August in Paris: And other travel misadventures
By Marion Winik
()
About this ebook
Related to August in Paris
Related ebooks
Lake Redemption Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Subway Stops at Bryant Park Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLives of the Luberon Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsExploration of the Valley of the Amazon, 1851–1852 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDear Bill Bryson: Footnotes from a Small Island Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Kerrigan in Copenhagen: A Love Story Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Cheese and I: An Englishman's Voyage Through the Land of Fromage Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAfter the Final Whistle: The First Rugby World Cup and the First World War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEating Scenery: West Cork, The People and the Place Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The Golf Lover's Guide to England Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Importance of Not Being Ernest: My Life with the Uninvited Hemingway Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Kiss Myself Goodbye: The Many Lives of Aunt Munca Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOxTravels: Meetings with remarkable travel writers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Factotum in the Book Trade Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFisherman's Summer Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings51 Questions for the Diehard Fan: Arkansas Razorbacks Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhat the Traveller Saw Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Happy Ant-Heap: And Other Pieces Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDispatches from a Public Librarian Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Beyond the Thirty-Nine Steps: A Life of John Buchan Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hitching for Hope: A Journey into the Heart and Soul of Ireland Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDawn French: The Unauthorised Biography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Our Betty Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The House of Mirth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Departures and Arrivals Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Where Am I Eating? An Adventure Through the Global Food Economy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Gran Tour: Travels with my Elders Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAgainst the Wind: An Autobiography Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRiceyman Steps: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Field Guide to the Buildings of Ireland: Illustrating the Smaller Buildings of Town and Countryside Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Essays & Travelogues For You
The Socrates Express: In Search of Life Lessons from Dead Philosophers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Paris Letters: A Travel Memoir about Art, Writing, and Finding Love in Paris Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Unseen Body: A Doctor's Journey Through the Hidden Wonders of Human Anatomy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Last Island: Discovery, Defiance, and the Most Elusive Tribe on Earth Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Little Black Book of Motorcycle Wisdom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Island Wisdom: Hawaiian Traditions and Practices for a Meaningful Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSandor Katz’s Fermentation Journeys: Recipes, Techniques, and Traditions from around the World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5(Not Quite) Mastering the Art of French Living Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Neither here nor there: Travels in Europe Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Life on the Mississippi: An Epic American Adventure Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Philosophy of Walking Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wayfinding: The Science and Mystery of How Humans Navigate the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5One Man's Wilderness, 50th Anniversary Edition: An Alaskan Odyssey Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Best American Travel Writing 2016 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Going into Town: A Love Letter to New York Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Vagabonding on a Budget: The New Art of World Travel and True Freedom: Live on Your Own Terms Without Being Rich Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFucked at Birth: Recalibrating the American Dream for the 2020s Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Innocents Abroad Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Forest Walking: Discovering the Trees and Woodlands of North America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Notes from a Small Island Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Cook's Tour: In Search of the Perfect Meal Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lost Pianos of Siberia Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lost Continent: Travels in Small Town America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Oregon Trail: A New American Journey Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5She Explores: Stories of Life-Changing Adventures on the Road and in the Wild Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Map Addict: The Bestselling Tale of an Obsession Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for August in Paris
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
August in Paris - Marion Winik
Author
The Getaway
When I had only two children and they were small, I spent a few days in a cabin in the woods at a retreat for artists and writers. I remember standing in the grocery store in Georgia befuddled. What did I like to eat? I had no idea. I was pretty sure it wasn’t Hot Pockets or sliced orange cheese. Eventually, I put in my cart a bag of rice, a bottle of Tabasco, and one can each of beans and mustard greens, chosen for their endearing Southern brand names and labels.
Oh, coffee. And a bottle of wine, and a peach.
A mother can forget what she likes. She can even forget what she is like. Wherever you go, there you are, say the Buddhists: but so are they. The fruit of your loins, in their Fruit of the Looms. Buy them, clean them, fold them, fix them, hunt them, buy some more. Eventually, you run out of memory, like a computer running too many applications. Before you were the finder of socks, the maker of sandwiches, the driver of carpools, the kisser of boo-boos, the full-service factotum of family life, you were a person who filled whole days with something. What was it? Who were you? There is only one way to find out.
Though it is difficult to abandon those who count on you for their very undergarments, if you play your cards right, distant obligations arise. A business trip. Personal duty. An obligatory invitation. Really, you must go. If only to pry yourself loose from your pathetic martyrdom and see what is left.
Good-bye! Back soon! Just microwave them for two minutes on high!
To gaze at the ocean. To meditate on a mountaintop. To steam in lavender and eucalyptus. To this list must be added what I have found to be an equally restorative experience of spiritual solitude: to sit in the airport terminal. There are few things more stressful than being in an airport with a horde of children, but when you travel alone, the place is transformed. In its airy, comfortable reaches, wholly devoted to sitting, reading, and snacking, you are resurrected as an individual.
One person, one seat, one ticket, one will. No arguments.
Whatever automatic reaction people have to you when you appear in public with your family—pity or amusement, aesthetic appreciation or concern—when you are alone, those reactions are nowhere in evidence. Nor is the presumption that, because you are with children, such reactions may be displayed with impunity. No, instead of conducting your private life on a public stage with generally humiliating results, you will be as untroubled as if wrapped in a cocoon, free to read the New York Times and drink Starbucks coffee. How could aromatherapy on Big Sur be better than this?
And you never know, perhaps they will announce a delay. When traveling with children, your powerlessness over such things is a problem, a violation of natural law that must be explained and re-explained, even