The Unexpected

H.L. Mencken called it “the constant joy of sudden discovery, of happy accident.” He was talking about writing but it could well have been about travel. The unexpected is its essence. Who has not set out for a museum only to stumble upon a lively market of birds? Or sat down for a quick cappuccino and gotten up three hours later awash in risotto con tartufi?

The unexpected discoveries in each of these stories are as varied as the destinations: Michael Mewshaw finds a quiet eddy in the white-water rapid that is Rome; Evelyn Iritani looks for bargains and meets her own past in Tokyo; exotic, troubled Madagascar touches Hannah Holmes in surprising ways; Deirdre Bair thought she knew Australia until she went to Adelaide.

Perhaps the happiest of these accidents belongs to Mort Rosenblum, who lives in Paris and wrote the book “The Secret Life of the Seine.” A few years ago, he didn’t know an olive tree from an oleander. Then he bought a farm in the South of France. Somewhere amid the climbing vines and dense undergrowth was a ruined farmhouse and 200 dying olive trees. After working on the house, Rosenblum decided to resuscitate the trees. Thus began a journey that started with a chain saw and machete, took him through the entire world of the Mediterranean olive culture and became the subject of his latest book. Not only does Rosenblum now know an olive tree when he sees one, he also says that olives are essential to any life worth living.

A joyful discovery, indeed.