Howdy from the South of France.
You would have thought that during the past month of traveling, I could have found the time to make a lot of entries into this blog. Well, I’m sure I had many opportunities to do so but I’ve experienced something interesting and certainly unexpected while traveling.
I remember when I was planning this trip I thought, “wow, in 2006 I have all these tools available to share my daily adventures: email, this blog, my personal Web site, digital camera, digital video camera and on-line phone that only costs $.02/minute!” I diligently updated my email address files, created this blog, bought a digital video camera, All these things certainly did not exist in 1981 when I last traveled to Europe.
In spite of the ease of communication and these numerous ways to communicate via the Internet, I have not been compelled to utilize them. Yes, during the first week or so, I felt the need to maintain contact with family and friends and share events with them via email. I even sent digital video clips to a few folks. I also utilized the on-line phone software, Skype, to keep in touch with several family members. Often this meant packing up my laptop and finding an Internet Café and since at that time I did not have a car, walking or taking a bus some distances while following sketchy, at best, instructions from people eager to help, but not necessarily well-oriented to their own town.
An interesting transformation in my life has occurred. For some reason, I am becoming more inclined to enjoy the things this world has to offer in the moment they occur. Yes, I take lots of pictures and videos because first, old habits are hard to change and second, I always look at things with the thought of sharing them with family and friends and always thinking how they might enjoy seeing them. But now I find myself sitting on a rock fence, looking at some beautiful field of wheat, with the wind making those “waves of grain” and enjoying it at just that moment.
Since most of my professional career in Information Technology was spent working on long-term projects, living for the moment is certainly a different approach to life for me.
I wonder if this is also a part of the normal aging process?
We hear and read lots of philosophical discussions about “living for the moment”. I think it has a lot of merit because if we only think of the future, we never take the time to experience the reality of the moment - and our lives. It is like going to a movie and instead of watching each scene, always thinking of what will be in the next scene or even more distracting, how the movie will end. You miss out on the fruits of the director’s efforts – plot, cinematography, sound, etc.
Not having a vast knowledge of religions, it is my guess that a bunch of them also treat this topic with their own doctrine. Maybe someday I’ll look into that, but for the moment, I’m enjoying each day as it comes.
I’ll leave that topic for you to ponder.
Now, I’ll share some of the things I’ve experienced on this trip.
Arriving in Manchester, England on the 6th of June, 2006, I checked into a hotel not far from the University of Manchester. An English friend who, along with his girlfriend, happens to be working in Austin at the University of Texas, had made the trip to England a few days earlier to visit family and friends. He played in a concert that night and I got to attend.
Afterwards, it was the obligatory trip to a pub for a “pint” or two.
Several days later, other friends who play in our British Brass band in Austin, named “Austin Wonder Brass”, arrived to participate in the event known as Whit Friday. At this music festival, over 130 brass bands get on chartered buses and travel from town-to-town within the local area and play different pieces for their march from the bus to the contest area where they all play the same piece of music for the local judge. At the end of the day, the best bands are awarded CASH prizes from each of the over 20 towns. The purse from all the towns for this particular festival was over $20,000! Who says musicians never make any money? Sadly, that holds true for the musicians who participate in Whit Friday because only a few bands are awarded the cash prize in each town, there are a lot of towns and the same bands don’t necessarily win in each town. You do the math.
The real winners, however, are the folks in the small towns who get to hear all those bands by simply walking to their main street and sitting on the curb while these bands play as they march by. I’m not sure how they participate in contributing to the cash prize their town awards but it can’t be much money per person. Other folks, who don’t mind hearing the same contest piece, will bring their lawn chairs and sit in the contest area. The contest area could be a football pitch (soccer field), a town square or even a vacant lot. The judge is prevented from seeing/knowing what band is performing and is often sequestered in a small camping trailer, just a few feet from the band. The more clever judges will arrange for their location to be in a pub with the prescribed two curtains separating them from the bands.
While the “Sale Brass Band” did not garner any cash prizes, I can say that the four members of Austin Wonder Brass who were invited to participate in this contest, did themselves (and AWB) proud. This could be seen in their willingness to experience everything about the event including hoisting a pint or two with the more seasoned members of the band at the many pubs along the route.
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On June 10, 2006, I took the plane to Toulouse, France. I arrived in the evening and was greeted by my friend, Jean-Yves, whom I had not seen in 25 years. We went to a café and in an hour or two, tried to catch up on our respective lives. I got a great little hotel room, not far from the center of town where I had spent many days and evenings back in 1975 and again in 1981.
The next day, I was invited to Jean-Yves’ home for a birthday party (it was my 60th) where I got to see his wife for the first ime in 25 years and meet one of his daughters, son-in-law and two grand children. The grandchildren helped me blow out the birthday cake candles (two times).
After a week or so in Toulouse, I was invited to the home of Michele (a guy) and his wife Modesta. Their home is really a grand chateau about 20 miles south of Toulouse on the way to Spain/Andorra. They bought it 20 years ago and their ensuing renovation resulted in a beautiful, grand and typical mansion in the south of France.
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A few days later, Charlette, a French friend who lives in Austin and France, picked me up to take me to her house in the country, near the small town of Parisot which is just north of Toulouse and south of Albi. Her parents are staying there for the summer and the four of us have made various trips into the surrounding areas to visit great restaurants and see the sights.
Two weeks ago, I bought a car (1999 Renault Megane station wagon) and will use it on my trip to the west and north of France in the next week or so.
The geography is fabulous in this part of France with rolling hills planted with crops of wheat, maze, corn and sunflowers. The sunflower fields are particularly entertaining in the morning when the sun is behind you and you are facing all those flowers. It is as if you are being watched by thousands of wide opened eyes.
Some days ago, Charlette and I drove about 300 miles to the French Riviera for 10 days, staying with friends in Sanary and Antibes. We also visited Nice, St. Raphael, Frejus, Toulon and Bandol during that time. All these towns are on the coast, have unique harbors and most have forts or mountains situated to afford great views of the Mediterranean Sea.
After a week of living the good life on the Cote d’Azur (Riviera), we returned to Parisot in time for Charlette to get a booth at a flea market in a nearby town. The flea markets here are just like in the USA except that most items here are made in France and each booth has an exciting assortment of things. They may be ordinary items to the locals but they have great appeal to the eye of the only American tourist within miles. I managed to buy only a few items, one being a vintage wine-bottle opener.
This country is amazing. At every turn in a country road, there is some beautiful field of green, yellow or other color with a texture that begs to be photographed. In every little town, and believe me there is one every 5 miles or so, there are many unique architectural features – each one of which could grace the cover of any home-and-gardens magazine.
I hope you enjoy the attached photographs.
Regards,
Jim
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