Traveling is a mind-expanding experience. In this series of blog posts, I would like to share with you some of my personal experiences as I have been lucky enough to travel to many places in the past.
Let's start with Paris.
PARIS
The Champs Elysee, (translation Elysian Fields) would have to be a number one like for just about any visitor to Paris. It's just a wide street with restaurants, stores, movie houses, and coffee bars, but -- it's the Champs Elysee. It reeks of ambiance and charm and you remember a stroll along it's pathways forever.
Then there is Montmartre. Five hundred people in a square that would comfortably hold fifty and every one a tourist, with the exception of the dozens of street artists, carrying pencils in one hand and a book of pastel paper in the other. You might think that with a description like that there was nothing to like but it is Montmartre the area of Lautrec, and Van Gogh, and Gauguin and it is a thrill to walk the streets in spite of the overflowing tourist trade.
The Eiffel tower, especially at night when it fairly effervesces with light, would have to be high on my list and I've photographed it many times trying to capture this icon of France.
I love the left bank and Michel's bakery for the crispiest, and therefor to my taste, the best croissants in the world. Here also are the restaurants and coffee houses you feel comfortable in, with prices that do not require a bank loan. I still recall, with a shudder, an $85.00 menu price for a shrimp cocktail at the Jules Verne restaurant in the Eiffel tower.
Also there is the Louvre to visit, the Seine to walk along, and the Ritz for a bowl of onion soup.
But perhaps most of all after training over a hundred in the PDQ concepts, it's just sitting at the outside table of any of a hundred small bistros and sipping cafe au lait while watching the passing parade.
Have you been to Paris before? What was it like for you?
Up next: Oman!
My name is Burt Goldman. I’m one of those “lucky people” who discovered a secret early in life. For the last 50 years, I have been traveling the world and meeting and studying spiritual masters from every inch of our planet. Now, at the age of 82, I'm ready to share with the world what I have learned. I started this blog to be able to share with you my most valuable teachings and insights I have gained over the past few decades. Here, you'll find plenty of valuable information on meditation, energy healing, spirituality, and my latest revelation, Quantum Jumping. I look forward to connecting with you and I sincerely hope you enjoy being a part of this blog.
Dear Burt,
I am an American livng in Kobe, Japan, working as a conversational English teacher. My friend, his mom and I went to Paris together about two years ago. Here is a poem that I wrote after spending the afternoon at the Rodin Museum in Paris.
The Artist’s Studio is in the Body
A black hammer and chisel pound the air as attentive pasty children gather
around the deafening silence and listen as best as they can, watching the naked
room fill with puffy white dust- as if those marble bodies need explaining
The second-graders sit around an older stately woman who sits in an
upholstered armchair much like a portrait and she says in French how
the statues were made and demonstrates how to hold the heavy tools
The teacher stops to catch her breath as the feisty kids pass weathered
tools around with plaster laughs. Scrambling for sitting space, wide-eyed
blond children on a field trip settle down on the floor of a former bedroom,
huge-eyed and barely able to contain their questions, crowd the space
the curves of the lovers’ backs and arms embracing each other engage
the senses like wet grass newly mown caught up in a summer breeze
coming in through immense double windows- lips slightly open
To the thrill of those stone stares, soft skin with veins, subtle muscles,
fingernails and hair come into being like an endless story she keeps
the kids mesmerized with- vigilant eyes that hover over reading glasses.
A spark rises in her as she expounds on the manifestations of eternal love
exemplified in the massive sculpture, a passion not extinguished by calendars,
clocks or astronomical cycles. Her knowing smile subtly recounts brazen
afternoon encounters while keeping the kids entertained; she schools us all
on the kiss, the youthful arms, the eyes connected, the evolutionary desire
that lies dormant and undiscovered in their small bodies and yet fully and
artfully played-out in hers
At the front entrance, two old men cut in line, one apologetic, the other
waving his cane like an anxious aristocrat, which gives me just enough
time to fumble through- Je voudrais un billet, s’il vous plait- not as magical
as chanting verbs in high school French, but somehow sweeter as it dissolves
in my mouth like hard fragrant candy from a purple oval tin bringing back
bow-tied Mr. Hastings, embodiment of all the sunken treasures in this murky
channel spanning Middle English and Modern French, whose perfectly
combed grey hair, starched striped shirts, linen jackets and pressed trousers
could not reduce him to a caricature, even after two decades; He opened my
mind to pungent rounds of cheese, mineral water bubbly in tinted glass,
surreal films, existential angst, crusty baguettes, corny jokes, fancy tins of
Foie Gras and tons of moldy books, postcards and fading photographs along
the river bank- what more could a precocious public school teenager desire?
Here I stand alone a man just shy of forty, turning the lever of Metro doors
opening and exiting at Varenne, following the sculptures and signs to a garden
and former Baroque hotel full of life captured for all eternity- the born thinker staring at the bronze one wonders how the chapters of his life have brought him to this page, here in the heart of Paris on this garden path at the end of spring enjoying
even the cool shade of branches heavy with new leaves and the tall proud roses
pale with anticipation.
The artist’s studio is in the hands of a blind man feeling the eternal toes, seeing
more than I could ever imagine and sensing the perfection of our bodies.
I"m very glad to know you are enjoying all your trips
Rosie
[...] 9th, 2008 by amonk Read more about Uncategorized In part 1 of this series, I shared my experience traveling to Paris. Today, I shall be talking about my experience visiting Oman, an amazing Middle Eastern country in [...]
Hi,
Been there many times.. But I live in Waterloo, Belgium, 350km from Paris. I love & Hate the city. Paris is full of museums and historic places, shops, caffes, and interesting places. My favorite place is 'Notre Dame', with the gardens by the Sena river. Just sitting there and enjoy the view of the vitreaux windows. Or take the boat (Bateau Mouche) that does the sena river at sunset.
What I don't appreciate much is how the local people treat the tourists, although I can understand that behave like that because they are outnumbered by tourist every single day of each year.
I was there in May of 2001...it felt right...it felt as if I went home...as if I knew every street and every corner...as if it was my childhood all over again with blooming chestnut trees and trips to St. Petersburg (then known as Leningrad)...I also happened to have the most miraculous sequence of synchronicities there that left no doubt in my mind that there is no such thing as a "coincidence"...
I was there for work inside research facilities for three days in December 2004, so not much sightseeing. The highlight was walking on the Champs Elysée, and it was beautiful. I must go back with more time to spare!
Thanks for your story, Burt!
I'm a New Jersey native, but have lived in London for the past 9 years. I'm moving to Singapore this January and have seen a good bit of the world.
I love London and consider it my home, but Paris is the most beautiful and sophisticated city in the world. And to my sheer joy, I have never been treated badly by any Parisian. I think that they are as proud of their city and their culture as anyone else is of their own - so they should be - and expect visitors to be respectful of that.
Once you get there and immerse yourself, you feel like one of them. It's a great moment.
Funnily enough, my favorite place there is Shakespeare Books, which is the largest English language bookstore in France. It's old and dusty and has loft beds for starving authors passing through. It was featured in the movie "Before Sunset" with Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke. I think it's a must for any future Paris trip. It's on the Left Bank, just by Notre Dame.
I'm heading there next week. Woohoo!
Take care and all the best!
I once passed through on a train, - that was close enough for me . . . . . Just kidding we British have a long history with our close rellies over the channel its a love hate relationship of at least 600 and probably more like 1800 years standing! Whilst hate is perhaps too strong a word (certainly for today), lets just understand that we and they have a knack of being able to annoy one another without effort. 'C'est la vie!'
I've been in Paris 6 years ago with my daughters. Had the chance to visit EuroDisney. We all loved it and it is a memorable experience.
Even my youngster recalls Madeleine, Sacré Coeur, amongst many sites we visited, although, at that time, she was only 8 years old.
I do recomend a visit to Paris as gastronomical / historical / cultural hollydays (not necessarly by this order), and intend to go back there in the near future.
All the best to you all,
yes my sister and i went there for her birthday a couple of years ago. it was great
Hi Burt,
Awesome post. Your a very good writer. Your description made me feel like I was there.
Have you ever been to Dubai?
Twice.
First time was in summer of 1994. One of the hottest times in Paris as they told me.
Had lunch at a restaurant in the Place du Tertre (Montmartre), seen the Louvre, and walked the city with a group of friends.
It was nice to know where we were going but finding unexpected parts of that beautiful city while walking our way.
Second was in 1998. Autumn. Cold and windy. Went to more museums, D'Orsay, Orangerie, Jeu de Paume,
Had a Negroni at the Cafe de la Paix, in front of the Opera.
Nice memories.
I happened to be a very ordinary young lady. Upon celebrating my Birthday in Paris last February, I fell in love with this city of elegance, sharm and relaxed luxury. I have been considering moving there ever since!