this past week was uber-busy: i finished a book review (technically, that was last week), read my book club book in record time (tc boyle’s “the tortilla curtain”), got slammed at work and booked a ticket to paris. i’d been trying to get a ticket to spend a week in maine this summer but no dice: there was no way i was going to fork over $550 or more to go to the east coast. sorry, mom. especially knowing that for a few more bucks i could go twice the distance and across the pond.
i didn’t think i’d be able to pull off the france trip at all. my family started planning a trip for september last fall and i figuredn i wouldn’t be able to afford it (er, i was still paying off the last france trip) nor did i think i’d have the vacation time at work. but my dad, aunts and uncle started dropping little bugs into my ear which got me thinking more and more about the possibility of going. just see if you can get a few days off without pay, they whispered. think of how cheap it will be: we’ve rented a house in st. remy with four bedrooms, they nudged. you can share a hotel room in paris with your cousin, they hinted.
it didn’t take much convincing. the powers that be gave me the green light at work and voila, tuesday afternoon was capped with a ticket to de gaulle on sept. 2. i arrive on the 3rd, return on the 15th. i am beside myself excited. i cannot wait to see G and N and reims; to see the seine and sip mariage freres at the source, to eat baguettes until i burst. and crepes and croissants and yop. YOP!
i plan to blog overseas and this time i plan to focus on the little details, the million tiny moments that make up a day. i want to remember, how much did i pay for that demi baguette? how much for a train to reims? i want to take photos of storefronts: marche plus, carrefour, monoprix. i will write down the name of that cereal B and i adore from monoprix. and so on and so forth. last time, i took a lot of photos of outdoor markets; while those pics of apples and oranges are gorgeous, i’m more interested this time in what they cost; i want signage and street scenes and street names. i want to absorb every possible everything because it will have to carry me to the next time.