Totally Frenched Out

From the blogger formerly known as Samdebretagne

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Enough of my whinging about being sick. Instead I'll write about something that I've been thinking about since the last time I landed at the Charles de Gaulle Airport, but have been having trouble putting down on paper.

I was looking out the window at the fields and thinking about how they were such a good metaphor for life in France. All topsy-turvy with no rhyme or rhythm:Everything about it goes against where I grew up with in Minnesota - straight lines, tidy parcels, order, reason. It's funny how something as simple as the layout of the land can represent so much about a country.

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8 Comments:

Blogger J said...

heh, that's so true! I always think about how the roads are so nice and straight and at right angles in the US... and here they're just all over the place.

July 19, 2008 at 1:59 PM  
Blogger Maddy said...

In Europe, fields and roads have existed for centuries, way before any surveying, and just followed the landscape, like hills and rivers. Now the fields have been combined into bigger fields but the crazy boundaries still exist. When I was a child in Vendee the fences were hedgerows and blackberries, sadly these are getting rare now in the days of mechanical agriculture!
Loved the pics!!!

July 19, 2008 at 5:05 PM  
Blogger Jules said...

That is so interesting Sam! I remember when flying from Marseille to Amsterdam on that Godforsaken cattle hauler that I thought the landscape was so haphazard. From the air, as Maddy said I am sure it makes perfet sense on the ground.
I hope you are feeling better!

July 20, 2008 at 12:17 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Great analogy... Beautiful pics though!

July 20, 2008 at 4:35 AM  
Blogger corine said...

Very good point and great pictures. J'espere que tu vas mieux, sans supo!!!

July 20, 2008 at 7:35 PM  
Blogger deedee said...

I've neaver thought about that before as I looked out the window at those two paysages, but it's true...

ps If you ever decide to go back to Minn. I know a great group of
30-ish pharmacists in Rochester that I'd love to introduce you to.

July 25, 2008 at 12:58 PM  
Blogger Cécy said...

I never though about the analogy. But it's pretty true, and for the way land is cut, not only there is the landscape but also so many years of separating big pieces to share with the children who inherit...
My mom owns a piece of land (among other) that is a 3x3meter piece on the side of somebody elses... nuts. What do you do with it? Plant a tree to anoy the neighbor?

July 30, 2008 at 9:35 PM  
Blogger Alissa said...

Your blog came up on my RSS's recommendations so I'm scrolling down, seeing you're friends with K&K and the Bold Soul (right?) so that's probably why.

Where in MN are you from? I grew up in Cleveland, near Mankato and St. Peter!

October 18, 2008 at 6:29 PM  

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