Autumn In Lognes

Today's pic is a photo I posted on Facebook one year ago today. I took this photo in October of 2012 when I was visiting my husband's home town of Lognes, just outside of Paris, France. I spent quite a lot of time walking these streets and it was lovely to experience the changing of the seasons from Summer to Fall. The trees in France are a bit different than the trees I am accustomed to seeing in the U.S. I'm not quite sure how to describe it but if I had to, I would say they just feel a bit more mature...a bit more stately and wise. In their Autumn finery, they are just, well...grand. 


Matin d’Octobre


It is the exquisite and early hour, 
The sudden sunrise reddens the sky. 
Through the autumn mist 
The garden leaves fall. 

Their fall is slow. We can follow them 
With our eyes and recognize 
The oak by its leaf of copper, 
The maple by its leaf of blood. 

The last ones, the most rusty 
Fall from the bare branches, 
But it’s not winter yet.
A fair light sprinkles down on 
Nature and in the whole rosy sky 
You’d think it was snowing gold."


"C’est l’heure exquise et matinale 
Que rougit un soleil soudain. 
À travers la brume automnale 
Tombent les feuilles du jardin. 

Leur chute est lente. On peut les suivre 
Du regard en reconnaissant 
Le chêne à sa feuille de cuivre, 
L’érable à sa feuille de sang. 

Les dernières, les plus rouillées, 
Tombent des branches dépouillées : 
Mais ce n’est pas l’hiver encor. 

Une blonde lumière arrose 
La nature, et, dans l’air tout rose, 
On croirait qu’il neige de l’or."

~ François Coppée