Ce soir, tonight, I stand outside and look up at the stars. As with other nights, I behold a sky so full, so widely streaked with Milky Way, crowded with clouds of stars, and some are dashing across the darkness and then gone. The sky is almost black, with a minute touch of grey blue. Surrounding me, on the ground, are the darker silloettes of trees. I am on a forested plateau above the old village. I tell myself, I am in France. I am in France! I am far from the tourist trail, and far from most everyone. And I am seeing the same stars as the ancient ones who lived here in caves or shepherd’s huts of the distant past. Or the ones who lived in the stone houses that are long empty and have roofs fallen in and floors given way to rain and moss and vines and bygone history which I will never know. My DNA rings an inner bell of tears and happiness, and stirs my soul yet again. It is one night of an eternity; and I am awake to the experience it.