There's a quality of genuine happiness that cannot be feined

French Canadian women are so blessed

Freedom and Spirit are nature to them, friendship so sacred...

Their human hearts are cups

Overflowing with wine like honey-thick sunshine

Gushing and flowing into each other's lives...

I saw Maud and her baby Jade many times every day at

Lac Beau

Nude on the beautiful shore, nude as we all were,

Maud spoke no English but communication was not difficult for her

She was the heart of hearts incarnate

She could not simply sit beside someone

She had to be entwined with them, legs and arms, eye to eye

Her face was sunshine, her eyes were doves,

Her milk-filled breasts were sacred beauty

I often wondered who was Jade's father and where he was

Maud was with so many beautiful brothers and sisters...

Then one day she kindly let me take a few photographs of her --

And a naked clay-covered man came walking along the beach

And she laughed and ran to him and brought him to the tree

And climbed into his lap and curled up like a kitten there

With her baby and kissed him and clung to him

And so I photographed them like that and thought

"Ah! At last I have discovered Jade's father!"

Then he got up and kissed them goodbye and strolled away

And I said to Dominique who spoke both languages

How wonderful it was to have finally seen Jade's father,

And Dominique translated this to Maud who laughed long

And said something to Dominique which she translated to me:

"Ha! But I have never seen him before in my life!"

Sacre Beau !