Twenty-Five Travelogues 1997 - 2023
by Dawn Kramer (Click here to see her Choreographic Work) and
Stephen Buck (Click here to see his site)
Next Trip
Going to Who Knows Where
Who Knows When
Thinking about the Past Trip and the Next One
"What was your Favorite Place", We want to comment on this popular question and start to setup how we are going to think about the next trip
All Trips (starting with most recent)
2023 A Return to Mexico
March 7 to April 3
We flew from Havana to the city of Mérida in the Yucatán.
We tested positive for Covid, found a doctor, spent six days in isolation, rented a car and traveled through the Yucatán Peninsula having used AirBnb and Booking.com to find places to stay. We spent two nights in Puerto Moreles, south of Cancun, at the end so we could fly back to Boston non-stop on Jet Blue.
2023 The First Time to Cuba
February 22 to March 7
We flew to Havana through Miami
After some days in the capital, walking on the Malecón, visiting Museums, clubs, etc., we traveled to the city of Trinidad, staying at La Boca, a small fishing village, a fifteen minute taxi ride from Playa Ancón. We returned to Havana for one night before flying to Mérida
In 2014, some enterprising artists including X Alphonso converted an old cooking oil factory into a wonderland of experiences. The Fabrica de Arte Cubano (FAC) has a warren of different rooms on several levels, plus outdoor courtyard spaces and a couple of large, flexible spaces with huge video screens that host performances and dancing. The place is filled with contemporary art of all kinds
2022 Return to France
July 8 to August 5
Flew to Paris, Went to Cézac with Isabelle, then Les Cévennes, then back to Paris.
We mostly visited friends except for the week in the Cévennes. We stayeed in hotels
rather than Airbnbs although the one in Paris had a small kitchen.
It was too hot to have lunch at the cafe so we shopped and we about to start home when Isabelle got a call from her friend, Reneé. She had no one to bring her lunch. So we turned around and had lunch with her. We arrived and scurried around setting the table, finding food, hers and ours, plates, glasses until we finally sat down for lunch.
2022 Trip to See Family
March 19 to April 12
Two Places in Baja Sur, Mexico, then Utah and Denver.
It started out by wanting to visit Andrew, Dawn's bother in Utah and then thinking we should visit Amber. Things snowballed from there. We decided to visit Cabo near where Amber, Patick, Lily and Cole were staying, but it turned out they had an extra bedroom, so now we stayed with them. The visit to Utah settled in after Cabo and a call to Jamie led to finishing up the trip in Denver that was postponed at the end of our 2020 Mexico trip.
2020 Second Year in Oaxaca
February 5 to March 21
San Francisco, Oaxaca, then the beach in Mexico
We took a trip to Oaxaca with a stop on the way in California to see family much like last year. We stayed in Oaxaca for a month and then went to Brisas de Zicatela for three weeks, but we had to return ten days early because the coronavirus threw a monkey wrench into our plans. We flew back on Dawn's birthday and then self quarantined for fourteen days.
2019 Corsica/Paris
October 3 to 31
First Trip to Corsica, Then on to Paris
The first plan was to stay a month in Paris, but Dawn got nervous about too many trips to the same place, so I changed the first two weeks to Corsica. We visited Corbara, Corte, Ajaccio, Sari-Solenzara, Bonifacio and Sartene. Then we flew to Paris and stayed in the eleventh.
Two thing come up here. One is the fact that all we are listening to here is American popular music. In all the restaurants and bars. The second is as restaurants move to the outlying districts of Paris because of high rents, they put more and more tables into the small spaces they use. I am waiting for the first restaurant where we sit in each other's laps.
2019 Oaxaca, Mexico
February through March
First Time in Oaxaca
We took a trip to Oaxaca with a stop in California to see family. We stayed in four different places in Mexico and did get to the beach. We met a lot of interesting people. We returned on April 1 and hoped that Spring would be just around the corner.
2018 Guadeloupe
January 14 through March 5
Three Times a Charm
We were in Guadeloupe again this year. We stayed in four different places including Marie Galante for a week each and then three weeks at Gite Mangoplaya with its captivating sunsets.
2017 Visiting in Europe
September through November
Europe, a Whirlwind
We headed for Rome, Padua, Pesaro, Bologna, Parma and the Lake District in Italy, then Thich Nhat Hanh's Meditation Center (New Hamlet) at Plum Village near Bordeaux and finally Paris.
I like to write about where I am writing. This time is it the Dock Bar, around the corner from the Opera Garnier, the old one of mythical fame, where now they present mostly dance, where Dawn and Isabelle at the moment are attending a dress rehearsal with a packed house of invited guests.
2017 West
March-April
Going to the West
After returning home from Guadaloupe for a few weeks, we visited family in Colorado, Utah and California.
2017 Guadeloupe
January-March
Back to Guadeloupe
We stayed in three different places for a week each and then a month on Basse Terre. And finished up with a single night in Gosier to make our flying out easier.
2016 A Four Month Trip
January through April
Avoiding Winter
We started the afternoon of New Year's Eve by flying to Guadeloupe.
After a month, we passed through Paris for a week on our way to
Morocco. A week in Marrakech, two in Essaouira and one in Casablanca.
After that, six weeks in Provence in two different towns, Le Paradou
and Goult, and we took the IDTGV to Paris for the two weeks, except
that Dawn spent that last week in California. This trip was designed to
be in only French speaking countries to help Stephen with his language
issues.
2014 A Nine Month Trip in Three Parts
We did a trip to California to stay with famiy for three months, then two months in Guanajuato, Mexico and another month visiting Mexico city and a small fishing village in the Yucatan. Then we lived in three different apartments in Paris. where we started using Airbnb when we lost our housing last minute. Up until now, all our trips have been about going away and then coming back. This time we are going to attempt to take our " here" with us and be home in another place.
2013 Southern France
2013
Meeting up with Adam's Family
Visited Bordeaux, the Pyrenees and spent a week with Adam's family in the Dordogne near Bergerac.
2012 Dawn's Sabbatical
Fall
Wandering about Europe.
Made site-specific performance videos in Ireland, France and Sicily. Then went to Florence, Berlin and Dublin
2010 Bogliasco and Rome
November
A Residency
We stopped off in Lucca before starting the residency. After that, we returned to Rome during Christmas week. Lucca and Bogliasco are finished but our week in Rome may never be.
2010 Kyoto
July
A Trip to make Videos
We went to Kyoto and made three silent video/movement poems and met some wonderful people. We found a bar called Bambu. Although no one who worked there spoke English, they had picture menus that helped us order food. (Also it helped your social life with phrases helping you get phone numbers.)
Kumiko was there both of the evenings because she instructed the owner to call her if we ever returned. Click the link for more details.
2009 Photo Gallery of Trip to France
Spring
Paris, Then the South of France
We think there was a travelogue but it seems lost. We have found some writing but we are still looking for the rest of it.
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
2007 Brittany Slide Show
Spring
Paris then Brittany
Wandered around Brittany looking for good weather and having fun. Made a slide show rather than write.
In the photo is Isabelle Mahea, our good friend who lives in Paris with Dawn outside the Picasso Museum.
2006 Ski Trip
January
Skiing in the Alps
We flew over on New Year's Eve and back on Friday the 13th for the cheapest fare imaginable. We took an overnight sleeper from Paris to Briançon, and cross-country skied next to fifteenth century churches in the Vallé de Clairé. We skied up the col d'Echelle to look down on the Turin Olympic venue and then up the Col d'Isoard where the most luxurious restaurant awaited us near the top of this famous Tour de France pass.
2005 A Place in the Fifth
March
A week in Paris
A one week trip to Paris to celebrate Dawn's 60th birthday. She is kind of pensive because we are visiting the neighborhood where Dawn's mother lived with her family when she was a young girl.
The photo at left is of Aude on the swings in the park. Here you pay a few coins for the child to take a turn on the "balancoire," which is maintained and supervised for safety and proper turn-taking. Isabelle told us that the lady who supervises the swings is the granddaughter of the woman who used to have that job when Isabelle took her babies to the same Jardin du Luxembourg.
2004 A Month in the Country
May 24 to June 22
Return trip to France
A week visiting our friends, Isabelle and Jean in Cezac, a week in the Cathares country
near the Pyrenees and two weeks hiking inn to inn in the Vaucluse west of Avignon, circling the town of Apt.
We received two very unlikely phone calls because we thought we were unreachable.
To the left, our hotel in Avignon where we left our luggage while using our backpacks to hike.
2004 A Retreat
January
Puerto Rico trip
A yoga trip to deal with the death of Dawn's mom. We stayed for four days in the central highlands and then drove down to the coast to take a ferry to Culebra where in the photo Dawn is hiking to the beach.
2002 Escape to France
June to July
Return Trip to France
We needed a short getaway and we took it. We went south again
through Sancerre where we investigated that beautiful wine. Met three
wonderful French couples. After returning to Paris on the Autoroute we met
Malek and watched Olivier teach a class.
In the photo, The refrectory at Noirlac glowing in the sun.
1999 Return to Paradise
June to July
Return Trip to France
Dawn's son got married, and we celebrated with our own trip. We
went back to Le Lot and then wended our way back to Paris looking at
old Romanesque churches and the Cathedrals at Bourges and Chartres as
we went. We celebrated Bastille Day in Paris and then flew home.
In the photo. Dawn and Jean Maheu in deep discussion
1997 A Trip in Three Parts
January through June
Our First Trip
Costa Rica, Italy, Prague and France. January through June, 1997.
We were both in our fifties and self-unemployed. Dawn was a modern
dance choreographer and I was a theatrical lighting designer. We took
six months off in response to the death of my parents and our own need
to re-evaluate our lives. We took the laptop and emailed our friends as
we went along. In the photo, we are letting the setting sun wash over us.
Copyright: Stephen Buck 2023