Sep 10, 2026
Preparation…wavers between excitement and - what am I forgetting? Or “am I ready (in other ways)”?. I tend to travel with curiosity. Care and curiosity. I hadn’t traveled outside the US (but for a road trip to Vancouver and Whistler BC circa 1978) until 1994. Mark and I’d rediscovered each other in 1993, I was in SF and he lived in Pleasant Hill, uber-suburbia. His partner, Kenneth Werner (who worked and performed as Phil Harmonic) had died 13 months previous. Amongst Phil’s many music-related items passed to Mark was a very early synthesizer by Serge Tcherepnin, a composer from a long line of composers. In 1994 Serge contacted Mark asking if he could return that nearly one-of-a-kind synthesizer. He/we did, to a mysterious apartment on Haight St owned by Serge, though he lived in Paris. With appreciation he invited Mark, should he visit Paris, to stay in his parents’ apartment which he still owned. After a perhaps surprisingly short time (and a consult with me about my interest in accompanying him) Mark emailed back - yes! how about in 2 months! (an approximation).
It was a pretty great trip, though as I recall, my back at that time was quite susceptible to twinges and more difficulty without much prodding. The prodding came in the form of the old bed in the apartment.
Food has been a focus for me for quite a while. And on our travels this became clearer and clearer to Mark. Mostly I didn’t want to eat poorly prepared “tourist” food, but also hoped for an experience. We traveled by train to visit Versailles arriving in a small town nearby. Lunch. What to eat? As we walked, I crossed each possibility off the list. And so we walked on. But on a street which was mostly a blank wall without storefronts, ah, people trickling in and out of a doorway. There was minimal signage and I couldn’t quite figure out what it was. It turned out to be a communal village lunchroom, where for some few francs a basic lunch could be had. Very simple straightforward items. Perhaps not so many years ago I could remember more details of what they offered. That seems to have evaporated. Clumsily, we figured out we needed to purchase a ticket, which 5 feet away we turned in, then were waved to one of several long communal tables. Briefly, I attempted a conversation in French with a neighboring diner, but shortly, as I told him, his English was better than my French.
And so, general curiosity, driven by food curiosity?
Wandering the city, and returning to my caffeine habit was certainly a great bonding experience for us. We moved in together the following May, in Oakland, a sort of geographic and cultural midpoint.
PS I did forget my nighttime mouth guard.
