Okay, so today I spent some time on this thing I called my “famous frenchman” practice. Wasn’t sure what to expect, just felt like I needed to, you know, actually do something instead of just thinking about doing stuff. My brain felt a bit like mush lately.
So, I sat down. First step? Figure out which famous Frenchman. Lots of ’em, right? My mind kinda blanked for a second. Then, dunno why, Victor Hugo popped into my head. Maybe I saw his name somewhere recently? Or maybe it’s just cause Les Mis is everywhere. Anyway, Hugo it was. Seemed like a decent enough rabbit hole to jump into for an afternoon.
I started just poking around online. Basic stuff first. Yeah, wrote Les Misérables, wrote The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. Got it. Big famous writer. But then I started clicking on links, just following the trail. Found out he was super political. Like, really involved. Got himself exiled and everything. Spent years living on islands like Guernsey. Didn’t just sit around feeling sorry for himself either, kept writing like mad.
What I Dug Up
It wasn’t just about the big novels. Turns out:
- The guy wrote a crazy amount of stuff. Poems, plays, essays, speeches. Just tons of words.
- His political life was messy. He flipped stances a few times before getting kicked out by Napoleon III.
- He was apparently a pretty decent artist too? Made thousands of drawings. Who knew?
Spent a good chunk of time reading about his exile. Imagine being booted from your country and setting up shop on some small island. Wild.
Kinda Reminded Me Of…
Doing this whole deep dive on Hugo, it made me think of my old neighbor, Mr. Henderson. Not French, definitely not famous. But he used to get obsessed with these projects. One month it’d be building birdhouses, the next it was tracing his family tree back to Scotland. He’d just lock onto something and go all in. Used to see him in his garage, totally focused. I kinda get that now. Just picking one thing and digging in, forgetting the other noise for a bit.
It felt… productive? Yeah, productive. Better than endlessly scrolling through news feeds or whatever. I actually learned something, followed my curiosity. Didn’t really achieve anything massive, just spent time learning about this one French dude.
So, that was the practice. Just me, the internet, and Victor Hugo for a couple of hours. Learned he was more than just the Les Mis guy. And reminded myself it feels good to just pick something and learn about it. Simple as that.
