Louis lived in the days when castles pierced the clouds and peasants turned the soil, and a boy could live his whole life without traveling beyond the land he could see from his rooftop.
His village -- some would call it a small city-- rested between rolling hills near the end of a long river. Not far downstream, to the south, was The Bay, and beyond it, The Sea. Northward, the river wound up the valley toward a distant range of volcanic peaks.
Louis grew up exploring the land between hill and village; the farms and gardens, the creeks, the stone fences and windbreak woodlands.He loved the countryside, but his favorite place was in the heart of the village; in the great, stone-walled cathedral.
