ABOUT ME
Line-Andrée Marshall
I am a teacher, a listener, an ever-curious observer.
A learner, a sojourner…
My journeys and their expression here, whether or not they entail actual travel, are inspired by three women:
The debt I owe to Sojourner Truth is evident in the title of this blog. She was a woman who dreamed herself into so much more than she was, and invited other women to dream along. Like her, I am a Sojourner or traveler; but unlike her, who had a lifetime of wisdom to impart, I am still foremost a Learner.
Another self-made woman, Zora Neale Hurston, lived and laughed out loud. A trained anthropologist, a grounded intellectual, a literary fashionista, and a true buccaneer, she revolutionized American letters by hitting the road to document and immortalize the richness and language of African cultures in the Americas. In her masterpiece, Their Eyes Were Watching God, she reinvents and reimagines the journeying epic hero as a Black woman, solidifying the idea presented in Chapter One that for women, “the dream is the truth.”
In All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes, Maya Angelou writes the following of her experiences in a newly-independent Ghana in the early 60’s:
“If the heart of Africa remained elusive, my search for it had brought me closer to understanding myself and other human beings. The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned. It impels mighty ambitions and dangerous capers. We amass great fortunes at the cost of our souls, or risk our lives in drug dens from London’s Soho, to San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury. We shout in Baptist churches, wear yarmulkes and wigs and argue even the tiniest points in the Torah, or worship the sun and refuse to kill cows for the starving. Hoping that by doing these things, home will find us acceptable or failing that, that we will forget our awful yearning for it.”
What Dr. Angelou refers to as “the ache for home” is what I think paradoxically defines all of us serial wanderers. Perhaps the home we seek in new faces and unknown landscapes is simply the assurance of our shared humanity. There are many things that made Maya Angelou a truly great soul, but my favorite was her determination to transcend boundaries.
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Here are my attempts hearken to the voices of these and innumerable other ancestral muses who have paved my way, and whose examples reinforce the idea that if I am to inspire lifelong learning in my students, I must first exemplify it.
I LOVE TO HEAR FROM READERS! PLEASE FOLLOW, LIKE, COMMENT, & SHARE.
Learner Sojourner 
Hi, I was searching for information for my upcoming trip to Paris and found your amazing blog thanks to Tripadvisor! I really liked all of your posts about Paris (and am planning to read other postings too after writing this 😉 ). I was wondering if I could get some information about Hotel Saint Andre des Arts, where you stayed. I am thinking of staying there after reading your recommendation, but it would be much better for me if I could first contact the hotel to ask the availability of rooms and etc. Could you let me know the way you contacted the hotel and booked rooms? And I’d really appreciated it if I could know an email address through which I can communicate with the staff of the hotel. I look forward to receiving your reply, thanks in advance! 🙂
Hi Isabelle,
Thanks so much for reading:) Here’s the link I used to contact the hotel (which includes a link for booking requests):
http://www.france-hotel-guide.com/en/75006-saint-andre-des-arts.php.
The staff is very responsive so I’m sure they’ll be glad to answer any of your questions..Otherwise the reviews on TripAdvisor are very accurate based on my two stays (26 years apart!). If you’re looking for a location that’s second to none, with loads of character, and you’re not fussy about fancy amenities, you’ll enjoy it very much.
Thanks a lot! I just sent a booking request via the link you wrote above. I hope the room will be available.. And thanks for your detailed information about the hotel as well! 🙂
(I wrote a wrong email adress so I’m rewriting my commet here with the right email adress! Or your reply just here would be totally okay for me either!)
Hi, I was searching for information for my upcoming trip to Paris and found your amazing blog thanks to Tripadvisor! I really liked all of your posts about Paris (and am planning to read other postings too after writing this 😉 ). I was wondering if I could get some information about Hotel Saint Andre des Arts, where you stayed. I am thinking of staying there after reading your recommendation, but it would be much better for me if I could first contact the hotel to ask the availability of rooms and etc. Could you let me know the way you contacted the hotel and booked rooms? And I’d really appreciated it if I could know an email address through which I can communicate with the staff of the hotel. I look forward to receiving your reply, thanks in advance! 🙂
Terrific blog. I’ll sign up!
Thanks for the follow cyclingrandma. Glad you enjoyed reading.