Va et Vient

10:00 am, the day before we leave, and Partner is trying on clothes in an attempt to figure out what to pack. I am blogging, but this should not delude you into thinking I am not full of stress about how to pack for this trip. We leave tomorrow night, fly to Paris, then fly to Barcelona, spend a night there, fly to Menorca and stay there for a week. We plan on doing a little SCUBA diving, but mostly we are looking forward to relaxing and hanging out with our friends who we are meeting there. I plan on many wine soaked afternoons and evenings. There is a farmer's market on the Saturday after we get there, and we have a kitchen in our condo, so I'll be heading over there for some local produce and cheese, glorious cheese. I tell you, I am going to eat so much goat cheese that I may sound like this by the time I get home.

It's fairly clear what to pack for this leg of the journey, but the big question is do we pack our fins, masks, snorkels, etc? We don't own regulators or BCs, so that isn't an issue. We're renting all that and our dive suits there-- I think we should just pack our booties, masks, and snorkels, but if we want to snorkel, it's really so much better with fins, but at the same time, so damn cumbersome. If we were only going to be on Menorca, I'd pack it with no second thoughts, but after we leave Menorca, we're off to gay Paris.

C'est vrai-- the city of light. I have pages and pages of suggested things to do from many different quarters: my dissertation advisor, a friend who owns a house an hour outside of Paris, and acquaintance mentioned earlier in this blog. There is no way we can do everything, and although I am well aware of the art and history that will be teeming around us, I am most excited to eat in Paris. I bought Great Eats Paris, and after reading a small section of this book, I have come to the conclusion that I should probably start fasting now in order to create room for all the food I will be stuffing into my gob.

It's a hard trip to pack for-- we'll be gone two weeks, No algebra has ever prepared me to solve the formula of laid back island plus exciting, fashionable city, divided one small small bag. When we were in the UK last year, it was so much easier to pack. Plus, since I have lived in London, I didn't feel any trepidation at all about how people in London look-- but Paris! Mon Dieu-- I have visions of Chanel and les petites chiens and me, clunking along aside them with my sac au dos and comfortable shoes, shoving croissant and pain au chocolate down my throat. It ain't an elegant site, for sure.

Anyhow, I'll probably add an entry or two before I leave, and I'll keep my eye peeled for a bloggable station on our trip to add an update or two, but since we leave tomorrow night, and won't be back for two weeks, I thought I'd add an 'a bientôt' and an appraisal of where I'll be disappearing off to. And we are still open to more suggestions for our travel folder if you know someplace in Paris we just have to see!