Over Strand and Field: A Record of Travel through BrittanyFlaubert, Gustave
General
Over Strand and Field: A Record of Travel through Brittany
Flaubert, Gustave
Brittany (France) -- Description and travel
En route! the sky is blue, the sun is shining, and our feet are eager to
tread on the grass. From Crozon to Leudevenec the country is quite flat,
and there is not a house nor a tree to be seen. As far as the eye can
reach, reddish moss spreads over the ground. Sometimes fields of ripe
wheat rise above the little stunted sea-rushes. The latter are
flowerless now, and look as they did before the springtime. Deep
wagon-tracks, edged by rolls of dried mud, make their appearance and
continue for a long time; then they suddenly describe a bend and are lost
to the eye. Grass grows in large patches between these sunken furrows.
The wind whistles over the flats; we walk on; a welcome breeze dries
the beads of perspiration on our cheeks, and when we halted we were able
to hear, above the sound of our beating arteries, the rustling of the
wind in the grass.
From time to time, a mill with rapidly revolving wheels would rise up
and point the way. The creaking wooden fans descended, grazed the ground
and then rose. Standing erect in the open garret-window, the miller
watched us pass.
We walked on; coming to a hedge of elm-trees which probably concealed a
village, we caught sight of a man standing in a tree, at the foot of
which was a woman with her blue apron spread out to catch the plums he
was throwing to her. I recollect a crop of dark hair falling in masses
over her shoulders, two uplifted arms, the movement of the supple neck
and the sonorous laughter that floated over the hedge to me.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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