reading an autobiography of barthes, and found this passage to be particularly lovely - so i have translated it into english. i hope that i have done it justice.
La baladeuse
In days gone by a white tramway provided service from Bayonne to Biarritz; in summer they hitched to it a wagon - all open and with no top : la baladeuse. Everyone wanted to ride it : along an uncluttered countryside, they enjoyed the panorama, the movement, and the air at the same time. Today, neither la baladeuse nor the tramway exist, and the trip from Biarritz is a bore. This is not to mythically embellish the past, nor to tell of the regret of a lost childhood while pretending to miss a tram. This is to say that the art of living does not have a history : it does not evolve; the pleasure that disappears vanishes forever and cannot be substitued. Other pleasures come, which replace nothing. There is no progress in pleasures, there is nothing but mutations.
(From : Roland Barthes par Roland Barthes, Editions du Seuil, 1975 pages 59-60)
