E-travel with Drom!

Drom! Lovely - BUT - I am much more deserving of such a glorious bird than Gus is - he has unnatural congress with his poor livestock.

Puhleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeze give me the parrot instead?

Perhaps you may fill us in on the blasphemy argument, as well as the scenery and people?

(Demanding ain't I?)

Clary, Do you remember the name of that boat restaurant? Was the food any good?

drom, you could go on and on re any obsevations, external or internal as you go and at least some of us would be interested. Carry on, nurse.

Hello, Drom! I just found this thread & am reading with interest. You sound so FREE! I'm really looking forward to your travel stories. Good luck & travel safely!

lurking, watching, waiting.........

Drom.... we want to hear more, even if it is about the rain in Spain or France or Armenia.

What are you eating? Where are you staying? Is the coffee any good? Tell us more about Armenia!!! Or Blasphemy...

(Hey, Osso... Driving 101 is a great idea!)

Hey, Piffka, Msolga, Clary, Deb, Margo, CI, Husker, Jes, Gus, Noddy, Colorbook, Pueo & everyone else:

Husker, that is indeed; in fact, my place is very near where that photograph was taken. I have been to Armenia once before, Osso, to house-hunt; my stay there was brief, but really enjoyable (despite the incomprehensible alphabet.)

Thank you for your interest and well-wishes. Deb; thank you for reminding me about Gus. I had forgotten about how he had behaved towards my parikeet. So, you can gave the parrot, and also, if you wish, a penguin that followed me from some 'zoo' on route 1.

From Saturday until Friday, I wrote over three hundred pages: they just need ordering, typing up, translating, making coherent-- and the time to do all this, despite writing still! You see, one of my biggest fears is getting Alzheimer's or something in age, and this-- combined with my mind's needing to be occupied with something all the time-- mean that I'm writing all the time.

The story gets much weirder; as it poured down all week, I was in a lot of contact with fellow inhabitants, and they included an attention-starving girl who had a 'tragic rabbit,' and 'could hear the clowns talking to her at night;' a perverted so-and-so who went on about violating sheep and about what he would like to do to the French waiter, a poor chap called Morgan; his love, too, for the woman in the chalet who was pretending to be engaged to a hysterical Italian spendthrift... and quite a lot more; I'm awful as synopsising, especially when synopsising what I've written myself.

While I was trying to order things out, I decided to write this in response to Osso's thread, about the driving part of my travels; however, after its being lost twice, it is rather abridged. I'll be back with more soon, but it requires quiet and time .

[...]

The people with whom I was driving first are people who should be divided, if not by a substantial sea then by continents. They argue about everything;-- at one point, they were even knocking on about dog biscuits, and it seemed like an argument. When one questions them about why they are arguing, they just say 'for the sake of it,' and then shrug it off.'

Yet, nothing could detract me from admiring the landscape, and the odd beauty of closed vineyards and shards of grass sprouting up on either side of the window in their poxy car. The day was hazily warm, and so our disagreeable drivers dropped off every thirty minutes into one aire

I got my passport Drom, and am ready to travel. Also, bring me a shot glass :-)

Excellent, Onyx! Experiencing the local drinks is, after all... culturally rewarding!

I've had the same feeling re passing Paris, Drom:
did so just some weeks ago and the same will happen again in four weeks time.

(Because I was on my own, I could stroll/drive around Paris [and suburbs] at night, just as I liked: phantastic, the life there between midnight and five o'clock in the morning:
Il est cinq heures
Paris s'éveille
Paris s'éveille

Les banlieusards sont dans les gares
A la Villette on tranche le lard
Paris by night, regagne les cars
Les boulangers font des bâtards

Il est cinq heures
Paris s'éveille
Paris s'éveille

La tour Eiffel a froid aux pieds
L'Arc de Triomphe est ranimé
Et l'Obélisque est bien dressé
Entre la nuit et la journée

Il est cinq heures
Paris s'éveille
Paris s'éveille

Les journaux sont imprimés
Les ouvriers sont déprimés
Les gens se lèvent, ils sont brimés
C'est l'heure où je vais me coucher

Il est cinq heures
Paris se lève
Il est cinq heures
Je n'ai pas sommeil. :wink: )

Thanks for your travel reports!!!

<Just thinking that some might be interesting to view some parts of what Drom described so beautiful in her letters - which can [partly] be done at this "virtual cultural Tour de France" >

Thanks for reading, Walter! I am glad to see that I'm not the only one who prefers Paris in the middle of the night. Somehow, the beauty of it all is far heightened in the dark, without tourists or even many locals. In some places, one can imagine characters from le rouge et le noir, or L'education sentimentale, appearing; it's weird.

I do hope that you enjoy your passing through Paris; will you be with anyone, or will you be free to explore again? (And thank you for the song; I loved it.)

CI; if you're ever passing through Armenia, you know that I'll put you up.

drom, Thanks. Will try to remember your kind offer.

Well, it's a kind of birthday present for Mrs. Walter: we'll stay in Courbevoie (which is next to La Defense [where I photographed by a speed camera that said night ]).
We will go mainly to Rueil-Malmaison, St. Cloud and the Versailles gardens (the last is, what we always do .... after 6 pm, when only the locals are there :wink: ). (Mrs. Walter is a fan of Joséphine.)

Hello, drom-! et. al I finally got here (in the middle of the night!) I've enjoyed talking with you in the games and I await more tales of your travels, my friend!

Just dropped in from my fun and stimulating literary festival to say no, I'm sorry c.i. I don't remember the restaurant boat's name but I think it's a well-known attraction and easy to find - Constanza is a small city, and rather Greek.

Drom, quelle tour de force, I love to read it and I think you should definitely be a speaker at Ways With Words next July - they like you to have a book to sign, so perhaps the July after when the amazing novel(s) you have written in Armenia are short-listed for the Booker. Yesterday there was A C Grayling, Cole Morton and Annette Kobak who've written about their fathers and family secrets; Robin Cook the cabinet minister who resigned from the government over the Iraq War, Bernice Rubens, Clive James - loads more too!

Wonder where you are now?

Hi Drom!

Armenia was on the front page of the Washington Post yesterday -- Not the best of news, either.



Maybe your moving there will help some people find a reason to stay. You'll be bringing money to the country which is bound to help -- and maybe you'll hire some people there to help you. The USA also has places that have not been part of the supposedly general trend towards economic growth. Finding a commercially viable product or service can be very hard, but seems so necessary in this world.

Wishing you clear skies and friendly smiles. P

Cool idea, Clary -- Drom speaking at Way with Words!

I know I've told this story about one of my stays in Paris, but I know it's worth repeating, because so many haven't heard. This was many years ago, I think in 1990, but I stayed at the hotel du Palais in Place du Chatalet next to the river. It was a walkup, and I was given the room next to the river. I had the window open, since the hotel didn't have ac, and was ready to fall asleep at about 10PM, when a very bright light lit my room. I thought, wow, He's here! (You know, the second coming of christ.) It was a river cruise boat passing by.

Yes, c.i., those French: can't speak English properly, have only wholes in the wall for air-ciculation and let Him do St. Peter's old job like on the Lake Genezareth. :wink: