Tuesday, October 30, 2012

driving beyond flight routes

Last Saturday, myself and about a dozen other students boarded a bus to Bayeux. You may not have heard of this small town in Normandy, but many visitors come to view the 70 meter-long, 1,000+ year-old Bayeux tapestry. Lonely Planet says it is also the first French town to be liberated after D-Day and is one of the few in the region to have survived WWII mostly unscathed (in the sense of its original architecture).
[la Tapestrie de Bayeux]



To be honest, I hadn't known it existed either... and that fact alone made me think of the places of I've been and why. I like cities, I do. I love the energy and the diversity of people and the endless opportunities for culture, but I also appreciate the charm of a small town and I'm afraid most of us don't visit them enough from lack of convenience. It's simply easier to fly to somewhere well known. Think about it though; if I'd only relied on fast travel in France, I wouldn't have discovered my favorite garden or my favorite cathedral. There's something inherently special about driving (across a country). And with that, I'm off to enjoy a crêpe-filled fall break in Brittany. Au revoir, happy halloween, and to my favorite big city, my thoughts and heart are with you.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Penny for your thoughts...