To understand better you must visit the Midi yourself.

You will see a countryside where the sun transfigures everything and makes it larger than life-size.

The little hills of Provence, no bigger than the Butte Montmartre will seem to you gigantic.

The Maison Carree at Nimes, a pretty little Roman temple, will seem to you as big as Notre Dame.

You will see that the only liar in the Midi, if there is one, is the sun; everything that he touches he exaggerates.