The view from my $24/night dorm!

How great it feels to be in the US. I’m not a flag waver, just grateful to be with my fellow Americans again. Yes, I know it’s been nearly a year since my last post, but now I have a new focus after my germination period in Delhi, India and Geneva, Switzerland. In August 2009 when the euro shot up and the dollar slid down it was bail- out time so off to India, a country I enjoy and admire. More stories about India later. Afterwards Geneva and a large anglophone writing conference supplied more focus.

Even the air controllers stike in France doesn’t stop me. A day before my departure on February 24th I hop on a bus to the Geneva airport. A kind Air France guy finds a flight replacing my cancelled Geneva to Paris flight.  At check in a crisp looking attendant looks at my flight info and she says,

“The seat listed on your itineray is not available. It’s reserved for children not accompanied by an adult.”

“I feel like that somedays,” I grin and she also smiles in recognition. A rare happening where humor translates from one culture to another.

Now my goal is to place my fanny on a chair and write, a chair that does not move every few days or few months. This moving about was necessary for doing research around the globe and living modestly.

So each day I’m commited to do a blog post and  write a certain number of words, not pages. The pros tell me lots of dialogue necessary to keep people awake and reading and away from making tortillas in the kitchen. Since dialogue fills page space with fewer words, it’s words, not pages, that you count. As soon as I figure out the right number of words I need to write each day I’ll commit them to you.

I’m passionate about sharing the benefits we’ve gained from these French Protestants, or Huguenots, who left their homes to carry their message to safer countries. And I want to share my own new freedom as I a single woman in her seventies take to the road  to follow them. It’s exciting in spite of doubts to push back  limits of time, space, place, money, age, home and possessions. I find such goodness wherever I am.

Please write and let me know what you’re thinking.

Rhea

Machu Picchu, Peru Feb/09

The Passionate Nomad has landed! After doing research during the past two and a half years in seventeen countries over six continents  I now have an address in Paris.  It still feels odd to punch in the door code to enter the building and climb stairs to my tiny studio. Surprisingly, nomadic life agrees with me and this new fixed status takes some adjusting. Oh, I know Paris isn’t a hardship city. Any other nomads out there that have the same reaction?

This nomadic backpacker style enabled me to follow the trail of the French Protestants, or Huguenots, who chose to leave France in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. After years of persecution they said to Louis XIV “Louee, we’re leaving. This place is not healthy.” And they traveled all around the globe – exotic these early whistle blowers. So now am at my computer writing a book about these intrepid pioneers: A Passionate Nomad: Travels on the French Huguenot Diaspora Trail.

I’ll be posting events in Europe celebrating the 500th anniversary of the birth of their leader, Jean Calvin. His influence through his teachings called Calvinism is wider than I realized. He’s not the tough, uncaring martyr portrayed by his enemies   STAY TUNED.

But you must get a Calvin t-shirt!

Order them at www.arretauxpages.com

Sponsored by the Nouvelle Librarie Protestante in Paris. (The New Protestant Bookstore in Paris) the shirts were first sold at Noyon, France at the May 17, 2009 Calvin celebration.  I was there and ordering mine now. Soon to be a Collectors’ Item!

Arret Aux Pages, for those of you traveling in Paris, is located at: 47 rue de Clichy, 75009. Tel/Fax:  +33 (0)1.45.26.27.27  Many books, magazines and DVDs. Their website in French informative.

Tee shirt Calvin 500è anniversaire 2009 Au dos : “Avec Calvin l’audace d’une parole libre” 25 €, Tailles S à XXL

Above: On the back  “CALVIN…..the audacity of a free word.”

25 euros  Sizes S to XXL   more ordering directions at arretauxpages.com

The Swiss even brought out a new beer – Calvinus, very dark label. He’s morphing  to a more mellow persona.More later,

PN aka Rhea Atwood