Joyeux Noel!

Christmas is here and Kathy and I are flying out...as soon as we finish celebrating with the family, of course. Due to some unforeseen accommodation issues, we ended up adjusting our itinerary. It now looks like this:

Dec 26-27: Reims (in Chapagne)
Dec 28: Verdun (the trenches of WWI)
Dec 29-31: Strasbourg (almost Germany, but not quite)
Dec 31: NYE party in Paris
Jan 1-3: Nantes (near the west coast)
Jan 4-5: Tours (toutes les chateaux)
Jan 6: Paris
Jan 7: Fly home...many many hours on the plane followed by a long five hour layover in Phili!

"Travel pushes my boundaries. When you travel, you become invisible, if you want. I do want. I like to be the observer. What makes people who they are? Could I feel at home here? No one expects you to have the stack of papers back by Tuesday, or to check messages, or to fertilize the geraniums. When traveling, you have the delectable possibility of not understanding a word of what is said to you. Language becomes simply a musical background for watching bicycles zoom alongside a canal, calling for nothing from you. Travel releases spontaneity. You become a godlike creature full of choice, free to visit the stately pleasure domes, make love in the morning, sketch a bell tower. You open, as in childhood, and - for a time-receive this world. There's the visceral aspect, too-the huntress who is free. Free to go, free to return home bringing memories to lay on the hearth." (Excerpted from A Year in the World by Frances Mayes)

A bientot!