vineyard and swimming pool in the bourgone

It was in the middle of summer, several years ago. At the time, my GPS was suddenly frozen and oddly stopped catching signals from a satellite. I drove my beloved blue Peugeot 207 on a highway going to Beaune from Dijon, where I never came before, thus, doubtlessly I was a new comer knowing nothing which exits or routes I should go without my mighty GPS. So, quite naturally, I had no choice but took first exit I found after having lost any GPS-signals, and entered an unknown small town in the Bourgogne region.

The town was located between gentle hills covered with quasi-ever green, most parts of which were, of course, vineyards. I drove around this small town for looking for a parking space, where I stopped my Peugeot in order to figure out what was going on with my GPS. The town was so small that in fact, I hardly found any parking lots, so, made a short stop on a small open space in front of a high school. 

To say precisely, it was in front of the school's outside swimming-pool, so, while waiting for my GPS coming normal after completing shutdown and restart operation, I just listened to joyful cheers of students enjoying their swimming lessen in the summer afternoon. I felt dry and gentle breezes coming from my car window, and they also went inside an old three-story apartment next to the high school, opened its windows widely.

Here was in the small town, Bourgogne, France.

chimney with weathered crimson bricks

Coming to the outskirts of Lille, I found the chimney of the old fabric factory rising into the sky, covered with weathered crimson bricks. I heard the factory was closed a long time ago, maybe for decades, hardly used for any business for a while. Then, when the town-council, some businessmen and developers somehow found and agreed with its potential, it was re-constructed or re-developed as a middle sized outlet-shopping mall, while being preserved it's old fashioned facade with the symbolic sky-high chimney. It was a decade ago, and on its grand opening day when the factory-mall was officially given a new life, I could imagine that a crowd of people around here were coming, walking and shopping like kids as if entering their dreamland for the first time in life.
 
Just several years later, I found people in here actually preferring to walk and window-shopping more slowly than used to be. As a consequence, several tenants had already closed its stores, and never comes new ones. Still the sky high chimney was there, and I could see it from my car window, while driving for a while to go home.

Here was the outskirts of Lille, France

paris marathon, not this year

Back in Paris, the Paris marathon was my first full marathon, and one of the most enjoyable runs in my narrow running history. One of the most memorable moments for me came at the very first of the marathon. We just began running through l'Avenue des Champs-Élysées to the Concord square. At 8:30, still just a few crowds were on the both sides of the avenue, and a few runners, who might miss a precious opportunity to go to the restroom before start, were just wandering around there to look for a toilet. 


We were heading to place de la Bastille, then going to bois de Vicennes, and coming back to Bastille square again. Then we found la Seine on our left. I remember that I saw only the top of cathedral Notre-Dame while running, but it was soon disappeared. After going through a tunnel near the riverside of Concord square, many found la tour Eiffel suddenly over la Seine on the left, maybe, it was around 30 km. And at the point, I remember I reduced my speed significantly simply for being tired, and mainly for fully enjoying scenery of rest of the course. After this point, I surely enjoyed the race with very slow speed, occasionally walking, but curiously enough, I have absolutely less memories of this last 10 km than the first 30km with my maximum speed for a long run. For last 10km, we went into bois de Boulogue, then headed for Arc de Triomphe, the official goal of this marathon. 


One impressive memory. It was maybe just 500m before the goal, I fully enjoyed my walking with seeing the surrounding, including both sides of the course, and its crowds, then seeing the back, thinking how far I've just run at this moment. Maybe, a runner walking and seeing the surrounding with pleasure (especially in front of the goal, not using final propulsion power) like me seemed to be very rare, so at the time, some crowds and runners coming behind me encouraged me, saying "don't give up! you are almost there!" With smile, I fully appreciated them, their kindness. 


Here was Paris.  

sipping a cafe at the coast of nice

Sipping a cafe at the coast of Nice, I just remember that one of my colleagues in my previous office came here, in order to participate in two weeks French language program at the center of this city, as his summer vacation. He then lived in Brussels, so took a flight to go here, and lent an apartment room/studio near the school for two weeks. It was a small, but cozy room, he said, and everyday he prepared for French lessons, and studied in the school during the day, then came back to apartment and cooked for dinner. 


That did not sound like "vacation", I said to him after he came back to the office at the time. And his response was that, of course, he and fellow students in the same course, occasionally or each weekend, went to a bar or restaurant for dinner, for getting to know each other, or just for joy. 


The program had one day field trip in the city to learn city's history by visiting its landmarks, by walk. And my colleague said that he had an pretty interesting impression on the historical background of one of its fountains. I almost forget why he had such an impression, and at this moment, I have totally no idea where that fountain is/was in this city. So now, all I can do is just sipping a cafe again, and listening to the sound of eternal sea waves.


Nice, France.

la seine runs from le harvre to paris

When I saw la Seine, I was driving over the highway near le Harvre. There were several big gray plants and ports along with the river, actually I had totally no idea about what these plants did make actually, and a few big tankers were running against the flow. The color of la Saine at this point was somehow grey and slight-brown. I did not remember whether the day before I came here was an rainy day or not.


I came to the museum standing near the bank of the mouth of the river. After seeing several impressionists there, I took a coffee in the cafe of the museum. The cafe was at the corner of the second floor, and had big windows facing the river. 


While sitting and sipping the hot coffee, I was watching a big ferry coming from la Saine. That big ferry apparently did not come from Paris, but I just came to have an idea that what if I have a middle sized fishing boat, I might be able to go to the Paris along with this river.  What if I was just teenager and took on that middle sized fishing boat, I might take a night to go to Paris, and in the very early morning, I might see a riverbank of Paris and a girl, Parisienne, standing there with a beautiful hat. The breeze was, of course, nice.


Here was le Harvre, where I smelt the tide.

in front of the restaurant in honfleur

At the time, I had a reservation for dinner at a restaurant in Honfleur, which I found in an article of a well-sold travel magazine. My reservation was at 19:00, but I just came there around 18:00, and found that still the chefs and waiters there looked too busy for their preparation to welcome its guests. So, I decided to enjoy my evening-walking around its old, narrow, but familiar or better to say "bon vieux" paths and alleys near there.

In alleys, there were always familiar smells of old town. People in here were mainly tourists who looked at windows of restaurant, shops and stores, which were selling classic antiques, paintings of modern impressionists, or ice creams made from regional milk. Sometimes, there were residents who just sit behind the window and just stared at a passerby quietly.

When coming back to my restaurant around 18:50, I found the chefs of the other restaurant nearby, sitting on the small stone stairs and smoking vacantly. They seemed to be parts of the old town nicely, without questions and reasons, at the time, at least for me.

Here was Honfleur, Normandie.

juveniles on a beach at night

I saw a few bats flying under cover of night in Nice. The night breeze was basically warm in April here, sometimes I felt a little bit cold flow of the air, which certainly contained the smell of the sea, a part of the Mediterranean Sea.
But with this flow, the breeze was nice, so nice.

I heard the sounds of waves, cars on the roads, and rustling leaves of palms. Moreover, the breeze brought me whispering of several juveniles on a beach. They were just in front of the shoreline, and talking, laughing, throwing a stone into white waves, and even running with each other like 100m sprint.

Here was Nice, I just kept walking on the Promenade des Anglais.

champs-elysees, sky high

Walking down the avenue des Champs-Elysees, I found the sky was so high and blue. And turning around, I also found, though it is obvious, needless to say, the Arc de Triomphe was there.

The typical famous spot is not so bad in case you are in a sky-blue (not blue-sky, in term of the nuance of word, anyway).

The day was so hot, about eight of ten people I pass on this avenue wore sunglasses.

Unlike Brussels, in Paris, I found several Starbucks"es" around corners of the streets and avenues. And on this hot day, maybe seven of ten people want to have a "frappuccino", frozen drink, which has been trade marked by the company. I'm the one who got a caramel-taste.

The reason why I came here was so simple. Maybe, it was my sophomore year of high school, I read a comic book, which was about "judo- (sports from Japan) girl". In that comic book, father of the judo-girl had been in a vagrant life, and began to teach the judo-tech for the French archrival of his daughter in Paris. The mother of the judo-girl realized her husband was in Paris, then said "I'm looking forward to walking down the avenue des Champs-Elysees with family".

So, I'm walking down the ave.

Here is Paris, France.