We were driving through France from North to South, stopping at select cities and towns along the way. When we reached the Loire Valley, we detoured for several days, as we were in no hurry to reach Spain. The first town we arrived at is a place whose name I never did learn to pronounce, and since it is in French, I have actually forgotten it.Must tell you about an experience there:
I awoke very early in the morning, perhaps 4:30AM, and certainly no later than 5. Nancy was sleeping, and there was no good reason to get her up at that hour. I dressed and left the little cottage we were staying in, taking my camera with me.
The main house on the estate was dark- no one up, so I strolled around the place to get a sense of the layout. When we had arrived the night before, it was very late in the afternoon, and we were tired. We had unpacked, gone to dinner as soon as it was served, then gone directly to bed. I don’t recall what we ate, but it was delicious, I’m sure.
Now, although it was still dark, my eyes adjusted to the dim light and I was able to make out buildings, statues and other objects around me. I could determine, for example, that the main house (chateaux) stood atop a high hill, the grounds rolling away from it down to the Loire River quite far below.
It was beginning to get light and I could see flowers around me, some in formal gardens, but many more just growing wild. There was a moderately wooded area nearby, and I entered into it, following a well worn path through the trees and underbrush.
Not far into this forest, I came to a spot so lovely my heart nearly stopped, and I paused to take it all in. There was an old, rotting bench near a huge tree. The aroma of wild cyclamen perfumed the air and the flowers themselves were all around me- thousands and thousands of them.
As I stood there, alone in the early morning, with the cool air, the scent of the flowers, no sound to distract me, the sun came up, and shafts of light broke gently through the tops of the trees.
I started taking pictures, realizing how the play of light shafts changed the entire feeling of that magical place, not in an eerie way, rather in a wondrous, inviting way. I was, for those few moments, transported to a different time and place, not of this earth, but of some parallel universe, away from stress, worries, anxieties of the earth I had come from mere seconds ago.
The best of the pictures I took that morning is the final shot in our travel book, actually the back page of the book. The caption is a quote from what I felt at that moment- that G_D was literally with me, inviting me to sit on the bench and chat...
I awoke very early in the morning, perhaps 4:30AM, and certainly no later than 5. Nancy was sleeping, and there was no good reason to get her up at that hour. I dressed and left the little cottage we were staying in, taking my camera with me.
The main house on the estate was dark- no one up, so I strolled around the place to get a sense of the layout. When we had arrived the night before, it was very late in the afternoon, and we were tired. We had unpacked, gone to dinner as soon as it was served, then gone directly to bed. I don’t recall what we ate, but it was delicious, I’m sure.
Now, although it was still dark, my eyes adjusted to the dim light and I was able to make out buildings, statues and other objects around me. I could determine, for example, that the main house (chateaux) stood atop a high hill, the grounds rolling away from it down to the Loire River quite far below.
It was beginning to get light and I could see flowers around me, some in formal gardens, but many more just growing wild. There was a moderately wooded area nearby, and I entered into it, following a well worn path through the trees and underbrush.
Not far into this forest, I came to a spot so lovely my heart nearly stopped, and I paused to take it all in. There was an old, rotting bench near a huge tree. The aroma of wild cyclamen perfumed the air and the flowers themselves were all around me- thousands and thousands of them.
As I stood there, alone in the early morning, with the cool air, the scent of the flowers, no sound to distract me, the sun came up, and shafts of light broke gently through the tops of the trees.
I started taking pictures, realizing how the play of light shafts changed the entire feeling of that magical place, not in an eerie way, rather in a wondrous, inviting way. I was, for those few moments, transported to a different time and place, not of this earth, but of some parallel universe, away from stress, worries, anxieties of the earth I had come from mere seconds ago.
The best of the pictures I took that morning is the final shot in our travel book, actually the back page of the book. The caption is a quote from what I felt at that moment- that G_D was literally with me, inviting me to sit on the bench and chat...
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