First, there is the gratitude which we should all feel for what France has given the world.
The language, the hardest by far of the Romance languages to learn ( at least for me) and yet!, and yet what a beautiful language. The writers, then the painters; here again the debt is immense, especially the Impressionists. Going onto the world of music, my own personal list would include Ravel, Debussy. Ibert and Legrand, OH! the architecture; The Vaux-le-Vicomte and the chateaux of the Loire are my favorites. The vast formal gardens that dot the landscape, the cuisine ( don't get me started), the great fashion houses and don't forget the larger than life personalities like Jacques Tati, Maurice Chevalier and Stephen Grappelli and to the host of hoteliers who have made all my stays so memorable, I have not the words to thank them for all their generosity and kindness..
I could go on and on...
The essence of France, however is a thousand times more than all of this, it seems sometimes to be the very air I breathe. And that brings me to the second kind of gratitude - MY OWN.
For the France that I have known for more than 70 years, looking back, the memories come crowding in. For all these memories, I am grateful and for many thousands more. And that sort of gratitude is more than gratitude:
IT IS...... LOVE.
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