If I were lost... somewhere between Matane and Baton-Rouge...

(This blog entry is *NOT* simulcasted at FC, because of the many photos. This is also a follow up to the previous blog entry here...)

I have in my luggage,
Photos, so many photos...

This year, it all started at the tulip festival in Ottawa in May,

Some travels were for work, many times it was for leisure...
"The Lady in the wet suit".
When you know her story, she's truly the mermaid of Vancouver.

She's observing ships coming in and out of the harbour, enroute to the Lions Gate Bridge, and from there... Alaska? Asia? California? Ah...

What she's thinking? I've been wondering.


A walk in the rain forest on Gabriola Island, like many of these islands on the Sunshine Coast and Gulf Coast.

Can you feel... the energy these trees radiate? I do.

On days like today, such energy helps me to keep going, even when I'm worried.



Then on the east coast, Halifax, a 4-day tour on the Cape Breton. From Chéticamp to Baddeck, from the foggy beauty of the Cabot Trail slicing between the sea and Irish-like rolling hills... to the stunning beauty of the Bras D'or Lakes.
The pinnacle of this trip, La forteresse de Louisbourg. No DeLoreans to go back in time. The past grabs you as soon as you begin to walk on the muddy streets on this foggy day...

I'm in the early 1700s,
I left my world, my modern life,
I've been wondering...
As fascinating as it seems,
And I hate to admit it,
As I don't have much belongings,
I'm *too* spoil rotten by the modern life.

Then a powerful image in many ways, on the fast-ferry leaving Boston, sailing at an insane speed, enroute to bucolic Cape Cod.

Incredible how in no time, the city skyline disappears.

I also feel the energy. The Salacia vibrates, the roar is deafening, I have to hold firmly the guardrail.

I feel tipsy, as if I were drunk. Away from city crowd, away from crazy traffic... Being free, being at sea. Such a joy!

Silence is often my world, it's an open invitation to meditation.

However music is like champagne. Despite being "hard of hearing" to human speech, music can be sweet to my ears...

On FC, you've read many times about Isabelle Boulay... and a song special to me...

"Entre Matane et Baton-Rouge"... she sang in Ottawa, at Vancouver's Stanley Park, in flowery Victoria, on Mount Rainier in Washington State, and on my last day in Seattle, playing full bast at the harbor.

Her magic also radiated to my fellow travelmates.... whether in Ottawa, whether at a bon fire near Baddeck on the Cape Breton whether on the trip to NJ's Blogamajig...

To others, this is music with an accent... while to me, it's my culture, sweetening my pain when the blues hit me and I feel terribly uprooted...

"Si j'étais perdue" (if I were lost)... is another song of her from the same album... and on days like this, it's also playing often in my mind.

Words mean little to me (as it's painful for me to process human speech), however the music, the rhythm... in non-verbal way, Boulay is singing so well how I feel.

Language and culture... in so many ways...

Cheers,

-E
____

Since we're on the internet... You can hear both songs (and others!), off Isabelle Boulay's official web site.
(http://www.isabelleboulay.ca/)

(Click on "Discographie", then "Retour à la source", then look for "01-Entre Matane et Baton-Rouge" and "11-Si j'étais perdue")