My intention was to post at least another couple of pieces about Thailand. However other experiences have elbowed those to the side and insist on insinuating themselves onto the page. I’ve just stepped through an extraordinary moment in my life. Yesterday when I stepped out of my house; I was finally making the transition, 46 Tuffley Crescent will never be my home again. My first home is now in Tournous-Darré in France. It was a powerful experience as I moved around the house closing doors. Each room containing thousands of tableaux from my life. As I closed and locked the front door I vividly recalled the moment in nineteen seventy-four when I opened the door to the house for the first time. Then it was empty and echoed … and now it is the same.
There was however no regret, no grief, of course there are sad parts to this experience but there are exciting and rewarding ones too. Fourteen hours after locking that door I stepped off the plane in Lisbon. The first leg of the journey back to France. We are seeing Portuguese friends and decided to couple that with a few days in Lisbon. I’ve only visited Portugal once before and then we spent just a few hours in Lisbon. Today we have all been able mooch and savour the atmosphere of Alfama. This neighbourhood somehow survived the great earthquake of seventeen fifty-five so is full of quaint buildings, narrow cobbled streets and visual treats. There’s also a lot of steps 🤣
The waterfront is more modern but stylish and wide, it’s beautiful to walk along it looking at old Lisbon on one side and the Tagus estuary on the other. Along the front there is Taylors the purveyors of fine port. We couldn’t resist popping in and sampling a few types of good old tawny. We decided that the 20 year old won out. Our tasting choices were relatively modest. We could have paid €70 for some glasses!
There is a friendliness and relaxed air in Lisbon that for me has already established it as one of my favourite European cities. On this and during my first visit to Portugal, I was fascinated by the language. I was expecting something akin to French or Spanish so was floored by what sounded to me as Eastern European speech.
The 1755 earthquake was devastating, it is reckoned that thirty to forty thousand people lost their lives. Not only did it have a profound effect on Portugal’s economy, amongst other things putting paid to its colonial aspirations but also the event fuelled the debates driving the Age Of Enlightenment. Happening on an important religious holiday, Catholics and Protestants blamed each other arguing it was God’s wrath. Meantime writers such as Voltaire started to question the existance of a benificant God. It’s been suggested that Candide was born of this event.
So it’s strange to find myself stepping into Lisbon, a gateway for my own changing world.