New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-02-06
A WINTER JOURNEY.
ACROSS FRANCE.


"a corld Wa discern through the dense '""'' " rs
and smoke and the pilot " no present :; ,bo
told Ms that ships bad been WARNS I,.o.. i+o
uarsev for chance to get out OF '1' 49,
ST. oIoor channel The wind chahgeu "i'' "''''
te o,''i 10 I;ssoved in rain: CROPPED our way
10 our moorings. and IN Que 'ln'e We "''0
- .ho s,ak ed country to London, the very centre
us. 'p~ the black capital which Milton must
Gave had in his mind when be wrote of
rho smoke aud stir OF this dim spot,
Which call Earth
We saw blue sky again few days later crossing
into France; but when we left the train at Paris,
h.bold there was the fog once more little whittier
Than IN Lqndon, but hardly less Opaque. Ii was
,bIy and cherries night; the street lamps could be
seen only short way off; even the cabmen
drove cautiously; the bOulevards were nearly
deserted: a white frost was forming; and yet the
restaurants paraded their little tables on the side
walk as if tins were a midnight i'll summer instead
of the end of December. That nobody sat at these
put-of-door resorts slipping and chatting and Smok-
ing was he best proof that Paris indeed lost III
the fog
The sun was still hidden the horizon veled in
mist when we rolled out Of Paris one damp morn
ing on the way 10 Bordeaux. This is not the usual
nor the direct route to the south Of France except
for those who are going 10 Pau but the traveller
who lOyes the picturesque and would see strong con-
trasts Of scenery and many varieties of life cannot
do better than follow the course l am about TO de-
scribe which. by the time he has reached the
Riviera. will have led him twice across France,
first from the Channel of the Pyrenees, and again
from the Bay of Biscay to he Mediteranean-al-
most to the Gulf Of Genoa. The day frightened as
we drew near Orleans and il was charming ride
thence down the Valley of the Loire, through the
ancI.nt aud historic town of Blois and so on past
Ambose and Tours and Potiers and Angouleme
III in tr9VprsiuC nlacrS
50 rich in romantic associations, and the IN
terest of the journey is immeasurably in
creased by the fact that they are all
30 situated as to be well from the railway. II
is holiday excursion. day of panoramas. There
passes before the gray castle on the beetlinC cliff
the crowded town nesting around the base of the
fortress, the ma ,sive cathedral towers dominating
the country for miles about, the walled monastery
with its open befry, the fantastic turrets OF the
lordly chateau rising the trees of the inclosed
park the hamlet where every stone cottage leans
against its neighbor and the few score rustlcs are
rs densely packed away as the tenement population
Of great city. Yonder is the castle in whose
blood-staIued chambers Henri III distributed
the dacgcrs 10 the a assns Of the Duke Of Guise.
and spurntd with his royal foot the corpse OF his
victim There appears the royal chateau, nfam-
pus for the nassacres Of Amhoise. On that height
the antique city of Poitiers, looked down from it,
eyrie eleven centuries ago upon the signal victory
OF Charles Marte which turned back forever the
tide Of Saraceuic invasion, and SIX hundred years
afterward behed the overthrow Of the French
arms and the capture of the French king by the
Black Prince of England. Everywhere there are
castles on the hills and almost every isolated and
commanding eminence covered with
sombre town built around an ancient stronghold.
IL the magnificent but murderous days Of DID, the
peopla crrp close they could 10 the castle and
thew have lived III its shadow ever since, climbing
The same rocky stairs and break-neck lanes which
their remote ancestors trod, and giving up TO cult
walton the whole Of the plain.
To dinu,iye and extravaCant Americans the most
striking features Of the country the compactuess
Of the Iab.tatiors and the oxtrome economy may
almost say the parsmony-of the method of tiila1e.
Every square foot Of ground is put to has been
in use for unnumbered generations. Here and
there III the distance appear patches of
wood. carefully preserved and guarded, hut
the rest Of the land is almost bare of shade,
There is no brush or tangle of weed and wild
flower 10y the roadside. no thic6et by the stream
The last OF these trespassers were eradcated ages
ago. along with the last stump 4 gray stone wall
border the highway. The cros-road. often
sunk two or three feet below the general level
Narrow ridges of earth mark tho boundaries Of the
fields, and the burrows are driven so close to them
that 1t is a wonder how the plough is turned. Sin
gle rows Of poplars stretch with exaSperatng regn-
iarity across the landscape. They trimmed |
close, and sometimes every twig is removed except |
q bunch no the extreme top; then they look like |
liberty poles with bushes tied to them. There are
willows by the brook, but they pollard Willows
kept for their twigs, which are scrupulouslv !
cut of and they lift their Scared and !
knotted trunks like hands from which all the fingers
have been amputated One beauty of the country |
is in It's fertility and the varied contour of the
ground but the traveller who looks upon it cannot
help longing for little of Natures uxurant irregI-
IaIity. and thinking how much more lovely the |
meadow would be if a clump Of alders grew by the |
water. ana d maze of clematis and bind-weed COW
cred the boundary wall We passed a village built
In terrace upon ridge Of limestone. The rock
under the houses was perforated with caverns closed
by wooden doors and used apparently stables or
stOre-ro0ms.
As darkness came on rode into a region Of
small trees-fruit trees think they must
have been-and through the gloom we
were aware of a dense white mist, which lay at
first in patches near the ground, and then covered
all the trunks of the trees, and ut last concealed
their tops 100. When descended at Bordeaux, !
there again the fog just as We had left it IN
Liverpool and London and Paris From the rail
way station. in the suburb Of La Basride, drove
along the quay and across the magnificent stone
bridge over The Garonne. seeing nothing hut rows
o. ghostiy lamps half eXtuguished ia The haze and
a forest of masts rising out of invisible shps-for
the dense lower stratum of the fog entirely con-
cealed the hulls. By the time reached the hotel
The curtain lad covered everything. They told US
that the table dhote dinner would be served at :
o'clock. and at the appointed hour we were
shown t. the salle-a-mangers. Covers were laid for
large company. Gilt metal and silver and crystal
gttered Ia the cheerful light. We two were the