Just crossing the border from Germany, our first camping pitch on the first leg of our trip was a brief overnight stay in the village of Leval in the historic Territoire de Belfort in the region of Alsace. Through primarily agricultural, the soil is impermeable and dotted with ponds (รฉtangs) like this one at the edge of the campground called Lac de la Seigneurie—which incidentally was up for sale—or at least assumption of a lease—including a lakeside restaurant. The abundance of poppies reminded me how certain cultivars bloom with different tints according to the composition of the earth and the scientific papฤver (papaverous meaning pertaining to poppies and opium dens and thus sleep inducing) name from the Latin for the colour of a flame and was the chief term for something orange before Europeans were acquainted with the citrus fruit— which seems particularly resonant again with the perennial unacademic myth once more circulating that Homer was colourblind or that the Greeks in general couldn’t distinguish between blue and green.
