As soon as I stepped off of the plane I was swept into a hurricane of French. Everywhere I turned, signs were full of unpronounced vowels and European currency symbols. Once I managed to weather through the airport, feeling like I was wearing a massive sign the whole time that said ‘AMERICAN,’ I stumbled into the daylight and took the view in. Tree covered mountains jetted up in the distance, bordered by a blue sky and a highway. It was truly beautiful, and I had to lean on my luggage to regain my balance after being startled by the France that I never knew existed.

I think one of the biggest mistakes foreigners make when they think about France is that the entire country is either Paris, or not Paris. There is no thought as to what the other 247, 328 square miles of France consists of, only the fact that those thousands of miles are not the most famed and dreamed of city in the world. But those miles hold some of the most beautiful and unique places in the world.

If you find Paris on a map, then drag your finger down to the bottom of France, at some invisible point beneath your finger tip, you will find the tiny town of Oppede Le Vieux. A place that may be only nine square miles in area, is every bit as enchanting as the city of Paris, if not more.

In the depths of Oppede Le Vieux, you will find a one lane sideroad dug into the gravel path that surrounds a field of vibrantly colored grapes. As you walk along the path, you will find a sharp hairpin turn, that results in one of the steepest inclines you have every seen a road make, only to end in a tall, black metal gate. Here we find my uncle’s vineyard, a paradise completely tucked away from the world. Beyond the idyllic French cottage that serves as a home for whoever takes charge of the vineyard, is a garden filled with lavender, and every other colorful flower you can imagine. Bees and butterflies gracefully swoop in circles around the flowers, their buzzing constantly filling the air. Rising above the garden are at least twenty steps of olive trees, each step being a shelf into the side of the mountain the entire property sits on.

Having reached the top of the olive tree steps, you are nearly at the peak of the mountain. There is square cut out of the olive trees on the highest shelf, scattered with chairs, inviting passersby to look out from the summit of the mountain and drink in the true core of France. Lusciously green and yellow fields spread themselves out for miles, dotted with brightly colored houses and towns from a different century entirely. On the right is a neighboring mountain, whose constant greenery is interrupted by a monastery from the first century anno domini. Far in the distance, another curve of mountains wink in the quickly dimming sunlight. Here, all technology and traces of the modern world are forgotten. The vineyard is like a time capsule, frozen in a moment from thousands of years ago. This is true France. It may not be the romantic streets of Paris that every girl dreams of, but it is breath-taking, awe-inspiring and every bit as amazing to encounter.