France 2009 May to June

Stephen:
We are reconstructing this travelogue from a photo collection.

I remember that Adam and Dawn hung out in Paris while I was working. He was getting late tickets at the Tennis French Open. I went from my last job, working for Richard Wood at the Festival of world Dance in Cambridge, and then going straight to the airport.

Remember that this was just a few days after the Air France crash on the route from Brazil to Paris. They went down in a big thunderstorm at night. I found the following in a deep archive on my Document disk...

I have never slept through a take-off before, but it wasn't until a storm over Nova Scotia woke me up that I remember anytime about the flight. It was now rocking and rolling. I had to wait 15-20 minutes for the plane to get to clear air before I could get to the toilet and pee away the three Bass Ales that I drank watching the Red Sox game at Houlihans at Logan airport while waiting for the flight.

After a fairly undistinguished meal with a glass of champagne, I fell asleep as they were clearing dishes and did not wake up until they were placing plastic dishes filled with breakfast in front of me. Without bags to claim, the trip from the plane to the train was a seven minute walk interupted twice. Once by passport control where the agent noticed that I hadn't signed my new passport and once by a ticket machine silently selling tickets to Paris.

A real hug is a complicated simplicity. Everything that you are doing is being done to you. You pull the person in front of you inside yourself as you are also being enveloped. With Dawn, it has always been about the fit, as if my arms, (short by normal shirtmaking standards) were made to fit dawn's ribcage, her heart and soul inside their angled bend. We lie against each other, standing in the hallway of Jean and Isabelle's apartment, feeling each other's smiles and hidden tears of relief that what has been separated from for almost two weeks has now been joined again.

Kissing is different. Hugging is returning to the elemental truth of the pair that we are, while kissing is an adventure into the counterpoint of our complicated selves, a series of surprises taken and given, soul melting softness in a fencing match that is never the same. A kiss is who we are now. A hug is who we have always been.

---

Picture Gallery

Paris

---

Cézac

.

---

Le Paradou

---

Cathedrale d'image

n 1975, Albert Plécy visited the impressive limestone quarries of the Val d'Enfer in Les Baux de Provence. Overwhelmed by the site's beauty, he decided to utilize it for his research into the “Total Image” with an ongoing experiment in the use and effects of an artistic creation that introduces the individual into the heart itself of the image. The Cathédrale d'images was born and has been presenting audiovisual shows for 30 years now.

In 2011, the town of Les Baux-de-Provence entrusted Culturespaces with the management of its famous quarry as part of a public services contract. Renamed "Carrières de Lumières", it is a fantastic laboratory of creativity for Culturespaces which has developed there an innovative concept: AMIEX® (Art and Music Immersive Experience).

---

Maussane

---

Aix

---

Camargue

While the flamingos are the Camargue's most emblematic birds, the area is more historically famous for its white horses. The Camargue's horses are a special breed, reputedly one of the oldest breeds of horses in the world, and they have lived in the very particular environment of the Camargues saline wetlands for thousands of years. While some live in semi-wild conditions, most are now used either by the Camargue's traditional cowboys, for herding and rounding up the area's distinctive black bulls, or else for pony trekking.

---

Reims

It was at Reims in 1962 that the Franco-German reconciliation was made official. A mass at the Cathedral in the presence of General De Gaulle and German Chancellor Adenauer laid the foundations of European reconstruction.

From an architectural perspective, the cathedral of Reims is exquisite because it demonstrates the mastery of the most innovative of thirteenth century techniques. Admire the harmony of its proportions and the purity of its lines, giving a unique character to this masterpiece of religious architecture, 150 meters long, with towers rising 80 meters above the roof.

---

Tony Skagg

---

---