This blog is on a sabbatical of sorts, with an occasional post to let you know I’m still around. I’m not sure when or if I will return to posting every day, but I can assure you that I still have much to see and do and to ponder and write about. The world demands only our brief presence with it, not our participation. Participation is a choice we make to dance with life in our time and place.
For the last two weeks I’ve been in France, experiencing that country’s joie de vivre first-hand, and also the extreme heat that has made the news around the world. The heat modified a few plans, but it didn’t cancel any. We are changed for having been there, which is exactly what travel offers. Will it influence my daily rituals now that I’ve returned? Almost certainly. Just as assuredly, my perspective and writing will also be transformed for having been. With France, you never really leave it, it stays with you for as long as memories do.
Rather than post a bunch of familiar pictures of the Eiffel Tower or the Mona Lisa or some such bucket list item, here are three pictures of the sun from uniquely beautiful locations. Each has their own story, as each day must. Like every great experience in a lifetime, we will linger on each memory with the hope of returning one day.
The sun slowly dropping into the hazy English Channel as seen from the top of the hill at Arromanches-les-Baines in Normandy. 82 years ago this was the sight of “Port Winston”, the artificial port built here to create the essential supply chain that would decide the outcome of World War II. A visit reminds you not only of the sacrifice of so many, but the stunningly beautiful place that it had been before the German occupation and is once again.The sun rising above the mud flats and shifting sands of the Bay of Mont Saint-Michel. There is quicksand and a rapidly rising tide in the flats, making it treacherous for those who don’t heed the warnings. Mont Saint-Michel is a stunning destination worthy of the pilgrimage so many took to arrive here. We spent one night on the island, which gave me the opportunity to take this photo as the new day began.Sun setting over the Loire River from the banks of Amboise, France. Just behind me over my right shoulder is the Château Royal d’Amboise, where Francis I, former King of France, lived. Francis invited Leonardo da Vinci to spend his final years in Amboise, given a generous stipend and a home at Château du Clos Lucé just up the road. Leonardo da Vinci final resting place is in Amboise, supposedly in the Château Royal d’Amboise with a view similar to this sunset view. I can think of worse places to spend eternity.
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