While we suffered what I call The Disaster, it doesn't compare, and we are capable of digging ourselves out and starting over. After a year and a half, with help from a few friends, we finally got started on that task last week. As you might imagine, it wasn't easy, both emotionally and physically, but it's a relief to finally be making progress again.
Once upon a time, we had an ugly hillside (we actually had nothing but ugly hillsides everywhere). Right outside our kitchen and main outside dining area, there was this ancient falling down chicken coop and nothing but wild irises all over the hillside.
It was such an eyesore, I had such grand visions, we finally decided to realize those visions.
Isn't she lovely? Isn't she wonderful? (To quote a certain Stevie Wonder.) We got her in May 2007, the week before Doc Leo came down with a problem in his neck that put him in the hospital for six months. At first, we wondered if trying to get her out of the car is what did him in. (It wasn't.)
At the time, we were spending a lot of time in Italy, the Doc had a lot of jobs in Rome and it was easier to drive than fly, so we were checking out all statue places we came across, as that was a theme we wanted for our property. One time, we found this place that supplies the whole world. Not only did they have good prices, but we could also provide our own transportation, so we did.
When we were young, we moved all over up and down the East Coast of the US, searching advancement with better jobs. When we ended up staying a whole 11 years in one spot in Florida, that was amazing.
Then we made another move in 1990 that changed our lives completely. On this date 24 years ago, our family minus one arrived in France. With absolutely no idea what that would mean for our futures.
(We had just come back from a graduation trip to Saint Martin in the Caribbean.)
It's fun to have a baby in the family. You've met Diggle, the latest baby in our family, who is currently still an actual baby.
But Diggle has an older cousin, and yesterday was his birthday. A big one. Our first grandchild has finished being a teenager and has now turned the big 2-0!
And we'd like to wish him a nice Happy Birthday!
Now that you've seen what all we found interesting along our round trip to Paris, I thought you might enjoy the way we saw it all.
We can be fairly unconventional when we travel (just ask our kids), born out of financial desperation then continued through personal choice. This is our typical modus operandi.
As we traveled along the route, we came across a number of fun things, as one does when one travels the small roads, as we did. I thought I'd show you some of the more interesting bits that caught my fancy.
For starters, here's an example of driving down one of Napoleon's tree-lined straight roads. Such a pleasure! Such current controversy!
As we traversed the countryside, we came across all kinds of fields, which were actually rather pretty, so I thought I'd show you just what summer crops look like over here.
In the 19th century, after the various regions in Italy unified into one big country, the French were concerned about protecting their border against potential invasion. Thus, they started developing a few military outposts along their alpine frontier. Over the years, they enlarged their installations, and we came across a number of military "ghost towns" along our very high-in-the-sky route.
The routes between the north and the south of France on the east side of the country often go through big chunks of various European mountain chains. As you get down to the southern area, you hit the western edge of the Alps. That means you can find yourself fairly elevated from sea level, which we did on this trip.
As we were traveling down the countryside, we found ourselves surrounded by vineyards. France is full of vineyards. But we happened to be in the Chablis region, which is a popular wine in America, so I thought you might be interested in how your wine gets its start.
This little roadside map shows the various areas in which the different qualities of grapes are grown. I think. It's rather confusing, but it looks so pretty, I just wanted to include it!
Imagine casually walking down some quaint streets in a pretty town and glancing down a side street and being confronted with this view. Not generally your everyday scene, I don't think.
This is the Cathédrale Saint-Étienne de Bourges, built between the late 12th and 13th centuries, with construction starting by 1195. It is a contemporary of the Notre Dame de Paris and Chartres cathedrals, all using innovative structural design for the times, such as described in Ken Follet's Pillars of the Earth.
It is still surrounded by many of the original half-timbered houses of the old medieval town, enabling one to really capture the ambiance of the original time period.
We recently met a young Canadian couple who have just relocated to France as missionaries with our church group, and we had a chance to visit them on our way to Paris. They settled in Bourges, which is only 25 miles/40 km from the claimed geographical center of France.
It was really fun to be able to actually visit a Medieval town rather than just pass through, not to mention enjoying getting to know this wonderful family a bit more.
France has a number of beautiful gorges, and we took a tour around one of them that was on our route. The rock structure that allows a gorge to form can create a number of natural formations including high cliffs, caves, grottes, and canyons down to a river that may have caused rock erosion over the eons. At least, these are features of the Gorges de l'Ardèche that we explored on this trip.
Unfortunately, we did not go by our particular comparison field on this trip, so that complete story will still have to wait. We don't often have an occasion to be in that area at the right time of year.
When we recently went up to Paris for a weekend visit with our son and his family, we turned the trip into a little driving vacation lasting about a week and a half. We had so many interesting experiences, I thought I would take everybody else along with us in an armchair travelogue with a series of photographic descriptions on the various aspects of the interior areas of this country.
For as long as I can remember, today has always been a special day. It was on this date in history that Yours Truly arrived on this planet, and the world has never been the same since!
