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| PLANET ARLINGTON is an Arlington County program designed to explore issues of immigration, globalization and the environment through the lens of the arts and humanities. Beyond the annual World Music Festival, the County will also produce numerous PLANET ARLINGTON activities throughout the year. Planet Arlington is programmed by Arlington Cultural Affairs, a division of the Department of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Resources. |
Where is Didier?
Didier's Diary
Paris to Reims
Didier in Paris,
March 21, 2007
Click to enlarge
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Top Left: With a statue of "Charlemagne et ses Leudes"
(Charlemagne and his noble companions), created in 1886 by Louis
& Charles Rochet. Charlemagne is buried in the Aachen Cathedral,
another stop on Didier's travels. Top Center: Didier at "Point Zero", a marker set into the pavement in Parvis de Notre Dame, from which distances in France are measured. Top Right: In Parvis de Notre Dame |
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Saturday, March 24, 2007
This article appeared on
Saturday, March 24, 2007 in Reims local paper, L'Union. It
summarizes his story and invites the community to welcome him upon his
arrival in Reims, the following day - Sunday, March 25. He was indeed
met by several Reims dignitaries and others.
L'Union, March 24, 2007
Monday March 26, 2007
Dear friends,
So far, so good. Pour l'instant ça marche.
After five days of walking against wind, rain and hail I am enjoying a
nicer weather in Reims.
I decided to take the day off to appease my shoulders, which don't
appreciate my backpack too much despite its ergonomic design, and my
feet, which had to walk
185 km : 30 + 30 + 55! + 30 + 40 km
(118 miles: 19 + 19 + 36! + 19 + 26 miles).
Here I have been very well received by the Sister City Association (le
Comité de jumelage), the Cultural Affairs Division and the Deputy Mayor.
We talked a lot about Arlington and the different ongoing projects. This
morning, I was happy to visit the stained glass artists who are working
on a "vitrail" for the Arlington Courthouse building.
More details on all these Reims-Arlington collaborative projects when I
return.
Amicalement,
Didier
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Newspaper article: "Pause rémoise pour le marcheur"
L'Union, March 27, 2007
Reims to Verdun
click to enlarge
Friday, March 30, 2007
From Paris to Reims, from Reims to
Verdun, through Champagne, Argonne, pays de Meuse, the weight of History
is heavier and heavier. Everywhere memories of the past war, everywhere
military cemeteries. Verdun was the eye of the hurricane of devastation
and the past is still very present. Comment peut-on être verdunois? How
is it possible to live here surrounded by so many statues, monuments,
memorials, ossuaries?
And Verdun is also the cradle of France and Germany since Charlemagne's
grandsons signed in 843 the treaty splitting the Carolingian Empire!
Tomorrow one more day of battlefields and then I will walk north towards
Aachen. Well, speaking of walking, my feet and my legs seem to get used
to it.
A bientôt, Didier
Verdun to Aachen
click to enlarge
Saturday, April 7, 2007
Dear Friends,
Ich bin in Aachen.
After 18 days and 40% of my trip.
Since Verdun and its overwhelming past, I had the pleasure to walk through charming landscapes.
I exited from France by a little country road in a corner of Lorraine, and it was like leaving a big house by a back door. Between France and Belgium, Belgium and Luxembourg, Luxembourg and Belgium again, and finally Belgium and Germany, I crossed 4 borders in 7 days with always the same exhilarating feeling because the borders seem to have disappeared. I had to be aware of them to see a small sign here, a discrete change there. In one case, from Luxembourg to Belgium, it was even impossible to see anything, no sign, no change in the road pavement, nothing... the border as an abstraction, a curiosity for History lovers.
To make things blurrier, the political limits and the cultural ones don't match. For the French it is difficult to think of the Wallons - the French-speaking Belgians - as foreigners, and I went intentionally by Malmédy and Eupen, two German-speaking towns which have been part of Belgium only since 1918.
Going back to the charming landscapes I was mentioning, I walked several days through Ardenne, an old and flattened mountain which is now a plateau softly undulated and covered by fields, meadows, marshlands and forests. I went by the Signal de Botrange, the highest point in Belgium with its 694m (2,300 feet).
The weather was still cold, in the thirties Fahrenheit, with a strong wind but a clear sky and a shining sun.
A perfect weather to walk and enjoy it if...
... if I could have used the trails but they were still very muddy, so I had to follow roads, some of them quiet, others tiring with their non-stop roaring of cars and trucks; ... if I were not so aware of the fact that, indeed, I was walking since my feet, hurting from different spots, were always reminding me of their necessary and painful presence.
But now I am resting for one day in Aachen where I had yesterday the pleasure of meeting the President of the Aachen-Reims Sister-City Association and a journalist.
An article about my trip will be in Tuesday issue of the local newspaper.
I am spending Easter Sunday in Aachen, the city of the coronation of 30 German kings since Charlemagne and a nice city where the pedestrian-only old downtown invites you for a stroll.
So, let's walk!
Didier
Aachen to Bingen
click to enlarge
Saturday, April 14, 2007
Dear
friends,
Since I have been hiking in Germany, I am realizing how great Germany is for... bikers. Indeed, from Aachen to Koblenz where I presently am, I used bike paths. They are longer than main roads but shorter than hiking trails because they zigzag less. It's a wonderful network, clearly indicated. They are sometimes parallel to the roads but most of the time completely independent, using narrow roads in the country side where only farm vehicles and bikes are allowed. And from Bonn to here, I followed for two days the path along the Rhine river, a splendid one passing by touristic old villages with inviting places to eat and drink, as well as industrial landscapes. The Rhine is the main artery in Europe and you can feel it: on both sides of the river there are roads and railroads. You can see, or at least hear, the never-ending race of boats, trains, cars and trucks.
Regarding my historical focus, I was interested visiting Bonn's Museum of Contemporary History, and I am finding in Koblenz traces of the French Presence during the Revolution and the Empire: here a pedestal which lost its statue but kept its inscription in French, and there a promenade along the Rhine which was designed by the "Préfet" when the city was a "Chef-lieu de département". Even in the XXth century, Koblenz played a role in French politics since the French president V. Giscard d'Estaing was born here!
I stayed on the left bank - west side
if you prefer - but tomorrow I cross the river.
Go East, not so young man.
A bientôt
Didier
Bingen to Jena
click to enlarge
Monday, April 23, 2007
Dear Friends,
Almost five weeks since I left Paris. It will seem strange when I stop
walking. It is easier now that my feet have become harder than my shoes. The weather has been fine these last days, still very cold in the morning and then warmer in the afternoon but always sunny.
Since Koblenz I went up and down, up and down. No, not in the mood, in the mountains. The Taunus first, and then the Vogelsberg, both with nice views and fresh air which make you think there are higher than their 800m (2600ft).
Regarding my topic of French-German relations, history and peace, I was especially interested by Bad Ems, Bad Hombourg and Friedrichdorf. But I will keep the stories for my return. In one month exactly I will be speaking at the Goethe-Institut; mais si, mais si, you can wait.
Today I will just tell you about the limits of two empires. In the Taunus I followed for almost an entire day the "limes", the wall the Romans built to protect them against the invaders. The wall was made of wood. So, of course, there is nothing left of it. But in some places there were forts made of stones and you can see the ruins of them in the forest. Everything is well indicated with trails and signs. In fact
that day I was on the European Trail # 3.
Two days ago, I was looking for another wall, the Iron Curtain, as I was leaving Hesse for Thuringe, i.e the ex-West Germany for the ex-East Germany. I was on a very small road. After the last hamlet in Hesse, the road became a dirt road which was going uphill among meadows. No more sign, nobody but a sheep or two. And then there it was, no more fence, but still a road following on the east side the line which was the border of the soviet empire. The road is made of two tracks of concrete blocks of about 3m x 1m (10ft x 3,3ft). It is still very apparent in the forest, it fades under the mud and the grass between the meadows. I followed it for a few kilometers. I saw nobody. At some point a mirador was still there, surrounded by bushes.
Today I am in Eisenach, a town where Bach was born, where Luther studied and where the first Workers' party was founded in 1869. The town is full of high school students in field trips. They were not born in 1989. Limes or Iron Curtain, that's
just the same for them: Geschichte (History).
A la prochaine.
Didier
Jena to Berlin
click to enlarge
Monday, May 1, 2007
Leipzig
Dear Friends,
Under a sunny sky, with temperatures going back to a winter mood, my walk goes on. Eisenach, Gotha, Erfurt, Weimar, Jena, Leipzig, a rich series of cities with many houses, churches and statues reminding the traveler of Cranach, Bach, Goethe, Schiller, Wagner, and others--a kaleidoscope of German culture. And I'm not losing the focus of my trip because along the way I encounter multiple traces of Napoleon's two incursions in this part of Germany, the first in 1806 and the second in 1813.
Monica joined me in Weimar and we spent one day strolling the streets of Goethe's Mecca visiting his house and having a nice meeting with the Goethe-Institut's director and a writer who recently published a revolutionary book about Goethe's secret love which sheds a new light on his life and work. A journalist and a photographer were also there so, after Reims and Aachen, a new article on my journey appeared in a newspaper, this time the April 27 Thuringer Allgemeine.
(See picture below)
Today, May 1st or European Labor Day, we are spending more time than planned exploring Leipzig and its fine architecture. In and on every town, so many places where we could spend more time, so many books we could read, so many people we could meet...
But we must move on: five more days and the horizon will be Berlin's skyline.
A bientot, Didier
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Berlin!
Dear Friends,
Mission accomplished. No, thank you, I don't need a big banner
behind me.
Sunday May 6, which will remain in our collective memory as France’s
Presidential Election Day, will also be for me the day I arrived in
Berlin. Sticking to my schedule to the end—after 43 days of walking
plus 4 extra days I allowed myself to stay in and visit 4 cities—I
entered the capital city with Monica around 1 pm but we still had
about 25 km to reach downtown Berlin! Monday and Tuesday were
particularly intense as we tried to see the most we could of Berlin.
We also had stimulating meetings with people from the Goethe-Institut
and, in the Rathaus, with people in charge of developing cultural
relations between France and Germany. 
We were most impressed by Berlin, the profusion of historical places and rich museums as well as the scale and the audacity of the more recent buildings.
Walking along the spiraling ramp to the top of the Reichstag new glass dome at sunset was a splendid metaphor for the end of my journey.
We left Berlin yesterday since Monica had to be back in the States by today; I spent the day in the train on my way to Paris, paying special attention to the particular locations where the railroad crossed my hiking itinerary, where the train was rushing through places I had relished discovering a few weeks prior: Fulda, Dormans, Meaux and Paris. In just a few hours, under a grey sky, with an after-the-rain crisp light, the thread of my travel was rewound.
Hoping to see you next week.
Didier
