14 mars 2007
On the road again
2006 has been a travelless year. It was starting to weigh on my mind. I'm a restless girl. I've settled, true, bought a house and believe I'll grow old in the same one. But only because I expect to be moving around as often as possible during holidays and weekends. Except that when you're unemployed, you don't get holidays, or at least, you're not able to pay for them. That, plus the baby has kept me at home. I was going to write "us", but no, Ian still has the "conference escape route". The one thing I'm going to miss, having left science.
My lucky star seems to have decided that 2007 would see me going around a bit more. Already 10 days in the new year and we were spending a weekend in St-Etienne and Lyon, visiting my step daughter and my sis, respectively. Joe behaved quite nicely during the 4-hour trip.
Now we can say he's a good boy for even longer journeys by car. We just came back from a long weekend in Basel, where we attended my cousin's wedding. 760 km one way, 2 stops at mealtime and not too much crying in between. He slept a lot of course but also played quietly for a while.
It was an intense 5-days holiday: 2 days in the car, 1 day visiting friends in Alsace, 1 day walking around the old city, and 1 day for the wedding. For me, there was a lot of catching up. All the time I've spent abroad had kept me from spending more than a night in Basel on my several car trips across Europe. I hadn't been downtown for more than 10 years, and hadn't seen some of my relatives for as long. Kids were grown, and more importantly, exchanges were restored since most of them had learned french in the meantime.
Ian teased me that I was taking him for a trip through my childhood: my favourite fountain, by Jean Tinguely, the ferry, a "klöpfer" (sausage) for lunch. Sadly there was no time for the "zolli" (zoo). Even more sadly, my favourite toy store did not exist anymore. Imagine, a store with a slide going from the first to the ground floor. And I'll never be able to catch Joe at the bottom and see him running up "just one more time". The wedding was also taking us through more family traditions: the party was held at the Bottmingenschloss (photo), which has also seen my parents' and my aunt and uncle's weddings, my brother's Christening, and other family happenings. I have to say, there are worst places.
Being back home, I only feel like going away again. That was a too short trip. Next one will be a weekend close to Barcelona in a month. Then I'm looking forward to a week in a holiday house in Lozère with my family in July, and hopefuly another trip to Switzerland with some friends, and maybe also London to visit my parents in law. Staying close to France still, but better than nothing. And I'm still hoping for loads of visitors from further away!
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Tres beaux pastels!
Coucou! Jolan est deja un petit voyageur (c'est certainement genetique!). Continue bien de l'entrainer car je vous attends toujours "down under"! Je viens de voir tes pastels qui sont magnifiques. Felicitations pour ton expo!
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