Thoughts

I've been giving a little thought to why I enjoyed being in France so much.

I'm not much of a traveler, for one thing; when we were first married, we'd go out to California every couple of years, and that was a big deal, but over time - and child - that waned. We did go to England once; I liked being there (but had a real problem with the food). So it's not that I like to travel. In fact, traveling, particularly a long distance, is problematic; I dislike having to get everything into one or two bags that I'm going to need for a couple of weeks, and the whole does this place do laundry? Do I want to pay them to do that? thing bugs me.

A lot of people go just to be in Paris, and I have to admit, Paris was nice. Still had a bit of a problem with the food -- what can I say, I'm a food plebian -- but the sights and sounds of the city were pretty nice. Even in the summer heat, I liked it. I would have liked it more if we could have followed our habit, from when we went to Williamsburg, of getting up and out, then coming back for a siesta till about three, then out again, but still: not bad. A fun city to wander around in, for the most part.

Similarly, it was pretty nifty to see some of the things that there are to see in Burgundy. I really liked seeing the abbey at Cluny; old buildings like that fascinate me. And seeing some of the smaller towns was pretty cool. Even things like here's a restaurant in a building that's all by itself, surrounded by fields and canals - that was pretty neat. I liked that.

But the thing that made the trip? The thing that made me want to come back?

The people we stayed with. A month later, I'm still in awe of how they made us feel as if we were part of their family, part of their normal routine. Oh, we did what you do when you don't want to be a bother, but it was obvious that of course we were; just the idea that we were eating food every day that they paid for! But we never got the impression that we were in any way disturbing them. They seemed genuinely delighted to have us there. I'm not used to that experience. I'm not used to people being genuinely delighted. Pleased? Sure. Delighted? Not so much.

Which is why I cannot wait for their visit to us, here, next year.