Risks of going back: things change
The one thing at the top of my list for must-dos in Paris? Fromagerie 31. I had discovered this little cheese bar on Rue de Seine while studying in Paris during the summer of 2007. I fondly remembered being presented with a plate of five different cheeses, and learning how to go from mildest to strongest. It was my first introduction to cheese tasting, and I fell in love with it then and there.
I was looking forward to a cheese plate and salad as a light lunch and a break from wandering around the shops in the Sixth. I successfully navigated myself to Rue de Seine, found the restaurant across the street from Fromagerie 31 that I had settled for once when it was closed, and looked expectantly for my little cheese shop. Hmmm…hotel, tabac, café, restaurant. I could have sworn I was in the right place, but maybe the past three years had played some tricks on my memory. I paced up and down Rue de Seine a few times, but to no avail—had I mixed up street names somehow? Finally, I poked my head into a café and inquired about the fromagerie I could have sworn was right next door.
“La fromagerie est fermée, Madame,” the hostess brusquely informed me. Closed? For good? Oui. Well, shoot. There goes my idea of relaxing with a big glass of wine and big hunk of cheese. I was pretty darn disappointed, and I was hungry.
There’s a certain rose-colored glow we tend to impart on past travels: it’s easy to forget the bad parts, or at least turn them into funny stories, while elevating mediocre experiences to the best we’ve ever had. When photos and memories are all you have of a destination, the past remains frozen just as you left it.
But what about when you return to a destination? Inevitably, things change. Businesses close. Construction occurs. People leave. It can be disappointing and a bit disheartening–as in the case of my beloved cheese shop (and my favorite Lebanese lunch spot) closing.
But at the same time, isn’t that what travel (and life) is all about? If everything we liked was always there, we wouldn’t be motivated to try anything new. Disappointment is sometimes a necessary catalyst to catapult us out of routine. So I went somewhere new for lunch. Now I can check one more restaurant off my “must-try” list in Paris, and I can still pretend that Fromagerie 31 was the best little cheese bar in the world. Win-win.
Have you ever returned to a destination, only to be disappointed by how it had changed? Where and why?
