My Ongoing Love Affair

     Francis Mayes (whom I reference often) said that it's possible to fall in love with a place like one falls in love with a person.  And I certainly believe this to be true. My love affair with France and all things French began in junior high.  When I was in the eighth grade I took an Introduction to French class and I was smitten!  I spent hours in the library reading everything I could find about the country, the language, the history, the culture.  My best friend, Nora, and I continued taking French throughout high school. 
   At one of our class reunions many years after graduation we realized that of the twenty students in our 4th year/AP class, at least half of us went on to major in French and become French teachers.  And we credited that to our beloved Mademoiselle Fullmer who was not just our teacher, but also our friend and mentor.
      At the beginning of my junior year at Oklahoma Christian College I made plans to study abroad my second semester.  One of the deans of the college was a friend of an American missionary family who had been living in Reims in northern France for nine years.  He helped me contact the Burchett family and I made arrangements to fly there for a three and a half month stay.  The Burchetts met my flight in Paris and drove me to their apartment in Reims, the capital of the Champagne region.  I was in awe!
     The photo above is of Notre Dame de Reims - a beautiful example of Gothic architecture and my favorite of any I have seen anywhere in Europe.  I could walk to town from our apartment and I never missed an opportunity to go inside the cathedral and just sit and take in its beauty.  To imagine all the nameless artists and artisans who gave their lives to build this amazing edifice and to decorate it with statues, stained glass windows, elaborate trim work.  The cathedrals were built to be visual Bibles for an illiterate public and so the statues and windows tell the stories of the Bible.

     I am never disappointed in my visits to France.  Francis Mayes talks about layers of time. France has evidence of the earliest humans on the European continent.  The caves of southwest France are filled with art that date back 30,000 years! And then there are the wonderful Roman remains - France has more of them intact than any other European country.  The photo here is of the Pont du Gard, a Roman aquaduct/bridge (the tallest in the Roman Empire) built in the first century BC.  All through southern France you can visit arenas, bridges, temples, baths, even cities that the Romans built.  The southern region called Provence gets its name because it was Rome's favorite province.  The Romans knew where to go for vacations!

    And then the almost 1000 years of what we call the Middle Ages with some of the most amazing structures to be seen.  The cathedrals, the castles, the fortresses all speak of a time of needing protection - from a neighboring kingdom or a bordering country - a time of superstition and daily survival.  When you look at these reminders of this layer of time, you can almost understand how fearful a time it was.  But then you see the beautifully decorated and mighty cathedrals and realize the living, active faith that they represent.  The photo to the left is of one of my most favorite places in France - Mont Saint Michel on the English Channel.  A perfect example of medieval architecture and representation of the fear and the hope of that time period.

     After France was united under Francois I in the 16th century,  this layer of time brought about a sense of peace and now the lovely royal chateaux and palaces were able to be built - not just built, but designed and decorated by the best artists and craftsmen that France (and sometimes Italy!) had to offer.
It was good to be a nobleman in the Renaissance!  The photo to the right is of the Palace of Versailles, designed and built by Louis XIV, the Sun King.
     As you can tell, I could go on and on about the layers of time in France.  And then there's the food, the wine, the art, the music, the literature, the celebrations (for later posts).  But I hope what I have shared with you here will provide evidence of my love for a country that is "endlessly alluring".  Yes, I am in love!