Things you didn't know about France...........

With the glorious sunshine and Spring flowers it just feels good to be alive.

Unfortunately it has also felt extremely painful! Not one but two old back injuries decided to flare up at the same time so sitting, at the computer or in a comfy chair has been way too painful, so has standing and lying down!

I also have a poorly husband so things haven't gone quite as planned for the last few days. So if you are wondering why I haven't been in touch my apologies, normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.

There is always a silver lining, and it has given me chance to read a book that I bought ages ago and never got round to reading.

It is a journey through France before it became France really. Not a country but a collection of isolated landscapes, languages and traditions. Small communities buried deep in forests and mountains who regarded 'outsiders' with such suspicion that when a cartographer arrived in one village as part of the incredible Cassini map project in  the 1740's he was hacked to death!

He talks of people who really did hibernate in the Winter, hundreds of babies who were taken to Paris on mule trains to be reared and used as servants or chimney sweeps and the wealthy whose hair raising journeys on non existant roads led to Madame de Genlis writing a manual for would be travellers.

She lists phrases that will be useful when travelling in a coach that paint a vivid picture of travel in the late 1700's.

Things like;
"I believe the wheels are on fire"
"The horses have just collapsed" and
"Gently remove the postillion from beneath the horse"

A French friend recommended this book, 'Une Histoire Buissoniere de La France' in French, he was enthralled by it and said that it helped him to understand his own country.

For me it helped make sense of this wonderful, complex and contradictory country that is now my home with its ancient landscapes, languages and traditions.

I haven't done the book justice at all. If you are a fellow francophile it is essential reading.

You can buy it here

Enjoy!