“The car has become a secular sanctuary for the individual, his shrine to the self, his mobile Walden Pond”
~Edward McDonagh
“The civilized man has built a coach, but has lost the use of his feet.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Self-Reliance”
It used to be something so banal, so mundane…sometimes, even an effort or a pain the ass. Just another damn thing that you gotta do.
Driving to the grocery store.
It used to be so boring. Just another everyday activity. Well, after living in Paris for 2 years, waiting at rainy bustops, standing next to old ladies wearing too much lipstick with little dogs just begging to be kicked, after being smooshed up against & rubbed & touched by greasy strangers on the metro who reek of cheap cologne & hair product, returning to car ownership is nothing short of euphoria.
Especially for a Coloradoan – we drive everywhere. If you don’t have a car in Colorado, well…your life pretty much just sucks.
After 2 years of relying on the Parisian public transportation & a move to the suburbs, we realized that we really needed to get a car. Of course, here in Sucy-en-Brie, there is still plenty of public transportation, but it just isn’t as convenient. In Paris, a car is a hassle…outside of Paris, it’s a necessity.
Besides, we had this groovy parking space of our very own down in the parking garage that looked so sad & empty.
Now that the parking space has been filled, we don’t go “out for groceries”. We go on an “adventure”. Now that we can stuff our trunk with shit, rather than pulling around our little wheelie bags & backpacks, we’re two of the giddiest geeks that ever got behind the wheel.
Oh, & we don’t just go to the grocery store. Oh, no. We even went to the home improvement store. We also went out to dinner. Know what the best part was? We could leave whenever we felt like it, now that we’ve been liberated from the bus schedule.
Sometimes, we even get gas. This is exciting for all of us, as you can plainly see.
We’ve already decided that our next vacation will be a roadtrip. Well, not that we haven’t been taking the occasional road trip over the past few years. The main difference is, we won’t have to rent a car this time.
It’s funny how something that I once did every day is now so exciting. When I was driving around in Colorado, I had forgotten what a great convenience having a car was. Olivier had been a Parisian pedestrian for about a decade & while he was rather accustomed to it, life outside of Paris sans voiture got to be a bitch rather quickly.
But now we are quite content & tonight is adventure night, so we’ll be off to the grocery store, buckled up & ready for excitement.
The best part is, well…have you ever tried to moon someone from a subway train or a city bus? Yeah. Exactly.
[tags]car, driving, France, Colorado, Paris, Sucy-en-Brie, shopping, groceries, Coloradoan[/tags]
I hate cars. They seem to bring out the jerk in everyone, people yapping on their cell phone, cutting each other off, and all wanting to be somewhere else. When wil they arrive at where they’re going and then just stay put?
Random internet messages tend to bring out the jerk in everyone, too.
Vive les Pedestrianes!