Travel Feature
A trip to the Sublime
FYI, so I've done a fair amount of traveling. Mom trained me young. I've
been to five continents, 45 of the 50 US states, 17 countries...yada, yada,
yada.
All of which doesn't mean much of anything other than, well, when I
say a vacation was impressive, its not like I'm talking in a vacuum.
All of which is a long winded intro (am I ever anything but) to this...The
vacation I took to France in October of 1999 was one of the best that I
have ever taken.
I stayed in chateaux. I ate incredible food. I saw castles and cathedrals
and quaint villages.
And best of all, I experienced Stendahl's Syndrome twice (that's when
you see stuff so cool that you get dizzy).
The first time was when I stood in a cave in the Dordogne region and
looked at prehistoric cave paintings. They were so vivid and so alive...
I felt like that ancient artist was reaching forward and I was reaching
back and for a moment, I could see his (or her, no sexist I) world.
The second time occurred at Notre Dame where we were lucky enough to
attend a choral music concert. Sitting there in a place that has seen so
much history, where the walls just just climb up and up. Listening to the
sound of the Great Organ, like God's voice reaching down. Listening to
the sounds of the choral singers responding, like humanity reaching towards
the divine. And as I sat there, I thought about how people have sat in
this place for centuries and listened to the same thing. It was incredible
Why was our vacation so incredible. Two reasons really. We did allot
of planning. We were flexible once we got there.
We read a number of books on France. Lets
Go France is a Student Guide book. It is irreverent, has interesting
off-beat information and has good info on how to get around. Eyewitness
Travel Guide: France has good historical and cultural information
and most importantly color pictures and timelines.
If you want to see the cave paintings in the Dordogne region, you need
to make your reservations at least six months in advance. (There are quite
a few caves in the region and any good guide book will have contact information)
One of the best things that we did was contact the French
Tourist Bureau and request some of their free publications. They sent
us a great book which listed chateaux/hotels in France. They were not that
expensive and half of them looked like Sleeping Beauty's castle.
We did the research and it paid off. We saw incredible examples of:
castles, cathedrals, a Roman Arena that is still used, medieval villages,
the list is just too long.
If there were one thing I could change, it would be to not travel more
than a 100 miles a day. We were a little frazzled by the end.
Also, once you've done your planning and you are actually in the country...be
open to the possibilities. We had no idea that they were going to have
a concert in Notre Dame. But we saw the opportunity, we went, we had a
great time.
Life really am good.
For more details on the trip itself, visit
lifeamgood's sister site. |
