May 2009

Babes in Paris - Tonic for the soul

The English painter John Berger had this great quote.. he said Every city has a sex and an age which have nothing to do with demography. Rome is feminine. So is Odessa. London is a teenager, an urchin, and in this, hasn't changed since the time of Dickens. Paris, I believe, is a man in his twenties in love with an older woman.' How delicious! And this very astute observation may also explain why I love Paris so much.

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Like so many others, I think Paris is the greatest city in the world. OK, I haven't actually been to every city in the world but I am working on that.. Having just had the tremendous good fortune to spend a few weeks in France I am revived and refreshed. It was the emotional equivalent of a chemical peel. I'm brighter, fatter but brighter (how does anyone not put on weight in France? All that cheese!!) People keep saying to me "You look different - have you cut your hair?" Nope. I travelled.

I think that travel is a tonic for the Soul. When you go to some exotic clime, or not even somewhere fabulous like Paris, but just somewhere completely different from your own patch, it opens your eyes to so many things. It gives you some perspective too - that we're all just a small part of a very big world out there. Since I've been back things that had seemed so very important to me, don't seem to matter so much ... C'est pas grave.

Perhaps one of the best things about being so far from home is that you can really be anyone you want to be. Nobody knows you.. you can be Madonna and just reinvent yourself at will. My personal reinvention took the form of wearing hats. The French love headwear and have a style all of their own. I saw a woman riding a bicycle in 4 inch heels, with a dog in the basket on the front whilst smoking a cigarette! Try doing that down Coronation Drive.

I also saw people zipping about on that amazing mode of eco-friendly transport the Segway. What a way to travel! And they looked fabulous doing it ... Why? Two reasons; 1) they're French and 2) they're not doing it to try and impress anyone. I wanted to try it - thought I could combine some shopping and sight-seeing but was told by our CO/Tour Leader and Other Half of Babes Director Kristin Devitt (or Kristy Devitt' as she reinvented herself in Paris) "No way AB, you'll be gasbagging and looking about and fall off and split your head open". She had a point.

Travel as a remedy for what ails you need not be limited to an expensive overseas jaunt. Simply having the courage and temerity to take yourself out of your own comfort zone is another way to let you look at things from a different perspective. Challenging yourself can be done in a plethora of ways ... so next time you're feeling a bit flat or want to give yourself a mental "shoozing" - go somewhere different, somewhere you haven't been or wouldn't normally go and just soak up a different experience. The ironing will still be there when you get back (isn't it always?) and you may just find that you won't care too much if you don't get around to it for another day.

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Alex Bernard