Maurice Godefridi

· 04 Dec 2020

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Walking always again

I always do walking again. By the sea, in the mountains, in impossible places and in unsightly places. Walking is not only moving your legs, but also your mind.

Hollyhocks bloom in all villages of the French Drôme against the houses and in the intimate squares of yellow, pink and red. These Alcea roseas are almost all feral specimens, so unconsciously sown plants, which with their firm pen roots feel perfectly at home in the sloppy alleys and streets of the villages Dromoises.

Hollyhocks and herbal teas
“" Hollyhocks or Rose trémière are related to the medicinal mucosal plants Mallow and marshmallow, the flowers used to be used in cough tea. A beautiful, tasty and healthy flower tea, which can be picked along the way here in the Dream Region, is composed of Large mallow (Malva sylvestris), King's candle (Verbascum thapsus), Hollyhock (Alcea rosea), Lime blossom (Tilia), equal parts, 1 tablespoon per cup, boiling water pour and leave to infuse for 5 minutes. A perfect remedy for colds, flu but especially hoarseness and a dry cough. These soothing herbs can also be used as a lotion against irritated, dry and burnt skin. Just dab the skin with the cold or chilled tea or, a little more exuberant, take a whole bath in such a decoction. We need more than 1 tablespoon, more than 100gr, but that is no problem, the flowers are still present in the summer. It's better to bathe in opulence now than to let all that beauty wither.

I am walking at Bellegarde and Diois, a small village in the French Drôme region between Luc and Diois and La Motte-Chalacon. A place where I'm more than a little at home.

Montlahuc and walking in harmony
In Montlahuc, a hamlet of Bellegarde, the walkers dance through the only street of the village, I walk (the only dances I know) into the village of wild nature. Beyond the barrocks, heading to the wild lavender and ball-thistle towards St-Dizier. Outside the village I follow up a clear path to an illegal shelter (caravan, shelter, rubbish). After that, the dotted line disappears on the map and also in reality the track slowly becomes invisible, overgrown by broom and wild roses. Some doubt overwhelms me, but then the little primal human in me wins the weather of the frightened cultural man. I storm up the slope, orienting me in the lighter places in the dark forest. I recognize and follow instinctively the almost invisible traces of man or animal.

In the magic of becoming a slow evening, I walk further away from home and hearth. Higher too, leaving behind the familiar. One with everything, move, bend, dodge, eyes everywhere. ecstasy. So strangely tuned, I suddenly come out of the woods on the turtleneck in an open wavy plain. A wild meadow with blue metallic shiny bullet thistle, yellow whale straw and real lavender and next to it a cultivated, mowed and packed grassland. A perfect projection of what a human must be. Culture and nature in balance. For a moment I feel in harmony with everything and everyone. A goddess with no thoughts.

#wandelen #Drome #Bellegarde #wandelenmetmaurice