Part 1: Chapter 2, Our Lady of the Museums Summary and Analysis

Merton expresses love and even patriotism for France and America and even some for England—France for the beauty of its land and simplicity of its people, America for its ideals and work ethic.

Merton and his father moved to St. Antonin, France in 1925 and lived there a number of years. Merton was impressed by the town, built in circular shape during the thirteenth century with a wall around its borders and a church at its center—the geographic, social, and spiritual nexus of the community.

This chapter includes an amusing account of a visit to France from Pop and Bonnemaman in which Pop, thinking himself a high-rolling American, literally threw money at the locals from the windows of their car. Pop is a boisterous character and...