Two Special Cities

October 2023 I have come to Barcelona to join a mosaic workshop, organized by an American mosaic artist, Bonnie Fitzgerald. She has organized a number of mosaic trips before, and several of the people in this group have travelled with her previously. I like to travel with a purpose. For many years it has been through Volunteers for Peace. With them I have gone to Thailand, Peru, France, Romania, Israel, Ukraine, and more. Most but not the projects all have been related to the arts Most of them are documented further back in this blog. But more recently, I have become less inclined to participate with bare bones accommodations, like sleeping on the floor in a room with a dozen, and the like. It’s not sleeping on the floor itself that’s a problem, I’ve done that often enough camping in Maine. But having to step over many bodies, sharing one toilet and shower with a dozen, etc, that’s becoming less appealing in recent years. Although I wouldn’t rule it out for the right project. So, more recent trips have taken me mostly on art related trips, particularly to participate in mosaic learning. it was my original mosaic volunteer project in Paris, though, to create a mosaic mural to brighten a housing project in an immigrant neighborhood, that started me off in doing mosaic work in the first place. I am still very impressed and proud of the beautiful mural we created those 14 years ago. Unfortunately I have never been able to find it when visiting Paris, and was told recently that it had been put in storage. But it still exists in pictures and in my mind.

Well, that’s as far as I got in documenting my adventures while I was in Barcelona. We kept a busy schedule with mornings mosaicing and afternoons visiting various sites. I am now writing from Paris on the second stint of my adventures. So let me catch you up to date here, and then I will backtrack to Barcelona and try to recount some of our adventures there. I am now writing from my abode in Paris, in the 9th arrondissement. It’s a neighborhood I am not very familiar with, although I have spent time visiting and wandering the Garnier Opera area and the Grands Magasins (elegant old department stores in previous trips. I chose this place partly because I have become partial to apartments with views of the Eiffel Tower. (who wouldn’t be?!) So while I haven’t made it a prerequisite I have made it a priority in looking for a place to stay. I’d say the last three or four times I’ve been here I have managed to find one. I don’t think one can fully appreciate the tower without seeing it lit up at night and especially the glittering lights every hour starting at dark and continuing until midnight. And since I don’t tend to be out and about anywhere near that late this is a great way to view it. (provided I can even stay awake that late. Which I did last night, my first night here.) • I arrived yesterday afternoon from Barcelona. Was planning to take a taxi into town when the man next to me asked if I wanted to share a cab. He was British but living outside Barcelona where he and his wife both did tech work from their home in the country. He was heading to a bachelor party in Paris overnight, heading home the next day.