If you love history, art, beauty, romance, and God, you will appreciate the rare times in your life when all five converge. One such instance occurred to me
If you love history, art, beauty, romance, and God, you will appreciate the rare times in your life when all five converge. One such instance occurred to me more than thirty years ago in a little church in Dijon, France. And not even the hideous, satanic opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics last weekend can blemish the memory, only make it more precious.
I was staying with a girlfriend who was studying French at the Centre International d’études Françaises. Jenny was beautiful inside and out, hysterically funny, and wicked smart. One cold night just before Christmas, we went for a stroll around town with no destination in mind. As we neared a vintage chapel, we heard sublime classical violin music emanating from within — Michel Corrette’s Sinfonia I, A La Venue de Noël (In the Coming of Noël). Thoroughly enchanted, we went inside.
On stage sat four lovely young women playing string instruments and three young men on trumpets, conducted by an old priest. It was only a rehearsal, so the pews were empty. Jenny and I sat down and bonded. Everything gelled for me — the Christmas spirit, a gorgeous girl, and the wonderful music in a country that celebrated these blessings.
French capitulation jokes aside, I cherished France’s vital role in preserving Christianity and advancing artistic beauty. My favorite book of all time is still The Three Musketeers, the immortal tale of male camaraderie (“All for one and one for all”), romantic attraction versus sexual lust (the ultimate femme-fatale villainess, Milady de Winter), and the empiric alliance between Church (Cardinal Richelieu) and State (King Louis XIII). Affection for Alexandre Dumas’ classic novel led me further back into the history of France, to the decisive Christian victory over Islam at the Battle of Tours in 732 AD.
Having Islamicized much of Spain at the time, its Muslim conquerors expanded eastward into Frankish territory (pre-France until 987).
