converted railway line, to the Parc Floral at Vincennes; the Medieval Museum on the left bank, with the Lady and the Unicorn and lots more; a little pilgrimage on foot through crappy northern Paris to Saint-Denis...

And, of course, Chartres. The anti-Versailles. The navel of the West. What a glory!

Anyway, have a good time, mate. You can get plenty of English keyboards and good prices at the internet cafe on Boulevard Beamarchais, on the right as you walk north from the Bastille.

Posted by: Robert Townshend on May 19, 2009 5:05 AM






Post a comment

Name:


Email Address:


URL:


Comments:


Remember your info?