"I love Paris in the Springtime". Isn't that a song? Anyway, friends have had the brilliant idea of celebrating their mother's birthday by taking her to Paris. She lives in England, and part of the group will come by the undersea rail route, the rest will fly from Dublin. Puts you to thinking about France which, as a whole is worth visiting in the Spring - and also in the Summer and Autumn, and, if you like skiing, in the Winter. Now Paris you all know about, but a couple who used to criss-cross the country in their car in summer and autumn, were turning over in their minds where they would like to be just now. First, of course Brittany. You could go on for a long time about it, but just now their minds were on some of the archaeological wonders they saw. Carnac, for example, where there are said to be more than three thousand great stones or menhirs. There are the double lines of them at Menee - three quarters of a mile long and a hundred yards wide, and they number one thousand and nine such standing stones, the tallest, says the guidebook being twelve feet high. And Carnac is only one area of this archaeological metropolis.
But spring breezes and sunshine bring thoughts of sand and sea and flowers and trees in leaf. All down the Atlantic coast you can go, as far, if you like as Bayonne or Biarritz at the Spanish border with the finest of rolling seas, if you're interested in that sort of sport. Or, of course, strike inland, and continuing on the archaeological theme visit Lascaus, where the famous cave paintings were found a couple of generations ago. It had to be closed but it seems a replica has been built. But in spring make for the Roussillon, the great provider of cherries, peaches, almonds and all sorts of fruit and vegetables. Tucked into a corner of France and Spain. Bit early for the cherries, but the countryside is magnificent, at the foothills of the Pyrenees. And all along the coast now, that is, the Languedoc which is just becoming known for a good variety of wines which for so long were neglected. The language of Oc or Occitan.
Until recently a local paper used to print a few inches in that ancient tongue - maybe still does. And the fish, and the fresh vegetables, and - well go and experience for yourself. France is more than a country: it is a sort of universe of its own. In the Spring, especially.