Sojourn On: Into Pennsylvania

Okay... so... THIS happened in New Jersey, about an hour into my trip West...

I'm driving down the road, headed to Pennsylvania and I have to stop because there are turkeys in the road. Turkeys. A whole family...Dad, Mom, four chicks and their pet deer. That's right. Their pet deer. Oddest thing... here is this family of turkeys, crossing the road in a straight line, being followed by a deer. Unfortunately, as soon as I brought up the camera, the deer took off in the other direction.

So, I started off my journey west on a scenic road. Not the fastest way to start but I just couldn't stand to start it out on the interstate or the turnpike...

So I drove all the way through Pennsylvania on Route 6...

The sky was full of texture and color but not a single drop of rain all day... And I should take this opportunity to say that many of these pictures were taken from the car... I don't always look at what I'm shooting at since I'm driving and all, so horizons are sometimes skewed and sometimes you can see window reflections (or bugs...)

Many of the barns in Pennsylvania (and some other states as well) have quilt squares painted on them. They are all different in color, size and placement... They are quaint and charming...as if the farms in Pennsylvania need to be any more picturesque.

Then I saw this crazy thing... It was just sitting there on Main Street in Small Town, Pennsylvania...

Azilum, located in Bradford County, Pennsylvania, was a planned settlement for refugees fleeing the French Revolution. Evidently there was a two acre market square and about 30 log houses. In 1793 or so the exiles started to arrive. According to legend, Marie Antoinette and her two children were to settle here.

Overlooking Azilum

Soon several small shops, a schoolhouse, a chapel and a theater appeared in the market square. A gristmill, blacksmith shop and a distillery were built, cattle and sheep were kept, and fruit trees and gardens were planted.

Now it is just farms, none of the original buildings still stand.

The largest building in the colony was "La Grande Maison", a two-story log structure rumored, but not proven, that it was to be for the Queen.

This makeshift French court did not last and many of the exiles moved to southern cities including Charleston, Savannah and New Orleans. After Napoleon made it possible for exiles to return to France, some did. A few families remained in Pennsylvania and settled in local communities. By 1803 French Azilum passed into history.