En Provence

Today's blog title was the title of one of my French text books in High School; I remember reading about life here but this is our first visit. We are in the typically French hill-town of St. Remy in Provence, in southern France (an hour from the Mediterranean). It is near Avignon, the home of the non-Roman Popes in the medieval free-for-all as the Roman empire collapsed. Exploring the area and its history will be fascinating.
Getting here was an adventure... French weekend highway traffic in the summer is intense. The back-ups at the toll houses were long; there were other stoppages for which I could not find an explanation-- other than that is just how it is! Altogether we were on the road for about 5 hours (with no meal stops). The change in the weather is noticeable: Suddenly it is summer.
Along the way we passed huge fields of brilliant sun flowers in full bloom. Liz captured one as we drove by (pictured). The French countryside is beautiful, at times much like California and at others more like Tuscany.
Follow-up Taize musings: In my reflections, I was struck at a similarity between the Taize experiment and the Pilgrims: In both cases a new community was formed to establish an authentic Christian presence that unites rather than divides. The styles are quite different, but the driving motivation is similar. I find myself powerfully drawn to that inclusive, unifying vision.
Onward.