Maastricht

Finally arrived in Maastricht, my third time here. It’s a strange and lovely little place.

As for Ghent… Though it’s one of my favorite places in Europe, it caused me mostly grief this time. Cold rain, wind, bone-chilling cold, plus the entire city reduced to a construction/rennovation zone since my last time here, meaning all kinds of mud on the ground.

Amsterdam wasn’t expected to be on the itinerary at all, but I promised to show it to somebody, and did so for about 18 hours before having to come down here for the lecture. Apologies to all my Amsterdam people for having to whip through without a word, but there was barely a minute to spare.

By the way, one other Brussels note… Didier Debaise strongly recommends Pierre Montebello’s book on Deleuze, published in 2008 I think. I bought it at Tropismes in Brussels a few days ago. I do like Montebello a lot, ever since reading one of his books purely by accident in 2006. He’s a rather soulful historian of philosophy, as well as a charming and modest man (I met him at the Toulouse conference a year ago). Debaise and Latour also independently discovered and enjoyed Montebello’s books, so that makes three of us.

Side-trip tomorrow, just because I don’t like a trip where I don’t see at least one new city. I’ll describe that city tomorrow.