France
Every public toilet tells a
story….
Spain
TGV
the toilet in the TGV
is dirty, dark and hard
to understand…why does
the door keep opening every
time
I try to flush? Oh..
that is what ‘Ouvert’ means…
As I look back to make sure no
one is watching (of course
there is at least one
old Frenchman
giving a stare of
disapproving
amusement) I wonder
about the rest of the trip
how will I negotiate the bathrooms?
Gaudi!
Paris!
Dali!
the Louvre!
Barcelona!
the Musee D’Orsay!
the toilets……
oh god the toilets!
it is not just about
toilets.
It is about tangibility
and travel…..
what is it about the
tangible that continues
to captivate despite our
obsession with the digital???
the public toilets are
like ufos…no one can
figure out how to open the
door…we wait out-
side the dome….
……………………………………
at least the weather is
nice………………………..
…………………………………..
the background noises
of travel (France and
Spain)
public/private
urban/rural
ancient/modern
how are these concepts built
and maintained?
Dali part 1
the Dali Museum is so
incredibly crowded…we
rented a car and drove out
to Figueres to wait in a long
line in the sun…
this better be life changing
(but it is not)
instead, it mirrors the
strange relationship tourism
creates to public space…
it is at once familiar
and
unfamiliar…..
Dali part 2
in Spain
in the middle of
most of Dali’s major works…
amidst many children being
yelled at in a myriad of
languages….
there is still a really long line
outside of the ladies’ restroom
and virtually no line outside of the
mens’ restroom…
familiar and un-
familiar
after a
long day of walking
we finally found
Les Deux Magots…I imagine
that I might be sitting
where Simone de Beauvoir
did long ago…
the bathroom here is a
maze of mirrors and is
disorienting after a long
day of wondering/wandering
more disorienting is the fact
that when we tell
the waiter we are from Minneapolis
he replies
“ahhhh, zee city of twins, non?”
what?
Discussion
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