“A mind that is stretched by a horse’s head can never go back to its old dimensions”
In April we took Adam to Venice, and the challenges of negotiating the place with a baby carriage were epic. It was a very different Venetian experience than pre-baby. You look at a place in a whole new way when experienced with a baby. It turns out that this sort of freshness is a sought-after commodity.
A friend writes:
Have you ever heard of LaTourEx? Those fucking French!
I just got this book, the Lonely Planet’s Guide to Experimental Tourism, ok. It’s apparently a summary of the travel ideas of the Laboratoire de Tourism Experimental, founded by this freak named Joel Henry in Strasbourg. Do you know about this? If not, why not?
I’m going to devote many of my weekends and even longer vacations to this. Occasionally I am going to need help from you … to wit, when I go to Venice with you, I will wear a blindfold for the entire day I am there, and you will merely tell me about Venice. I will never see Venice — only experience it … [my husband] thinks I’m insane, obviously, but that’s why he loves me, and he’ll go along with it. Magda?
Well, this is pretty. The idea is that regular old tourism is not interesting enough, so it’s time to jazz it up a little with blindfolds, horses’ heads and other minor inconveniences. I did a little research (it just has to gall you when someone asks if you know about something and follows with “if not, why not?”) and it turns out that this experimental tourism thing is indeed on the real.
A quick Google search will turn up nearly 200 hits if you enter the name of the movement and its founder. You can find articles about this in all kinds of mainstream information outlets, including CNN, The Guardian, and the Wikipedia. To cut to the chase, though, just go to Latourex’s official site (in French or English). This features an alphabetical listing of nouvelle travel ideas. I noticed that “Push wailing infant about ancient sinking city” was not on the list.
I told Magda about all of this and her reply was, “You can do what you want. I’m not going to Venice ever again.”
So when our friend comes to “experience” Venice, I figure we’ll drive her around blind-folded for two hours, park the car next to one of Nova Gorica’s many fragrant sewer vents, and walk around Nova Gorica describing its Gothic masterpieces, plunder of Acre, and sweeping Canalettoesque vistas. Then we’ll treat her to a €6 coffee. That’s experimental tourism Nova Gorica-style.
Yes, but now that I’ve read that, I’ll know that that’s what you’re doing.
Comment by jdog — Tuesday 12 July 05 @ 01.57 MDT+2.00
But with the blindfold on, you won’t really know for sure. This will add just one more layer of doubt and surreality to the experience of Venice.
Alternately, I could take you to Venice, and then you’d be experiencing Venice but thinking you were experiencing Nova Gorica fobbed off as Venice. How many hide-bound, blinkered, conservative, traditionalist, inside-the-box-thinking regular tourists get to experience that?
Comment by sgazzetti — Tuesday 12 July 05 @ 07.50 MDT+2.00