Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Stow Your Preconceptions and Be Open to New Experiences
Along with the rest of our baggage, we tend to bring along knee-jerk assump-
tions about what we expect to encounter abroad. Sometimes these can be
helpful (remember to drive on the left in Britain). Other times, they can
interfere with our ability to fully engage with the culture on its own terms.
People tell me that they enjoy my public television shows and my guide-
books because I seem like just a normal guy. I'll take that as a compliment.
What can I say? I'm simple. I was raised thinking cheese is orange and the
shape of the bread. Slap it on and—
voilà!
…cheese sandwich.
But in Europe, I quickly learned that cheese is not orange nor the shape
of the bread. In France alone, you could eat a dif erent cheese every day of
the year. And it wouldn't surprise me if people did. h
e French are passion-
ate about their cheese.
I used to be put of by sophisticates in Europe. h ose snobs were so
enamored with their i ne wine and stinky cheese, and even the
terroir
that
created it all. But now I see that, rather than showing of , they're simply proud
and eager to share. By stowing my preconceptions and opening myself up to
new experiences, I've achieved a new appreciation for all sorts of highbrow
stuf I thought I'd never really “get.” h ankfully, people are sophisticated
about dif erent things, and I relish the opportunity to meet and learn from an
expert while traveling. I'm the
wide-eyed bumpkin...and it's
a cultural show-and-tell.
For example, I love it
when my favorite restaurateur
in Paris, Marie-Alice, takes
me shopping in the morning
and shows me what's going
to shape her menu that night.
We enter her favorite cheese
shop—a fragrant festival of
mold. Picking up the moldi-
est, gooiest wad, Marie-Alice
takes a deep whif , and whis-
pers, “Oh, Rick, smell zees
cheese. It smells like zee feet
of angels.”
If they're evangelical about cheese, raise your
hands and say hallelujah.
