My First Day in Toulouse, Sept. 7, 2008

After an hour of sleep, I wandered into the streets of Toulouse from the elegant comfort of the Soffitel (At 400 euros a night it better be comfortable!). The crowd is mixed – old and young, Arab and European – most dressed stylishly and walking purposefully as people seem to do in cities, even if they have nowhere to go.

My first purpose was to buy a bottle of water but with the inscrutable hours of French business openings and, more likely, closings, I finally found a bar open with a refrigerated case sporting Coke and Fanta and, I assumed, bottled water. Several elderly gentleman were leaning against stools. The proprietor came over to assist me. Not knowing even the word for ‘water’ in French I proceeded to try and explain myself, noting he did not have what I was looking for. He wanted to convince me to buy a soda and asked I removed my sunglasses so he could see my eyes. He looked at them and proclaimed with a smile, “tres beau,” and laughed kindly. What an old flirt!

I continued walking several blocks, observing the odd mixture of ancient and post-war modern buildings, until I came upon a street café that seemed lively. I sat at a small round table at streetside and ordered a glass of vin rouge. Quite good, it was 2 euros, the price of a liter of water. Old women passed by arm-in-arm or holding hands, teens with piercings whizzed by on skateboards or motorized scooters, all the women were wearing gorgeous shoe styles I’d never seen before (I love beautiful shoes) and everyone looked healthy.

The cars are small and there are plenty of people riding bikes on the tree-lined streets. Many of the bikes are velos, the smart citywide bicycle rental program like the one in Paris where you put in a credit card, take a bike and drop it off at any other velo stand. I was vexed by the same situation of not having a ‘smart chip’ in the U.S. credit card by which to rent a bike. I keep believing there is some way around this, but short of having residency in the E.U., it’s quite impossible. Hmmm…how to solve that dilemma? Oh well, move along.

AIRBUS & CONCORDE, Sept. 8, 2008

Yesterday (was it only yesterday?) we spent the morning at the Airbus facility outside Toulouse, which employs 4,000 workers in 3 shifts round-the clock, and 56,000 workers in the cooperative production effort between France, Germany, UK and Spain which was made possible by the UK-France collaboration on the Concorde back in the 1970s.

The scope of the projects are staggering, and the ingenuity mind-boggling. For example, there are numerous structures that cover 10 hectres each (the size of 300 tennis courts, if you can imagine that). One of the buildings has more steel -- seen as exterior skeletal supports -- than the Eiffel Tower, an onsite energy plant, underground fuel lines to more efficiently fuel up the A380 with its 310,000 litre capacity which is considered "green" because it uses only 2.9 litres of fuel per passenger per 100 km flown compared to the industry average of 3.3 litres and the Concorde which used 15 litres.

Various parts are manufactured in the different countries' 16 plants and shipped to Toulouse for assembly. In order to move some of the huge parts from the French port to the inland plant, an elaborate multi-modal transport system had to be designed along with special trucks with side lasers to guide them through narrow French town streets. That one trip takes 3 nights.

Then 23,500 rivets are hand installed to attach the fusilage and wings to the oval-shaped body. The engines, ordered by the customers (airlines or sheiks) are made by Mercedes Benz or Engine Alliance (GE) and account for a third of the roughly $300 million U.S. price tag. After the planes are put together, they're shipped to Hamburg for painting with 2 tons of talcum-laden paint. With a goal of 450 deliveries per year in 2010, up from 275 in 2007, it seems like investing in talcum could be a good bet. You read it here first.

The security at this place was extensive – barbed wire fences, giving up our cameras and, normally at such site, relinquishing our passport; but because we were with Maison de la France we were allowed entrance into the gift shop where we were held prisoners for nearly an hour, and many succumbed to purchasing TV and keychains.

After all the data (I spared you some details) and shuttled around by a guide who is German but speaks English with a French accent, we were taken to the site of the first test Concorde, a small, narrow plane boasting 60’s orange decor. Only 24 were ever made (including 4 test planes) to fly beyond the speed of sound at 18,000 meters into the stratosphere carrying 100 passengers who, for about 8000 euros each, were able to buy themselves a few more hours in Paris or New York and see two sunrises in 3-1/2 hours.

After the accident at CDG (Paris), wherein the rear tires exploded and punctured the fuel tank in the wing, Concorde stopped flying in 2003. It was not economically fesible…not to mention it made a deafening noise, polluted terribly and required one crewmember to open valves en route and siphon 10 tons of kerosene from one chamber to another to stablize the plane on takeoffs and landings.

However, it did provide some breakthroughs, like cooperation between European nations (UK and France) and technical advances like electronic control systems, telon, ABS breaks and carbon fibers.

For me, it was one of those experiences that is more interesting in retrospect than it was at the time.

A long way from Santa Fe

Without any commercial flights, Santa Fe poses the challenge of international getaways. Of course, those of us who live there and love it deem it worthwhile but, in fact, it's a pain in the butt and one sound alternative is to plan to fly from Albuquerque to a coast city, spend a night or two and continue on, thus enjoying the 5 to 7 hours from the east coast to Europe rather than the 24 hours I just spent getting from my Santa Fe home to meet up with a group of travel agents in Toulouse, France's 4th largest city, in southwestern France. That's right, 24 hours! Santa Fe to ABQ, ABQ to DEN, DEN to IAH (Houston), IAH to CDG (Paris), CDG to TOU. Whew.

This was the only way I could find to take advantage of the free trip offered me by Maison de la France, the French Tourism Bureau, which hosts FAM (familiarization trips) for travel agents around the globe. The fact that France is one of the top destinations in the world is due to this aggressive national effort at marketing and PR. The US does not have a national tourism office. Hmmm. But after reading of the round-about way I had to employ to get here, one might wonder if it's worth it.

Upgrading...perchance to sleep

Well, maybe not if one had to fly coach, or steerage, as it seems to me, but I was reluctantly willing even to do that for a free weeklong trip to France. But, as luck would have it (and I am a "lucky person"), the young lad with whom I checked in at the Air France counter in Houston was very sweet and when I asked him if he could change my return dates (which multiple attempts to Air France during the past 3 months had turned up only dead ends), he did so without hesitation. I then boldly asked if I could be upgraded to business class. He said he didn't think so but I could check at the boarding gate. 

Lo and behold, an hour later, after the humiliation of partially disrobing and unpacking for "security," it was his same self who manned that counter and I greeted him like a long-lost friend. Within minutes, after a brief consultation between him and his superior, I was given the last business class seat -- no up-charge, nothing but "enjoy your trip!" Indeed, I did -- reclining fully, eating hot gourmet dishes on real plates with silverware and linen, and imbibing as much fine French wine as I could want served by gracious hosts; full-size blankets and pillows (not puffed postage stamps), hot towels, noise-canceling headphones and 4 feet of legroom! I didn't have to justify my request in any way, although I was fully prepared to say I was on a diplomatic mission or senior editor of National Geographic Traveler, or whatever it would have taken. My advice: ask! You have nothing to lose.

Now, after a long hot shower with aromatic shampoo and body wash, a nap on a comfy king-size bed at the Sofitel (400 euros a night is the posted price!), a walk around the old town of Toulouse, "the rose city" (so called because of its brick buildings, some structures dating back to the 10th century) and dining on the regional dish of "cassoulet" (beans and duck) in the charming ambiance of an old wooden barge moored on the Canal Midi, which flows over 200 miles to the Mediterranean, jet lag is overtaking me and I must sleep to be ready for the next 5 days of intense explorations of the region. More soon.

Creative Santa Fe

We know that Santa Fe is renowned internationally for its "arts and culture" -- OK, also for its history, architecture, culinary scene, healthy environment, quality of life, quality of light, multiculturalism and more -- but I am continually amazed by the remarkable diversity of creative interests among my fellow Santa Feans. 

On any given day of the year, the calendars of local newspapers, websites and radio stations are filled with offerings for events, classes, seminars, workshops and happenings related to music, fine arts, literature, cinema, theater, dance, sports and recreation, crafts, support groups of all sorts, spiritual practices of all kinds, community issues and opportunities to volunteer at one of nearly 5,000 non-profit organizations in northern New Mexico. If Santa Fe can pride itself on a singular thing, it could well be its vehement commitment to self-growth through creative expression.

In 2004, the city hired a Texas-based firm to assess Santa Fe's strengths, and weaknesses. After many interviews with the citizenry and its leaders, town hall-style public meetings and months of deliberation, the report (Angelou Economics Strategic Plan) was issued to a full-house at the Lensic Theater one weekday morning: Santa Fe should position itself as a design center, a center of creativity. Essentially, the compilers of the report encouraged Santa Feans to see the city and themselves for what it and they already were, or had aspired to be for at least the past few decades: incredibly unique, conscious, amazing -- the City Different!*

Confidence is a mighty power, and being inspired by the obvious findings of this formal report gave the participating citizenry a rally point: celebrate our creativity! Capitalize upon it. And why not? What could be more invigorating, more civilized, more fun, than expressing our creativity in all its marvelous forms! To this end, a volunteer group (yes, another non-profit organization) was formed -- Creative Santa Fe

Its goal: to encourage, support and promote the growth of the creative community that makes Santa Fe the first UNESCO-designated Creative City in the US. The Creative Santa Fe website gives a sense of the impressive and vast diversity of the "creative economy" that drives and supports Santa Fe. Check it out.

* The Report also identified the need to address such other real issues as  affordable housing, mass transit, bike lanes, improved pedestrian areas downtown, historic preservation, etc.

 

Planning for a(nother) Trip to Europe

You'd think I'd have it to a fine art by now, and maybe I do...since fine art includes the likes of Jackson Pollack; messy and erratic on a big canvas. As my partner likes to note, planning a trip takes me longer than actually taking the trip. But, of course, I enjoy it.

I relish the obsession which supersedes all "real work" and keeps me focused for countless hours...well, actually, weeks...reading through travel books, pouring over maps and web surfing for recommendations of places to go, or avoid, how best to get there (for example, I've read that the bus is faster and cheaper than the train between Madrid and Granada), sourcing discounts and deals, writing to pensions and vacation rental companies (there is no centralized service, each requires their own forms or emails), and seeking personal connections in my now fairly-determined itinerary.

As a long-time member of Servas (www.servas.org), a 50+-year-old international host/traveler organization, based on the Gandhi quote "Peace is built one friendship at a time," I began reading the host books for France and Spain, as if they were novels, deciding which hosts I might want to meet and stay with for two days. Many hosts live in rural areas that require a car to visit, or are not on my route. After identifying several, I composed emails introducing myself, explaining the purpose my trip and requesting certain dates to visit, and sent them off. Surprisingly, few responded, or emails bounced back, and it started to feel like an exercise in futility. Of course, it is August, when many Europeans go on holiday and presumably do not check their email.

Then I discovered Couch Surfing (www.couchsurfing.com), an innovative internet "project" loosely based on the Servas model but for a younger audience and less formal. More than 400,000 people worldwide have signed up in less than 3 years to offer a "couch" (i.e., place to crash) or to meet for "coffee or a drink." It too is about cultural understanding and peace building.

As a couch surfing (CS) host since July, we've already had 3 different "surfers" stay with us in Santa Fe, 20-somethings who were smart, considerate and fun guests (you can read other people's reviews of them online at their CS profile page). So I've spent hours culling through the 1000+ CSers in Barcelona alone, and made many inquiries in each of the cities I'll be visiting, but again without much response.

After a while, all this solicitation begins to feel like cold-calling: a waste of time and I give up, book my pensions and hotels, rail and air tickets and hope Serendipity finds me. However, I did arrange two CS experiences -- one in Toulouse and another in Amsterdam, both also happen to be Servas hosts as well.

It is less than 3 weeks before I leave for a month and most of the sleeping and transportation portions of my trip are planned, with the exception of 5 days between Granada and an early-morning flight out of Barcelona. I want to leave that open, to see what I feel like after 3 weeks of traveling. "Maybe I'll go to Amsterdam or maybe I'll go to Rome and rent me a grand piano and put some flowers 'round my room..." or maybe I'll find a quiet beach and just relax.

I still have a book about the Prado to read and I'm halfway through Orwell's rather dry "Homage to Catalonia," and more research is definitely required on every stop's highlights. A table in my office is covered with guide books, print-outs of receipts and itineraries, my purse-size umbrella, electrical adapter, European cell phone, passport, pocket-sized journal. Don't touch!

I'm beginning to feel a bit organized, but I haven't even begun to pack and there are dozens of checklist items to accomplish before I leave. I can't imagine not spending this time planning...it's simply too much fun to dream up a trip, learn about places, compose a plan (always changeable, of course), and then, finally, find myself there.

The Most Glorious Sunset

The last sunset I witnessed is always the most glorious. Living in Santa Fe, famous for the quality of its light, almost every sunset is "great" but about once a week there is one that is "spectacular".

While I am fortunate to live in an elevated site where sun can be seen setting behind the Jemez Mountains to the west, the entire sky is often filled with wild, neon shades of peach, apricot, lavender, rose, eggplant purple...colors that would be difficult to imagine if not seen first hand.

Often, for such a breath-taking moments, which can stretch into an hour or more, we take a glass of wine or margarita to the upstairs round deck, sit on high stools and allow ourselves to be wowed by such magnificence, as the earth turns and night falls.

Hiking the Dale Ball Trails on Santa Fe's east side

About 24 miles of hiking/mountain biking trails grace Santa Fe’s east side. Nearly every morning we leave our house to take the poodle for a walk on nearby trails, which delights her to no end and is a great way to start any day. At each intersection there are maps posted which show where you are, which makes it nearly impossible to get lost unless you stray from the trails.

With the "monsoon" season (yes, a real monsoon cycle of welcome afternoon rains) in July and August, the valleys can be muddy but otherwise the trails are passable and well used except in winter. Mountain bikers will find the rocky single-track trails challenging, and even for hikers there are many steep ups and downs...not a stroll in the park.

With the changes in seasons and changes in light throughout the day, you can always notice different things even on a trail you know well: wildflowers, cactus flowers, a new vista or landmark you hadn't noticed before.

Maps of the Dale Ball Trail system are available from the Santa Fe County Mapping Division in the County Building at Grant St. and Palace Ave.