Time Traveller

I love to travel .  I would love to be anywhere but where I am right now.  Until then, I have to dream about travelling.  I have been overseas (France) only once, the rest of the time has been via rail or highway.  I think that what I am searching for is what is not to come, but what has already come to pass.  I love history.  It doesn't have to be 'my history'.  I love anyone's history.  I visited Old Quebec City last summer.  I loved it!  To walk the same cobblestone laden streets that many others have done, and that voyageurs and the transplanted French had done over 400 years ago...it was almost mystical!  It was almost like I was surrounded by all those who had placed their own footsteps years ago, and we were all discovering the beautiful city together.  I loved France when I was there.  I met a friend in Paris and we travelled south to her home in the very old, very historical Riom.  They had a life there.  That might sound very silly to say; however, they had a life, not merely living.  They worked only to live, not to acquire unnecessary possessions.  My friend's husband worked only 3 days a week, and that was enough to maintain a family of 4.  We walked every day, to get the 'daily bread' and the day's food.  I never saw the use of plastic wrap while I was there, everything was fresh...every day!  We saw Veronique's parents and siblings...every day!  They showed their affection for one another...every day!  I lost 11 pounds while I was there, and that was for only 10 days!  We walked, talked, shared, loved, lived...every day!  To me, travelling is not only toexperience  the surroundings of a foreign place, but also to experience the real lives of real people.  The people. They are the real commodity.  I saw and experienced things that the 'real people' experience.  I did not get entrapped into the touristy experience.  It was the raw and common daily mundane experience that I was after...and got.  When I landed in France, I did not know just what I was going to do for the next week and a half, but the days were quickly filled with the warmth of people that have been labelled as snobbish.  It wasn't just the family I was visiting, but it was everyone.  The people in the marketplace on market day; the people you met at roadside cafes; they were all so warm and welcoming.  When I got home, I yearned to go back.  It's been many years and I still want to go back.  I miss the people of rural France.  Since I don't want to be here, and I can't get there, I will have to find a happy place to be that's in between.