A Day In The Country

We are city folk.

I freak out if a pigeon tries to make a nest in my window box.

While we love everything that a big city like Paris has to offer -- a fabulous public transportation system,  a huge choice of museums, stores, movies, concerts  and restaurants to visit, we crave green space.  I walk/jog in the Luxembourg Gardens most days.  It is pleasurable to see the trees, the flowers and to watch them change every day.   On "off" days, I'm at the tennis club.  Even though it's right next to the "Peripherique" there are trees, flowers and plants around the courts; even a grapevine that produces grapes every Fall.

When we were invited to our friend's house outside of Paris  for lunch, we jumped at the chance.  What could be better?  We hopped on the metro which took us to the Gare de Lyon and off we headed, south of Paris.  The countryside that whizzed by was green, it's Spring.

We arrived at our destination station and easily walked to our hostess'  house through a charming little village.   It was noon and it looked like nothing had opened yet.  Of course, if I lived there all the time, it would be hard to get things done, but it's also charming and harkens back to another, earlier epoch when things were all got done but not at light speed.

The town is on the Loing river, which crosses the Seine at some point.  It has been raining so the river was beautiful. There were swans and lots of ducks in the water, all oblivious to us.  There is a chateau and a church that date from the 12th century in the town.

It seems that no one notices.  There was a wedding going on in the church.  The chateau was open.  There were no tourists, only us.  All these things will be around for another 1000 years, there's no rush.