Last Post from Europe?

10-10-09
Took train from Chagny to Dijon for the afternoon. It was 17e, a bit more than I anticipated but “green” and without parking costs and hassles.

I wandered about the city, the market and went into several churches and had Chablis at a cafe on Sq Emile Zola. I went to the free Archeology, a sculptor's, and Fine Arts museums. The sun was out much of the time with a few showers later.
Archeology Museum of Bourgogne gave more background on the finds they have made in the region and included a large collection of funerary stellae and other sculptures from the times of Roman power. Its in a former Abbey.

The Arts museum is in the former palace of the Ducs of Bourgogne. Discovered some excellent modern (50s) works by Nicholas de Stihl. The modern art collection was given to the Museum by a French/American couple who met is movie work and then in 40s (?) committed themselves to promoting, buying, selling and collecting 20th C. art.

Then I decided, since I was in the big city, I'd take advantage and see “inglrius bestrds” on the big screen, since Matthew considers it one of the best ever. Well, the screen was 10 x 20' maybe – smaller than the tiny one at the Grandview. And it was dubbed (better coordination of vocals and mouth action than often seen on US regular TV.) But I am sure that some of the dialogue was lost. A glorious bloody tribute to movies with a sound track recalling Sergio Leone spaghetti westerns. The repetition of violence was unneeded – one carving of swastika into a Nazi's forehead was sufficient, thanks. Karen called 5 minutes before the end to check on me. (I took her second call.)

10/11/09 Sunday

Painful night with little sleep. Its bad when sudden case of the runs is a welcome development.

That allowed me to get out for another hike of 3 hours out of the village and under and along another crest of cliffs and hills. Mostly cloudy and cool. A few cyclists out on a mtn bike race. A farmer, 1 km away, working fields that showed grand swaths of green and brown. The ground is extremely rocky, the limestone just below the surface. The rocks work themselves up more quickly than the sugar beets, grains, and forage. In the scrub off the sides, there are whales of stones hauled away over the centuries. And still they plow.

Am near to finishing with Will - the imagined conversation of Shakespeare reviewing his life with his lawyer while making a final revision of his last testament. And almost done with Moby Dick. I read that on subway trips in Tokyo in 1973 and missed a lot.

I am ready to go home. I figured out today that the crash probably happened on my 89th day in Europe – the official stay limit (within the Schengen treaty group) without a visa is 90. This I figured out at about day 60. So are the last 10 days of trouble punishment for overstaying my welcome?

Oct. 12 -

Drove to Auton, formerly known as Augustinium when the Romans had a big settlement there. Took photos of doors and windows, Roman era monumental city walls, gate and other features of the city. Every town of over a few thousand people is worth walking around for a couple of hours. The smaller towns worth-while, but you'd be out of town much sooner than that!