Think About It. World Travel. Fifty years after my yearlong sojourn in France I was pleased to recall and compare my experience by reading Paris to the Moon. Ten years later it occurred to me how much pleasure a quick trip to famous foreign places would be. Just imagine being a day tripper to the countries and capitols you’ve heard about but never visited.
Living in Noblesville, Indiana, I decided to learn how long it would take to get to Paris from Moontown Road. Turns out a two hour ride south on US 65 and 10 miles east gets me there. It’s probably the smallest of the 23 towns, villages and cities in the US proudly bearing that famous French name. Total residents? Barely 100,000.
Early settlers may have travelled alone or in small groups, but wanted and needed larger populations for commerce and safety. They felled the trees to build houses and plowed the land to provide food. Then these pioneers planted signs, lending the names of their mostly European home towns to draw a crowd.
All over the country, you’ll find places you may have always wanted to visit. Back home again in Indiana you’ll find many worth considering.
Rome City is up north with Sylvan lake where I stayed up on water-skis long enough to know I didn’t want to do that again. Travelling south you’ll find Peru (called Pee-roo some), of Cole Porter fame and off-season home to circus families. There’s East Germantown in the west central part of the state. Versailles (pronounce here Ver-sales) in Ripley County, believe it or not. Nearby is Milan (That’s My-lan.), famous for its basketball team and the motion picture Hoosiers.
There’s Switzerland County, sharing a hilly border with Kentucky. A tank of gas will easily last you for a round trip south of the border to Brazil (Say bray-zil.) or La Paz (Bolivia). A visit to Avon may not provide great sonnets, but will reveal its former names like Hampton, Smootsdell and Whitelink. Aliases to protect the guilty no doubt. Of course there’s Hamlet, named for its founder, not the Shakespearean prince.,
Holland was platted by a German. And who knows how we found two Genevas, one each in Jennings and Adams counties. The latter was formerly known as Buffalo. Don’t ask why.
Of course the punch line is French Lick. Not what you think. There’s the self described native hick, Larry Bird. And there was a handy salt lick near the trading post run by a Frenchman. No joke.
Of course there are many more treks for you, including pilgrimages to Mecca and Zionsville. The good news is that you can tour famous places in almost any of the United States after a quick look at an atlas. Then enjoy the ride home with a new book. Just call New Yorker magazine and tell Adam Gopnik to write Paris to Moontown. He just might like to continue his World Travel. Think About It.