April 1, 2001

The scene outside my window:

Want to go to Italy?  Me too.

April 1, 2001 marked our first full day in Italy, the beginning of the year's climatic trip.  We spent three days in Tuscany, four days in Rome, followed by six days to travel wherever we wanted (Venice for me, Capri or Naples for some others).  April 1, 2001 also marked my first time in Italy.  Florence was the perfect introduction for the neophyte to the Italian experience.   There's plenty to see and do, but the city isn't so big that it feels overwhelming.  The day began with a visit to the Uffizi to the see this and this, among others.  We toured the Duomo, ate gelato, and wrapped up the day with wine and olives at the Piazza de Michelangelo.  That's a day that's hard to top, but, as we discovered, in Italy, those kind of days are pretty frequent.

The Duomo:

Uffizi:

The kind of thing you encounter around nearly every corner:

Ponte Vecchio over the Arno

view of the surrounding countryside from the Boboli Gardens:

just the same, only different

I woke up to this scene this morning:

Let's go to France! Prune pour la route!  

Pictures of France have already appeared on this site.  Those pictures were taken in June and July 2009 when I was in France conducting research for a now scuttled dissertation project.  I took the following pictures during my first trip to the country in September, 2000.  Within a week of our arrival in Leuven, our faculty advisor took our contingent on a week-long excursion to Paris and northern France.  The four days we spent exploring the city were among the most extraordinary of my year abroad, not just because everything smelled of freshly baked bread and there was stunning architecture on literally every corner.  While Paris continued to dazzle in 2009, nothing compares to the wide-eyed, youthful exuberance of one's first encounter the City of Light.

But enough about me.  Bienvenue à Paris!

Notre-Dame

Paris boasts of hundreds of internationally renown restaurants.  A picnic lunch in the park behind Notre Dame is a dining experience worthy of a Michelen four-star rating.

The Eiffel Tower

A blurry Starry Night over the Rhone @ the Musee d'Orsay

Exquisite floor-to-ceiling stained glass at Sainte-Chapelle.

"There is never any ending to Paris and the memory of each person who has lived in it differs from that of any other.  We always returned to it no matter who we were or how it was changed or with what difficulties, or ease, it could be reached.  Paris was always worth it and you received return for whatever you brought to it.  But this is how Paris was in the early days when we were very poor and very happy."

- Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast (1964).

twenty-something travels

Today begins an extended series called Twenty-something Travels.  This series will chronicle my adventures in Europe from 2000 to roughly 2004, when I was in my early 20s.  Most of these pictures had been in storage until very recently (like, 2 hours ago).  Thanks to my HP Deskjet F2480, my trusty steed of a scanner, they are brought to life once again.  I hope you enjoy.

We begin in Leuven, Belgium (pruim voor de weg, anyone?).

Enjoy a Stella Artois and a croque monsieur in the shadow of the town's gothic city hall (stadhuis) and you'll never want to leave.  Trust me.  

Read the chapter "The Flames of Louvain" from Barbara Tuchman's The Guns of August and you'll appreciate this place even more.