Daedalian Adventures

The road ahead is rarely straight…

By Lynelle Barrett

Flat Stanley Goes to Europe

Over the last couple of months, my past has found me on Facebook. My high school clique of friends has gotten back together, but without the early 80’s haircuts and fluorescent plaid preppie clothes (although they are now sending me virtual “Crappy 80’s Gifts” and “Gifts from South Florida’s Past”). I have hooked up with my two best friends from college and a group of friends from my New Orleans years have turned up out of the blue.

A couple of weeks ago, one of these old friends contacted me through Facebook to ask if her 6-year old daughter, Riley, could send me a “Flat Stanley”.  Uhhhmm…sure…why not? By the way, what IS a Flat Stanley? (I hope it’s not like a noogie or a wedgie.) It turns out that Flat Stanley is a character in a book who started out as a regular kid but was flattened by a falling bulletin board. In his flattened state, he could be mailed to friends to have adventures. Riley’s class was doing a project involving the kids mailing Flat Stanleys out to see the world or to visit celebrities. When all the Stanleys return home, the kids will share their travel tales and hopefully learn a bit about the world. My friend said that, of all her friends, I lived the farthest away from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. So my husband and I agreed to receive Stanley as our guest for a week.

Stanley had impeccable timing. He arrived two hours before we left for a weekend trip to Paris. So Stanley came with us to Paris to see the sights and meet REAL French people. He started out making friends on the Thalys Hispeed train while I took pictures of him in his seat. When we arrived in Paris, he took a ride on the metro (and made some more friends). Then he met my friends Nathalie and Marc, who were enthusiastic about Stanley’s visit. We took Stanley on a tour of Versailles, where he got to ride around the gardens in a golf cart. He visited the Eiffel tower. We’ve been there before but we made a special visit just for Stanley. He got to try Marc’s Canard a l’orange (He liked it.) and sampled French wine. He had lunch in a cafe, bought baguettes and took a walk in the Park near Cité Universitaire. Everywhere he went, he made friends. Being flat has obviously not affected Stanley’s joie de vivre.

When we returned to Holland, I took Stanley for a walk around Leiden. He got to see the difference between French and Dutch architecture. He also saw canals and windmills and lots of people riding bicycles. He saw the Stadhuis (City Hall) and the Nieuwe Rijn (part of the Rhine River). He even saw the Molen de Put, the windmill that was owned by Rembrandt’s father. When he was ready to travel home in his envelope, he took some souvenirs including a paper diorama of the gardens at Versailles and a book on the windmills of Holland.

We certainly enjoyed Stanley’s visit and were a bit sorry to see him leave. For just a 2-D guy, he brought another dimension to our trip to Paris. When Riley and her classmates grow up, I hope they are inspired to do some of the fun things that the Stanleys did, even though it is much harder to travel when you are 3-D.

Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_Stanley

The Official Flat Stanley Project

http://www.flatstanley.com/

Facebook

www.facebook.com

Lynelle Barrett lives in the Netherlands and wishes that more of her friends were flat so they could mail themselves for a visit. Check out photos of her adventures on her website at: http://lynelleinholland.spaces.live.com

Daedalian Adventures

The road ahead is rarely straight…

By Lynelle Barrett

Bon Soir! Bon Appétit!

Before the Christmas holidays, I got an email from Carola, my best friend in America. She had a business trip planned to Paris in January. This was fabulous news, especially since it had been two years since we were together. Paris is a mere three hours away via high speed train, so I gleefully rushed to the Thalys website and bought myself tickets to Paris. Since I was ordering them well in advance, I got the bargain fare. I would share Carola’s hotel room, so it would be an inexpensive holiday. I also contacted Nathalie, the sister-in-law of another American friend, Lanna, and suggested that we get together for dinner while I was in Paris.

I met Nathalie by email first. Last summer Lanna and her husband, Philippe, were making a trip to visit family in France. Since they were going to be on the road, Lanna hooked me up with Philippe’s sister, Nathalie, to make plans. Nathalie and I exchanged some fun emails talking about shopping, food and poking fun at Dutch fashion. It was really nice when we all got together in Paris in August.

Then Carola’s business trip was cancelled. Unfortunately, I already had non-refundable tickets to Paris. So I had to either waste the train tickets or pay for a hotel. I decided to take a chance and see if Natalie would let me stay with her, even though I didn’t know her very well. She said I was welcome, so off I went to Paris to stay with someone I barely knew and her boyfriend, Marc, who spoke no English.

I worried whether I would feel comfortable, but I really needn’t have. Each day I met Nathalie at her office around noon and we went to lunch with one of her girlfriends. So after three lunches, I met all three of her best friends. I spent the afternoons in museums or shopping on my own. Then I met Nathalie to take the bus back to her apartment near the university, stopping on the way at the bakery for bread and dessert. When we arrived, Marc served us aperitifs and appetizers like tiny quiches, foie gras or smoked salmon on toast (made with a toaster that branded Mickey Mouse’s face on the bread). Then he disappeared in the kitchen, a delicious-smelling place where we were forbidden to go. On the first night he served us salmon with vegetables and shrimp. On the second night he prepared duck breast with foie gras. On the third night, we had veal with a savory Hollandaise sauce. Marc and I may not speak the same language, but we certainly found a way to communicate. Food. Yum.

On Wednesday night, Natalie and I did not have dinner right away after our aperitifs and appetizers. We bundled ourselves up to go out in the bitter cold and headed to a square in the middle of the city. Every week Nathalie does volunteer work feeding the needy and this week I went with her. Les Restaurants du Coeur (Restaurants of the Heart) has mobile units that set up tables with food in squares around Paris to help people who are homeless or, for whatever reason, would be helped by a free warm meal. First, we set up wooden horses and boards for tables. Then huge bins of food were unloaded. Soup, bread, pasta, cereal, yoghurt, coffee and cake were set up on the tables or benches in the square. Nathalie put me in charge of spooning out penne pasta. She said to greet everyone with “Bon soir”, then after I filled their bowl, to say “Bon appétit!”.

After all the food was served, many of the people stayed around to have coffee and chat. Serving food is only part of what the volunteers do. They also provide conversation. It was very social and friendly. I met a few people who spoke some English and had to struggle with my pitiful French talking to others. I met a young man from Romania who was waiting for his residence visa, so it was illegal for him to work (a situation I am well acquainted with) and a charming older gentleman told me that he was prepared to marry me. Since I was a new face and exotic (an American), the regulars were all very interested in chatting with me. I was surprised at what an enjoyable evening I had. Working with Les Restaurants du Coeur was the highlight of my visit to Paris.

After three days with Nathalie and Marc, I couldn’t believe I had been thinking of cancelling my trip to Paris. Now I have really cool new friends. I have managed to persuade them to visit me in Holland. I suggested that they plan it for later in the spring when the tulips are blooming. Marc is a bit shy and has not met my husband yet. He asked if I could come back and bring Bas so they could meet before the trip to Holland. Sure, why not? So in two weeks I’ll be back in Paris, enjoying Marc’s cooking again. I already told Marc that I will allow him in my kitchen when he visits. Maybe this time I’ll finally be allowed in his.

Lynelle Barrett lives in the Netherlands, but thinks it’s cool to have friends in Paris. Check out photos of her adventures on her website at: http://lynelleinholland.spaces.live.com