Bruno’s son had pointed out to him that the French government had more than clouded the waters of the communal washbasins. They had desecrated the entire subterranean world of southern France with tunnels for their high-speed trains. I can hear the Paris–Toulouse from down there, Bruno said. I sense its vibrations. I feel the faintest touch of its wind. Bruno’s son was of the opinion that the state’s mad plan to leach out all the groundwater and shunt it into industrial bays would wreck the ecological balance of the Guyenne.
