Gers is a department in the south west of France. It is musketeer country, created from part of the provinces of Gascony and Guyenne around the time of the French Revolution in 1790. The fourth musketeer, d’Artagnan was Gersois.
The small towns, often on hilltops, are ancient and the countryside beautiful. It is predominantly arable interspersed with woodland, although there are some vineyards and ducks for the local speciality, foie gras. It is sparsely populated. One is more likely to bump into wild boar than hikers. Rural tranquility sums it up.
It is about three weeks ahead of southern England. The horse chestnuts are decorated with white candles, wisteria still in bud in London is in full bloom here and some hay has already been baled by a farmer hoping to get two crops. No wild boar but there was a red squirrel in the woods bordering the drive. There are bee hives in the woods too and a bucket of honey in the kitchen. Frogs are chortling and quacking and keep going all night. You’d think they would be croaking – they must have strong vocal chords. It stays light until after 10.00 pm and dawn does not break until 6.30 am, although the birds start tuning up in anticipation much earlier.
It is market day in the town, there may be a rose festival at the weekend (shows how much earlier everything is) and I have my walking boots. One of the routes to San Compostela passes nearby on its way to the Pyrenees and Spain. City life, politics, the stock market, are pushed far back in my mind, along with impatience at queues in shops and the crowds on the tube. I should heed Desiderata, written in 1927 by American writer, Max Ehrmann.
Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence…
You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.
With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be careful. Strive to be happy.
