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J-R Legacy Tour Part 3, Day 3 – Ascent to Paradise

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A desultory tourist day that would have been much more fun spent in bed in some silky southern French hotel, but, if you look from the negative point of view, we’ve been going nonstop for so long that we just get on and off the bus as we’re told, and we’re too tired to mutiny. From the positive point of view, we assume that everything we do has a higher purpose that we don’t necessarily see. The positive attitude keeps us in a state of trust and playfulness, and lifts us above the bickering and demands that could easily flood through a group tour like this. We’re kids at heart, and we play around in these tourist locations placing light and creating a good time just because we’ve decided to. And who knows, if we have a good enough time, somebody at some point may be healed by some chocolate or tourist trinket and there will be a new temple built on the spot.

We go to a beautiful Basque church that’s dark and disused and no longer has its own parish priest, and John and Vincent talk to anchor some light. Then a tour of a chocolate maker (exit through the gift shop) that from the looks on our faces would appear to be more healing than Lourdes. And then we’re on to some little town that’s like a Basque version of those tourist places like Solvang in the west or Pennsylvania Dutch something-or-other in the east that are designed to attract mainly females who are under 12 or over 50 with some kind of home-and-hearth feminine fantasy of unending and impregnable comfort and security, where the life has been sucked out so that only unthreatening cuteness and interminable shopping-trance opportunities remain. Lots of white buildings with red shutters. Exit through the gift shop.

This is France though, so the food is a lot better. We do what we do best, which is settle in to a restaurant to eat and have a good time. Ezra, who hasn’t been feeling well, falls asleep on a bench near the restaurant. Before long he has a hat next to him with a few Euros in it, everybody’s laughing, and some of the locals put a bottle of wine next to him. It becomes a running joke for the whole café. Some passersby wonder why we’re laughing at this poor guy. He wakes up, looks at the hat and at the wine bottle, and starts cracking up.

Then it’s on to some other seaside town that’s very pretty and peaceful, that has some historical significance that you could look up in wikipedia if I had the energy to find out what its name was. And then, like everywhere in France, you find some little mom-and-pop place that has food like a 5-star restaurant. I settle into a delightful café that has “tarts” that are kind of like quiches, with vegetables and cheese or various combinations of carrot/squash purées or meats or sweet creamy concoctions, and ride out an hour of off-the-bus time enjoying these small masterpieces. The place is simple, friendly, and the owner-chef has some great American folk-blues on the sound system.

We’re at the seaside now, approaching Biarritz, and you can tell that this is the place where the people with money and position came to play while the rest of Europe killed each other off. It’s so serene. There’s no hint of anything that would offend the senses. We arrive at our hotel on a small lake surrounded by trees, and there’s a harmony that you might find in Hawaii or Martha’s Vineyard, but with a French delicacy and taste that isn’t just physical but extends into the mental, where every nuance of proportion has been considered and perfected. The body, emotions and mind go into a state of relaxation that reminds you that we are, after all, humans and have sensitivity and value beyond our productive capacity or our ability to get on and off a bus. We’re actually going to stay here for several days, I think, which after nearly a month of hotel changes and military-style luggage maneuvers is a welcome luxury. We dress for a late gourmet (in French “gastronomique”) dinner and it’s like a victory celebration after a long war.

6 thoughts on “J-R Legacy Tour Part 3, Day 3 – Ascent to Paradise”

  1. Across the world, across the ages, no matter the occasion and circumstances – it always ends in a celebration meal breaking bread and sharing good food, good wine and good hearts. Keep up – bon appetite!

  2. I’m wondering whether the seaside town before Biarritz was St Jean de Luz (St John of Light). Would make sense… beautiful place. Thanks for the (by turns) hilarious, sacrilegious and sacred sharing, David! It brings the trip to life.

  3. That’s it; I want to live in Biarritz! Is there an MSIA group there that speaks fluent English? 🙂 Yet again, David’s elevated and elevating writing . . . The next best thing to being there.

    1. Be careful what you ask for. Today I had the chance to see a bit of the suburban area outside of our little enclave and it’s full of small malls, cheap modern commercial buildings, and the usual garish signage that resemble the suburban areas around Boston or other east coast cities. Not as nasty as California suburbia, and integrated with some older architecture like on the U.S. east coast, but not something that’s going to give you any kind of escape from the modern American landscape.

      1. {{{{sigh}}} . . . *Quelle domage* . . . Guess I’ll stick with the Pacific surf and the *beaucoup* casinos of Vegas and U.S. reservations! Light & blessings to all. Come home soon!

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