At Neuvy-sur-Barangeon, you can get on departmental highway D-926, which, after only ten miles, brings you to La Chapelle-d'Angillon, the birthplace of Henri Fournier, much better-known as Alain-Fournier (1886-1914), the author of Le GrandMeaulnes (1913) or-as some English-language translators have rendered the title- The Lost Domaine. Yet lovers of literature will have read their maps correctly. These place-names of course mean nothing to most people they at best seem to indicate hick towns buried in la France profonde. This country highway heads to Theillay and from there to Neuvy-sur-Barangeon. From Angers, it takes three-and-a-half to four hours of attentive driving to reach the outskirts of Vierzon and, a short break or two aside (a hot chocolate in Saint-Avertin a stint of skipping rocks across the canal near Thénioux), we naturally attempt to make mileage over this monotonous part of our itinerary, having let ourselves be tempted only once-and it was worth the detour-by the tiny Romanesque church in Meusnes with its haunting luminosity.ĭespite our impatience to leave the plains behind and attain the gentle volcanic contours of the Massif Central or the high pastures of the Alps, I always feel remorse as we whiz past an almost unnoticeable sign to the left, in the village of Châtres-sur-Cher, signaling departmental road D-41. Since we live in the French 'Middle West' as it were (and I was born and raised in Iowa), this route allows me, my French wife Françoise, and our seven-year-old son Justin to 'dis-enclave' ourselves (if I may be allowed to translate literally the appropriate French expression) that is, to escape from the confines of our adopted Anjou, from the at times too soothing douceur angevine (as celebrated in a famous sonnet by Joachim du Bellay), and find once again the invigorating air and inspiring vistas of the peaks.

At this point, at the Vierzon city limits, the traffic piles up, the sun beats down (or it rains), and you budge forward for an agonizing mile or so until you can finally exit off onto tollway A-71, the main route heading south to Clermont-Ferrand and the Massif Central.

It is a fast and, in stretches, terrifyingly unsafe two-lane strip of macadam bordering the peaceful Cher river and then the immobile Canal du Berry, and it extends from the steep cliffs which flank southeastern Tours (and upon which rise a few châteaux evoked by Balzac) to the northwestern quarter of industrialized, hideous Vierzon. Cover design by Edward Gorey for The Wanderer Anchor Books Edition, 1953Having lived in central-western France for some twelve years now, I daresay that I have gotten to know national highway N-76.

Le grande meaulnes