“It is one of the sorrows of civilization, living in houses. I believe that we were made to sleep on our backs looking up at the stars. In a few years’ time (thanks to all the new kinds of locomotion) the human race will revert to its nomadic state. People will travel from one end of the world to the other, just as they used to do, from the prairies to the mountains: it will bring back some peace of mind and get the air into our lungs.” Gustave Flaubert, 1858

I guess it took more than a “few years” for us to become jet setters and globetrotters, but if he could only see us now. I wonder if Flaubert would agree with our approach to travel, with our blogging and phone photography obsessions. Would he like to read his writing on a Kindle? If true nomadicism is the goal, then portable tech is unavoidable….