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From the Arc de Triomphe it is less than 40 kilometers to Maule - a leafy village just beyond spitting distance of the capital. It’s on the west side of Paris and in a wide agricultural plain made up of fields of rape, wheat and barley. In between there are strands of forest and lanes of prosperous mid-west housing that lead into the heart of the old village.
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We were visiting this past weekend and walked out into the fields with the Tibetan terriers of our expat friends. We were amazed as we strolled under a kind blue sky and wide horizon of varying shades of green. The wildflowers that weave themselves into the crops or march along the tracks are incredible.
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There are poppies, of course, and these had invaded the rape crop and shimmered and fluttered in the evening light; red and yellow boosted with a sprinkling of blue cornflowers. We saw a scene that would have had Monet and friends reaching for the canvas and palette and brushes. But on the walk also orchids, salvias, erygniums and scabious - both sheepsbit and
Knautia macedonica. We saw plants that that we buy from nurseries where I come from . The soil is, I think, clay and the climate and hours of sunshine just that little bit kinder than East Anglia.