Sunday, April 19, 2009

Where Wanderlust, Unchecked, Can Lead

To Paris!

Yes, to gilded, beautiful, Paris, France. We had something of a big family occasion that needed celebrating, so economy be darned, we girded ourselves and went.

For me, it was a week of much gawking and taking in the major sights -- the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Versailles. I also had ample chances to take my schoolgirl French out for a spin. It was once reasonably respectable but is now, after years of neglect, rather rusted out. (I once knew verb conjugations other than the present tense. Sigh.)

No matter, the people I tried to communicate with were commendably tolerant of my lapses, and often ridiculously helpful.

I stayed too busy sightseeing to do much shopping, and so I have something of a consequent dearth of fiber-related news to report (this despite the temptation offered by one guidebook that for mysterious reasons takes the trouble to point out a shop where whatever wool one might need can be had).

I will say, though, that among three women in our party who embarked on the airplane, there were five handknit garments being worn. Not a bad showing.

And, based on my observation, Parisian women do wear scarves with unmatched style. They make it look so good, it's really inspiring to try it out at home. I may have to think about adding a light-weight scarf somewhere not too far down in the knitting queue.

And of course I had to have a small portable knitting project for the trip. I did have a couple of books for the plane, but it's nice to be able to switch between reading and knitting at whim. So I also carried along some yarn from home.

I was reading Ernest Hemingway's A Moveable Feast, about his years in Paris, so that I could catch references to places that we might see. But honestly I am no great fan of Hemingway. Those stark, stripped-down sentences that he strives for -- searching self-consciously for "one true sentence" -- don't paint much of a picture for me. And his descriptions of other writers seem rather cruel. I wonder what they thought of this arrogant newcomer.

So now I have a very well-traveled sock-in-progress.

You'll have to take my word for it that these are the stones of the pavement beneath the Arc de Triomphe.

They are.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow! You know, I'm up for adoption and then you can take me anywhere...

Christina said...

Mmmm
"April in Paris"
Chic

Robin said...

Paris in the Springtime....... AHHHHHHHHHHHH, how wonderful!