Blogging to me is capturing my thoughts. The pieces or the links build up and when they get consolidated, the only thing left is to compose the story.Hmm… I think I have made a mention of this before too.
Since long I have been trying to the understand the importance of language, articulating your thoughts well and convey the message. How do poeple express themselves, relate to people , the concept of sharing and not just sharing knowledge and information, why do poeple talk so much and why can’t some people at times just be precise or keep quiet. I decided to write on storytelling, just had to find time and the patience.
And what better place to compose one when you are travelling through the countryside of Northern France, Belgium and Holland:). After a wonderful weekend in Western France and Paris I am headed back to Den Haag and and just for these 4 hours of journey I carried my laptop 
Need to make the most of my travel time. Else I sleep. Last week I was not happy when a friend of mine drove me to EIndhoven. I landed up at the Den Haag central station with my laptop only for him to call and later pick me up from there. The 3 hours I would have spent in the train would have given me the perfect ambience to compose my blog.
So here I am, in Thalys trying to pen my thoughts. However, after a wonderful weekend I so want to write on Fontainbleau and Etretat rather than on storytelling – a subject worth 20 marks for a third grade student of the Maharashtra board.
The weekend plan to Paris was chalked out only a week back. I booked the tix and called Bhatia to tell him that I shall visit him from Saturday early morning to Monday late afternoon. He flew to India early Monday morning.
To sum up: Saturday morning arrival at Paris, catching up with Bhatia,Aditi,Abhinav (Nick = Motu Doc)and Sanchita (Nick = Tissky kyunki woh “TISS ki” hai), Bhatia, Tissky and myself head to Fontainbleu, The Chateau, the trees/gardens in Autumn – its so soothing to the eyes , the walk around the gardens, the canal, the short refreshing nap on the grass besides the canal, Barbizon, the walk through the woods, the rock climbing, Autumn all over, the discussion on philiosophy-Marxism,feminism – lesbian feminsim (the subject being Tissky’s roomie), back to Paris, the 2 cups of post dinner masala chai, Tissky and myself head off to Le havre early morning, the walk across the breadth of the town searching for the toursim office, beautiful beach, the run – Chak De – to catch the bus to Etretat, Etretat – paradise on earth – we were speechless – I have no words to describe the exotic view from the cliffs, hungry & tired a moment back and so energized at the sight – leading to the trek up the cliffs, the clear water at the beach, the lunch at the top of the cliff – the best location to have a meal, the golf course on the top of the cliff, the village town between cliffs, the clear skies and the sunshine, more cliffs, the bus ride back to Le Havre – the bus was scheduled to arrive at the station a minute later than the last train to Paris, the plan to do a DDLJ with the only glitch being atleast one of us had to be inside the train, the train was late by 4 mins and we were late by 3 mins,the sprint to the platform, Jab We met – the train left the platform just as we arrived, the info from the Indian family, alternate route – bus to Caen and train to Paris, catching up with Bhatia at Gare du Nord to wish him good bye as he left for the airport for a flight to India, the post dinner masala chai, Bhatia – bhatia bashing till 4 in the morning, Eiffel and the gardens at Eiffel, Mont Marte – the view of Paris and finally back to Den Haag
Etretat is a must visit. I rate Etretat as the best place I have ever been to – better than Switzerland and Italy. I so wish to go there again and for a longer stay
Its also strangely weird at times how people meet and make friends so soon. Tissky and myself introduced ourselves to each other on Saturday morning and the two of us were headed to Etretat the next morning. And we had a really good time.
