travel report 1 - Vienna to Philipps Wedding

Bonjour Mes Amis,

I am now in a small village north of Aix en Provence, called Pertuis.
I am staying with my friend Caroline and her sister and her mother.
I know you have been anxiously (right) awaiting a report of my
amazing travels or at least a blog entry every once in a while.
Alas, I am completely de-technologized, have no lap top and
no phone and no nothing. I tell it is rather strange not to
be able to JFGI everything that I need to know exactly at the time
that I want to know it. Now, most people will extol the virtues of
disconnection from the web sphere, as they call it in this silly Sci Fi
book I am currently reading, however I think that's a bunch of BS.
I don't see what the value is in not being able to find out about a
particular church that I happen to come across by accident. Or for
example not being informed that the aircondition in your house just
went out (sorry, Assar, you might get a call). In any case, that is
the case, and I try to make my way across the EU in this fashion.
My only consolation is that humanity used to be able to exist without
these little tech helpers for a long time, so I should be able to as
well.





chez mon parents

As you all know I started my trip out in Vienna. As it was the first time
that I did not feel stressed out for having to see everybody in a very
short amount of time I really enjoyed myself. Vienna in the summer
remains a nice place, and when I was there it wasn't too hot either.
After a week of eating lovely sausages and sleeping whenever the
jetlag felled me, I made my way to Munich to pick pick up some
people that were going to my cousins wedding with me, which was to
take place in Grenoble.



Cuz Philipp and I

Of course that was lovely as well,
especially the castle they had their celebration in after the short
but sweet Standesamt wedding. It was a castle in La Sone, as usual
they used to guard a river, blablabla, same as in all other places
and castles and rivers in EU. Well at least the Danube is like that.
But those were robber barons that used to rip of people travelling
down the river. Who ever said that the Austrians only like to marry
of their pretty large nosed daughters in order to improve their lot?!?!

Yes, I did wear
a suit to the
wedding. This is
me and my new
13 best friends.


Yes there were
many more
French relatives
of the bride
than German
ones. Yes, they
stayed true to
form and spoke
no languages
except their
own.Some people
mightsay that
that would be a good thing. I beg to differ. The strangest thing
is that my French is coming back. I think one day I will move to
the Provence, collect Lavender, learn pottery, read books about
Eating and Praying and learn French. For reals this time. Maybe
that way I can actually talk to all these Mediterranean Beauties
and find out why the cheese tastes so good when it smells so bad.
Oh, le fromage. Il est magnifique.Il est superb. It is as good as
my French is bad. During the wedding I stayed dans une Gite
(loosely pronounced *SHIT*, mais bien sur, les Francaise sont
crazy), with 13 of Philipps (my "throwing way his freedom cousin").

We bought cart loads of cheese, wine, and whatever else our starved
for good food minds could think of and had an absolutely marvelous
time. Seldom have I been welcomed by a group of strangers with open
arms such as they. It was down right un-german of them. Hung out for
three days around celebrating my cousin's wedding. It was so French
the whole experience, that the only thing that could top it would be
a trip across the Provence with a recent divorcee. Which is of course
the next thing that I did, except the recent divorcee I could not
recruit in time to make the cliché truly typical. The Gorge de Verdon
is indeed a nice canyon of good size. I had the incredible luck to run
across a camp site right in the canyon, and that's where I stayed the
night.



Astute students of geography that you all are, you of course know
that in my story parts are missing between the Gorge de Verdon and
Aix en Provence. That is for next time to tell.

Alors, a la prochaine!

Anyone who is not on this list, who should have this email, please
be so kind to forward.

Das dieses email auf English ist, ist natuerlich fuer alle nicht
englischsprechenden ein Kompliment.

Baba
Peter