Byron's Don Juan satirizes fluently and abundantly, often through the art of reversal. The titular Don Juan is no longer seducer, but seducee; Wordsworth the unhired elitist "season[s]" his poems "with democracy." The poem was celebrated as a liberal masterpiece in its time, and it was reviled. It caused offense in its time, and it still does. Richard Cronin astutely sees it as a poem that "claims the right to give and to take offence, but it is also a poem … that extends that same right to its readers.

The path that leads to the Carrières de Bibémus starts just past the Lycée Paul Cézanne. I took my first hike to the areas east of the Bibémus plateau on January 31, a month ago today: a bruising 15-miler that reminded me that I belong off the couch and on the trail. I had been living in France for just over a month by then. My partner moved here to take up a postdoctoral research position in Aix-en-Provence; I needed a change of scenery from Mountain View, California, so I moved on Christmas Day to France.

Traveled to Prague on a double-decker bus from Nuremberg. Lots of Germans headed there for the weekend. Beers and bros and Bohemian countryside. Praha hlavní nádraží (Photograph by the author) Took a subway to north of the Vltava and walked in blistering sun to Sir Toby’s Hostel, located in a slightly less visited district. Triple-decker bunks; took the top so I could sit up … but paid for it with the hottest seat in the house.