It is spring in France

And green, oh so green

This week I made a flying trip between Thézac, where we have been staying, and Alençon, where we will move later this week. It was a six and half hour drive each way, with our Hyundai packed to the roof with the first wave of possessions. Later this week Susan, Beatrice, and I, with the balance of our clothes and computers, will make the second trip up.

We will be staying for a month in an AirBnB apartment, with a plan to move into something longer term and better appointed. The ultimate goal is to be located in one place long enough to finally find and purchase a permanent home.

This trip was a balm to my soul. After a week or two of taxes, address changes at La Poste, and a multitude of paperwork of various types, it was lovely to just drive, listen to podcasts, and be reminded again how utterly beautiful his country is.

And, at this time of the year, how incredibly and richly green everything has become. I can appreciate that not everyone shares my love of such verdant countryside, and I can even laugh at Susan’s inevitable comment “Go ahead; say it: It’s SO green!”

It is, in ways that I have never seen before. It makes me happy. It wraps itself around my soul and convinces me that yes, this is a place that I can be happy in. It reminds me that being connected to the nature around me is very important, and that the food on our table comes from the dirt in our fields, not from the back of truck coming from California.

There is much value is seeing the place where your dinner was grown. Or meeting the beekeeper who sells what is the utterly most wonderful honey that I have ever tasted.

The overall feeling is one that I never enjoyed while living in the city. It’s a sense that I’m only one or two short steps from the place where the thing that I am eating was created.

As they say, green is good.