The French Countrysigh - I mean country SIDE

Oh man.  I am getting goose bumps as I look out the window.  I keep ooh-ing and ahh-ing.  I am developing a crush on France.  It is devastatingly cute.

I never realized how rural France is.  The metropolitan area of Paris fell away pretty quickly and then it was like taking a few giant steps back in time.  The terrain is gently rolling, with thick stands of deciduous trees surrounded by a literal patchwork of farms. 

Image:  garry-harley-photography.com

At this point in July, there is waist-high corn, and hay being mown and then rolled into 10ft. high bales.  Wheat that is beginning to bow with the heavy weight of its grains makes wave patterns in the hot wind.  As we progress southward, we start to see apple, peach and pear trees.  There are the most beautiful cows.  Some are the very color of the cream they provide and some parchment colored; and they huddle together seeking the shade of giant oak trees.  I fancy that they are waiting to make the mouth-watering brie that I am eating every day now.  And the sunflowers, people, the sunflowers!  It makes me ache to see this palette of colors.

And then, every half hour or so (at 130km/hr or about 90mph) the road reveals something to us from older days.  Castles, chateaus, churches, abbeys, ruins, ancient buildings made of even older stones that have been mortared together for longer than the U.S has been a nation.

 What you don't see from a car window in the U.S.

It is exciting to come here and see history.  (Even from the car window.)  I know it is lost on the kids.  No matter how I try to place it all into context, they can’t understand it until they can add in world history and the histories of art and music.  I want to weave that tapestry for them, but I can’t just yet.  They need to study it in college and come back here to understand.  Hopefully they will remember, and then smile at how their mom acted like such a goof on their trip to France when they were kids.