Voyages

05.02.2016
Carnets de Desmond

Carnets de Desmond

Travel is a change of scene. It implies going to a place where you do not normally go. There are two ways to do this: by physically moving from one place to another or by using your imagination. It is possible to travel afar without moving a single inch. However, it has become all too run of the mill to move around without travelling…

 « The traveller is the most important part of a trip » wrote André Suarès at the beginning of his book, Voyage du Condottière. « Because, as with everything of importance in life, a beautiful journey is a work of art: a creation. […] A person travels to feel alive. The country itself may well be experienced but it’s the individual who ends up enriched by it. Every day the traveller’s discoveries add depth to the person » he continues. « That’s why », says Nicolas Bouvier, another traveller and writer of  both journeys and voyages: « the traveller narrates a trip in order to measure a distance that has not yet been experienced or crossed. »

The important thing about travelling is to abandon your usual routines and benchmarks and go leftfield, freeing yourself in this afflux of other worlds, languages, customs, different ways to be kind (or not, as the case may be) and to soak up colours that feel different. “If I left without looking back, I would soon lose sight of myself” wrote poet Jean Tardieu. Another poet Léon-Paul Fargue innocently replied “You think you are free because you are leaving, but you’ve still got your slippers on.”

So take note: it might be enough to light a candle or spritz some fragrance to be whisked off somewhere else, but there is a condition attached. There must remain a risk in doing that. It is not a question of recognising it but elevating yourself to the crest of the moment: whether here or elsewhere, at home or very far away, ensuring your inner self remains abroad within himself. The memories generated by a scent just mean that we have experienced something or have travelled in life. But do they really comment on who has done the travelling?

As spring comes round again, diptyque puts journeys centre stage. Firstly because the company’s three founders have travelled far and wide in order to live and feel life to the full as well as to gather knowledge and arts and crafts from around the world. The first diptyque boutique was jam-packed with items from far flung places. Then, along came fragrance of course, being an airborne means of transport for armchair travellers. Finally, for those who are not as receptive to this and for whom travel is not travel without luggage, diptyque offers a wide range of mini-sizes that are easy to stow away when ‘travelling’.