Pause, reload, check, check ...
~ the pre-trip prep, then we go, but first we rest
Musings … my thoughts, every day since March 20, 2003 … now in my 24th year, haven’t missed a day; love the ‘likes’ - thanks to those who click the heart button, I’d love to see more comments and extensions of the conversation - so, please click the cloud-shaped balloon with your comments and/or suggestions - they make this writer better and are shared with all readers who get this publication.
Airport (CDG) Thursday, masquerades as recovery - ~ but it’s far more of a preparation day for a two-week road trip ...
A harsh critic might say that today’s Musing is light on conflict and heavy on atmosphere. Nothing dramatic happens, but that is also the point: it’s a threshold day, not a crisis to be navigated.
Before France becomes our collage of memories, meals and mustards, this necessary pause is preparation, ‘stock the car’ and miscellaneous purchases so we are ready to challenge country roads, rocky cliffs and measuring the quality of advice taken v. advice ignored ~ a truly necessary pause.
Some travel days look uneventful from the outside, which is how they get away with becoming so much when you aren’t noticing.
Before the road trip begins, we need sleep, breakfast, repacking, maps, and a small tactical surrender to tasks like rest, roll over, rest some more, and go to sleep will be a day free from transportation in any mode … the hotel is attached to the terminal where we land, and we pick up our rental car the next morning downstairs.
Montreal for a day was always part of the plan, due to a flight-connection challenge we already knew about. Still, it became what travel often becomes before the scenery arrives: a night-and-day collection of small things, most of them of little consequence.
Some rest happened, I suppose.
Work happened, too. I finished and published a project from the Air France lounge, with only minimal glitching of my glitches. The workaround worked, which may be the modern traveller’s victory parade.
Now comes Thursday at CDG.
Land. Eat. Sleep, maybe. Wander. Repack. Review maps. Try to remember where the clean socks went.
Isn’t this how most beginnings really begin?
Tomorrow morning, France will become more than a ‘clearing customs’ moment, more than an arrival stamp or a boarding pass and a serious discussion of what a ‘confirmed early check-in means’ (our flight arrived at 5:30, we were trying to check in at 7:00) in a hotel lobby, and luggage carts with attitude are behind us now, and we’re parked for a day and a night at the CDG Radisson Blu … a short walk from the car rental kiosk …
We’ll pick up a rental car roughly the size of a 4-seater golf cart without clubs, then point ourselves toward two weeks of roads, reservations, detours, villages, churches, markets, hills, questions, and meals we’ll still be describing incorrectly months from now.
That’s the plan, anyway.
We have destinations booked for every night.
Some days will have long drives. Some will have shorter ones. Each day should become a gastronomic adventure with sights to see.
Or a sightseeing adventure with food attached.
Possibly both.
Mostly, this is about doing things we’ve never done, visiting places we’ve never been, and finding small places with old stories waiting.
First, though, comes airport hotel rest on Thursday, masquerading as recovery.
The journey begins before the adventure does, in the small acts of getting ready to be changed by what comes next.
So happy to read that you are finally enjoying your next adventure.