Free France

Another bike ride early this morning before the intense heat sets in ... shorter than our usual rides .. about 25kms but hilly. It was a constant up and down .. I think the old thigh muscles are getting a good work out. And yet again roads that we had not been down before .. this region is a maze of little back roads. In World War 2 the line that divided Northern France and Free France ran right through this area. Whoever lived in our house then would have had to cross that line to get to the local village .. it seems very strange to think that when you see how quiet it is now. The farmer tells of neighbours who were killed in these fields. I sometimes wonder what it might be like to take a trip back in history and get a glimpse of what was happening on the roads and in the houses and the chateaux like the one in the picture preferably at times other than that of war. There are many chateaux in this region ... I wonder about the life of the people who lived here.. this one has changed hands many times and the last we knew it was owned by a cartel of English men.. but we have not seen them around for a long time so who knows... This is the view from the final road of our ride before reaching our house. I love this road.. I have often cycled or walked here to reflect on life and love.

And apart from sunflowers in this region there is a lot of maize (corn that's as high as an elephant's eye!)

There is a very interesting book that contrasts the life of the people who live in these french houses today with the history of what happened in them during the war... it is sort of fact based novel 'The house with Blue Shutters' by Lisa Hilton