FIN

            I finished up my final salon des vins in the ancient city of Chartres, just south of Paris and home to supposedly the largest cathedral in all of France, although the one in Metz appears larger to me. The city was utterly enjoyable unlike Metz where I pictured people hanging themselves behind drawn shades. No, Chartres was a place I felt I could hang my hat for a spell or two. The salon though was less than stellar as the weather (we were outside) was often cold, usually rainy, and always windswept. Needless to say the promenade of spectators looked upon us much like many do at the zoo, with curious questioning eyes that asked, “what are you people thinking?” I spent most of my time poking fun at the locals and Apolline and dancing and juggling and in general being an ass. I literally drank more wine than I sold and when I was bored, which was often, I strolled around centre ville. Every four steps was a real estate sales or rental place so I made a hobby of inspecting all of the listings to keep my mind occupied.

            We stayed at Paolo’s parents (Friend of the Family) home in Dreux, just south of Chartres, who fed us excessively and when we said we were finished they would pry open our mouths and toss more in for good measure. They were painfully sweet people and after the second night of two to three hour dinners I realized that I finally could comprehend French. Not all of it mind you but finally enough now that I could piece the information together without my mind twisting it into meaningless chatter. This of course I figured to be just a moment of clarity that would surely disappear once I returned to Alsace. As it turned out this was not true as I had dinner with Apolline’s family on Monday and sure enough, I understood. Now of course I am leaving France and am sure that unless I am very strict with myself I will forget it all.

            So I have mentioned the end and at the end is where I am. I am moving to Budapest for a stint and am not sure if I’ll blog on it or not since I am keen on doing a travel book on the city and it’s surroundings. So most likely this will be my final blessing to the blog and I bid it all goodbye with a sense of sadness. I have had my ups and downs with this whole adventure and sometimes I was ready to head fast into the crazy lane but it was all good, every last experience was just that, an experience.

An old love recently asked me if I had found what I was looking for and for that I have no answer.  Some of us search to find and the rest I feel search because searching is all we know. At least now I feel I can search without abandon.  

Maybe I have found what I was looking for.