Man's intervention in the Forest

Sunday
A dull overcast day today, suiting, but not helping my mood. Church in the morning as usual, then after lunch went walking in the Forest, in the area around the Mare (pond) aux Evees. (I apologize for the lack of accents, but I haven't figured out how to do accents on my iPad yet!). The word Evees comes from an old French word meaning marshy. In order to reclaim this area, which was often flooded, much work was carried out under the reign of Louis-Philippe, in the years 1833-35, digging 20 km of drainage ditches in a star shape, as well as the pond itself. The result is an area quite unique in the Forest. After walking around this area for a while, we headed up onto one of the ridges, more representative of the Forest, amongst the huge boulders carved into strange shapes, that one finds all over the Forest. Since being home, we have spoken with both our daughters on the phone or over Skype. We were especially glad to hear from Laura who had returned early this morning from a trip to Istanbul with one of her fellow Peace Corps.