well july has been quite a trip. what with cleaning up after the floods (we had two) and training new assistants on top of the general stuff that needs to be done, there really hasn't been a lot of time to do anything much but rush around. but i am not complaining. apart from the floods (which were a major drag but the cause seems to have been fixed since it bucketed this past monday but only OUTSIDE the building this time) everything has been going exceptionally well. considering that i just turned 3 here at the beginning of the month and things are swimming along as well as they are, i'm especially happy.
still, i'm tired. so tomorrow morning at the crack of dawn i am leaving to spend a week in montreal. i'm really looking forward to this trip. a) i've never been to montreal and hear it's really nice b) it will be a good opportunity to visit a lot of french bookstores (there seems to be only one in new york and it sucks) and c) i haven't really taken a proper vacation since 1998 and even that turned into a "working holiday". this time though my assistants are perfectly capable of keeping things running & i am determined not to think about perfume while i am away. or at least not much.
still i am certain i will be thinking a lot about smell. this is inevitable because if i am breathing in and out, i am noticing the scents around me and on some level i am always "working". every city i've ever visited has countless breathtaking odors from the sublime to the ridiculous and i can't help mentally cataloguing them as i wander around and then making a lot of notes. (there was a famous incident back in 97 when i stood stock still for 15 minutes in the middle of the portobello market sniffing like a bloodhound and wondering why roast chestnuts in london should smell so different from those in new york while my friends wondered if i had taken leave of my senses which indeed i had - at least all but one...)
so while i certainly plan to enjoy the sights, sounds & probably a lot that can be tasted & felt on this trip, i'm also very much looking forward to exploring the invisible city that is montreal - how it smells. i've been told the cafe au lait & the croissants are amazing and the food fantastic - plenty of olfactory opportunities there. but i also wonder how the st lawrence smells - how far inland does the odor of the river tint the air of the city? what are the odors of the vieux ville? do the old bookshops there smell different from my favorites in new york, london or san francisco? what subtle differences can be found in the scent of such a simple thing as grass? do crowds of canadians have a different aroma from the hoards in manhattan...?
well i'm going to find out and i'm sure i'll come back with plenty of notes.