They Paved Paradise

I just had a depressing visit with Monsieur Besse. I took a spool of thread over for him, to replace the one he had left on his sewing machine. He had a friend of his come over to his house to fix and clean the sewing machine, and he put his spool of white mending thread on the machine so they could see if the machine worked properly. When he brought the machine back to me, he wanted to take the spool back with him because it was the only thread he had for mending; but I asked him to leave it so I could study how the machine was threaded, since it doesn’t have an instruction manual. I ended up using most of his spool as I sewed all night and morning, forgetting that I was using his thread.

So I walked over a new spool tonight, and he invited me in for a drink of ratafia. We were having a fun time talking about the local history of the area and his family history. Then he ruined my bliss by telling me that he had hear a rumor that plans have been drawn up to put a four lane highway through our little valley so the trucks can pass from the western side of our departement to the eastern side to hook up with the new auto route that cuts from north to south. Our valley is very narrow, so if they put in a four lane high way, and didn't take out our house, the highway would literally abutt our terrace.

Roger said he didn’t pay much attention when he heard the rumor the first time, but after the third time, he believes that there must be something to the talk he’s hearing. He did say that often there are plans drawn up but nothing happens. As he told me this, a great sadness came over me. Because if it is true, our property is totally ruined. If it turns out not to be true, we have to live with this rumor for years, and there’s no incentive to work on improvements on the house or the property. We won’t be able to get back what we put into the house, and I don’t want to put all our time and money into fixing a house that will be next to a highway. Right now we have an architect drawing up plans for an extention into the moulin and a remodel of a bathroom. But now we’re put in this horrible limbo.

Roger could tell that I was upset, because I immediately wanted to get up and leave, and I know he felt badly that I felt badly. He lent me a flashlight so I could walk back home in the dark. I rushed into the house and looked at the map on the wall and seeing the map, I felt a little relief. I can’t imagine why they would want to build a four lane road that is only eight kilometers long that doesn’t connect to any other four lane road through our valley.

He said the purpose of the bigger road would be to keep the truck traffic out of three small towns along the “main road” that now connects them with our large town. But that still leaves the truck traffic running through a well-preserved medieval town that has the most historical interest of any of the towns they are trying to keep traffic away from.

When I look at the map, there is a wide road currently in existence that connects the two areas that Roger says the government wants to connect. I just don’t believe that they’re thinking of putting a short stretch of auto route through our little valley. Of course, it makes no sense to me but it could make perfect sense to bureaucrats in the highway department. Maybe it wouldn’t be so horrible if a freeway ran past our terrace: we could always put in a McDonald’s franchise.

So hearing this bit of news has turned my entire world upside down. I’ll try my best and have a good day tomorrow. I’m going horseback riding in the morning and will attempt to enjoy what’s left of disappearing rural France before they pave it all over.