Since we live in the French "Middle West" as it were (and I was born and raised in Iowa), this route allows me, my French wife Françoise, and our seven-year-old son Justin to "dis-enclave" ourselves (if I may be allowed to translate literally the appropriate French expression) that is, to escape from the confines of our adopted Anjou, from the at times too soothing douceur angevine (as celebrated in a famous sonnet by Joachim du Bellay), and find once again the invigorating air and inspiring vistas of the peaks. At this point, at the Vierzon city limits, the traffic piles up, the sun beats down (or it rains), and you budge forward for an agonizing mile or so until you can finally exit off onto tollway A-71, the main route heading south to Clermont-Ferrand and the Massif Central. It is a fast and, in stretches, terrifyingly unsafe two-lane strip of macadam bordering the peaceful Cher river and then the immobile Canal du Berry, and it extends from the steep cliffs which flank southeastern Tours (and upon which rise a few châteaux evoked by Balzac) to the northwestern quarter of industrialized, hideous Vierzon.
Cover design by Edward Gorey for The Wanderer Anchor Books Edition, 1953Having lived in central-western France for some twelve years now, I daresay that I have gotten to know national highway N-76.
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