"The South"

I realize this is my third installment in the same day, but I'm on a five hour train ride, and the seats are facing each other. Sometimes you need something...anything to do aside from stare at the nice Frenchmen 18 inches across from you. 
We've gotten into the southern part of France and just as with Andalusia and Mediterranean Italy, I'm feeling quite at home. Now maybe Oklahoma and the South of France aren't exactly the same, but I see crayola-red dirt and roads lined by farms; plus, the air is ash dry and the people all talk with accents. Suffice it to say, if it weren't for the Mediterranean Sea and a horizon that rests on the foothills of the Alps, I wouldn't be surprised to see a Sooner Football shirt walk by.
Maybe it's some residual effect from a childhood not dominated by, but at least scheduled around, asthma; or maybe it's just that I tend to idealize anything if it's in a different country,  but I'm always a little happier in this hot, dry stuff.