"This is really hard!"

This sign is on the front door of the bike shop near my apartment.

I find it so thoughtful that they give this kind of advice! I'm sure it's motivated mostly by the desire to help bumbling bike bringer-inners such as myself, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's also a bit of a self-service — they must see so many people struggle with the door, and it must get so annoying.

I like to think of how this kind of dual intention — helping us come in efficiently, while helping them not get irritated with us — could be used in art museum and galleries. First, an acknowledgement that what the visitor is attempting to do could be "really hard," then a friendly nudge in a direction that could make it just a bit easier. The sign doesn't encourage visitors to ring the doorbell in order for a clerk to open the door for them, but rather gives a tip on how the visitor can open the door themselves. That's what I'd like didactic panels to be like in museums: don't do it for me by telling me what to think about what I'm looking at. Give me tips so that I can figure it out by myself!

Le recommencement

I wasn't going to get all emotional about this — yes, this blog has been napping in a dark corner of the internet for a whole seven + years, but the world has been turning very well without it, and so I wanted to pick it back up without much fanfare. Sans tambours ni trompettes, as we say in French.

BUT!

Eight years ago I titled what was then my last post "la fin" — the end. But lo and behold! It was not to be the end! And that is how I find myself here again today, with a re-beginning. Where I will likely get all emotional because it's what I like to do. Et voilà aussi pourquoi, tant qu'à y être, j'ai rebaptisé le blog : Une question de feeling. Pour le clin d'oeil à la chanson (qui mériterait d'ailleurs qu'on y consacre un billet entier), et parce que c'est en franglais.

Alors let's go: questions, feelings, français, English. Hit it, Fabienne and Richard!