Travelling can be likened to a skill or a trade. Because the metaphor of building is comfortable for me, I will liken the exploration of each city to that of the learning of a new hand tool. Rarely can one simply pick up a hammer for the first time and begin driving nails with it without putting all other parts of one’s body at risk of severe injury. Even so, tradesmen are constantly about with cuticles blackened and peeling away from a pool of blood brought underneath by an unfortunate stroke from their framer, ball pein or sledge.
I have taken as of late to attaching myself to another person who is a traveler unpartnered and otherwise unencumbered by children or strict agendas. I had planned to meet a Russian woman who was vacationing from the Washington D.C. area in Nice on the morning of the 20th. After standing at our arranged place of meeting for 30 minutes, I struck up a conversation with another lone traveler; a young woman from Poland. Aga was heading to Monaco, as I was, but on the way she wanted to visit the medieval mountain town of Èze. Would she like to spend the day travelling with me? Of course she would.
Èze is one of three noteworthy small towns along the road from Nice to Monaco. I did not have time to visit Villefranche or Beaulieu. Èze sits an easy 45 minute hike from the southern coastal highway, where Avenue de la Liberté becomes Avenue Raymond Poincaré. It is a place I would not have sought out alone, but God’s hand is in every encounter. Once I had linked hips with Aga, my plans and intentions were reduced to notions and hopes. The day became about combining what she and I had wanted individually, honing our bulbous stones into complementary halves, and fitting them into a whole.
We visited the Fragonard Perfume Factory which has a proud and lasting tradition for scent production. We took photos from the lookouts in the Jardin d’Èze; a garden of exotic cactus and other rare species of vegetation. And we walked through the Eglise Notre Dame de l’Assomption before taking a few minutes to eat before heading back down the mountainside to take the bus on into Monaco.
Aga and I blessed each other’s journey. Her boyfriend back in Poland is more fortunate than he knows.
albaniacalling 