it’s been great, but…

But… I think I will never again spend the whole month of August in Paris. This is my third time doing it, after 2001 and 2006, and either the crowds are becoming much worse or my tolerance of them is.

But seriously, I think the crowds are becoming much worse. In 2006, I remember reacting to the ticket lines at places like the Eiffel Tower and the Musée d’Orsay by saying: “Wow, that’s pretty long. No big deal, though.”

In 2010, my reactions to the lines are more like: “No f-ing way,” followed by immediate departure. Really, I tried the Musée d’Orsay this morning and it was too ridiculous even to consider.

I think I know where I’ll go next summer. It’s in the United States. It’s a place I’ve never been, except passing through briefly on the Amtrak. And it’s a place that is very important in the life of an American writer about whom I will soon be writing a book, and whose initials are HPL.

That’s my plan for now, anyway. I can’t write a book on Lovecraft as an American who has never set foot in Providence, Rhode Island. That is where I must spend part of the summer of 2011.

Even to write on Latour, I was uncomfortable about doing it before going to Beaune and seeing the family vineyards and the church where Bruno was baptized and all of that. Geography shapes people, and you need to experience the buildings that your subject saw every day in early life, even if you can’t tangibly express in words how it might have affected them. I just needed that image of Beaune in my mind while writing about Latour. In fact, I felt the need to stay there for several days and soak up the atmosphere a bit.