France today

Marionette has lived in a hilltop village in the Auvergne, France ever since she was born. Every morning she walks down the very steep hill for bread and walks back up. She keeps a goat in her backyard and a couple of chickens. If you want to see the church, Marionette has the keys.

Every evening, Marionette walks down the hill to the cimiterie on the other side of the village and puts a flower on her husband's grave. There's a small road from her house to the cimiterie, but Marionette also knows other, seemingly infinite paths she can take from here to there.The church is small, at the very top of the village, but can be seen from a great distance. A traveler coming from the city of Clermont-Ferrand can't help but see the church as he nears the town of Champeix, about 5 km from the village, as it stands at the very top of the puy and is not shy about being seen. It's possible that Blaise Pascal, born and raised in Clermont-Ferrand, attended the church, though that's unlikely, as almost every little village in the region has a church and the cathedral in Clermont is magnificient. Some churches are bigger and more grand than the others, but each is entirely its own.  Most were built in the 10th and 11th centuries.

The Auvergne is made up of one hilltop village after another, with stretches of countryside in-between where the cows, pigs, sheep, horses and other wildlife live. It's possible for a visitor, walking through a village like Blesle, hoping to see the church, the chateau, to drink a glass of wine and maybe even have a meal at the inn, to become lost in the smallest of villages in the middle of France.