I can remember not only the exact age I was on the occasions when I’ve seen rainbows in the United States, but also where I was when I saw them. For example, the most perfect one I have yet to see in my life was in the following Midwestern conditions: on a highway between Ann Arbor and Grosse Ile, I stopped with Maria, my mom and Anna in a Meijer parking lot to observe a perfect double rainbow. The land there is so flat, and the trees had been cleared away in such great number, that the rainbow carried on along its double arcs unobstructed from one end to the other. Furthermore, the massive expanse of sky and parking lot was all so gray that it rendered the colors of the rainbow much more vivid. I think when I am 90 years old I will still carry with me the vision of this rainbow over the Meijer parking lot.
The point is, though, I can remember with this much specificity the details of my American rainbow viewing because there have been so few of occasions. However, each time I am in France, I see rainbows, and many. The last three times have been from inside a car. First it is raining heavily then the sun comes beaming through from another direction. I frantically crane my head this way and that and clamor around the car to see if there are rainbows forming opposite the sun. And each time, there are.
“ooh! A rainbow! Look!” (that’s me)
“Haven’t you ever seen a rainbow before?” (standard response of the French people in whose company I have found myself each time I’ve seen a rainbow here).
“Yes, but not very many.” (click click—I take a picture)
“Oh, I see…well, we get them all the time. They’re pretty common, actually.”
This is a near exact transcription of the exchange between me and Stéphane on our way to Avignon this weekend. For nearly the entire duration of the 6 hour drive, there was simultaneous sun and rain...6 hours driving toward into rainbows...And therefore I took many pictures : )
Does anyone know why, from a meteorological perspective, there are more rainbows in France than in Michigan? I'd be very happy to know.
1 comment:
It's you and me, kid....we're always chasing rainbows! Although should we stop, life would become so colorless, don't you think?
I don't remember that rainbow, but I do remember all of the ones we saw together that summer in Miami....and you calling it "The Land of Clouds and Rainbows". It was.....
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