The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-01-10

~ ORDFAUX is "A days railroad ride
X from Paris-twelve hours away
- from the German cannon. which
even now are only fifty miles
north Of the boulevards; twelve hours
nearer Spain and Africa And you feel
both these things.
All about you is the wine country
the names of towns and villages round
about read like a wine card and as
you are lunching in some little side street
restaurant, table is moved away, a
trapdoor opens and monsieur the propri-
etor LOOKS on while the big casks OF caret
are rolled in from the street and lowered
10 the cellar and the old casks hauled up
again You are close to the wine country
and close to the sea-to oysters and crabs
and ships and to the hot sun and more
eIuberant spirits Of the Midi
The pretty black eyed Bordelaise
there are pretty girls in Bordeaux often
seems closer to Madrid than to Paris
even the Bordelais accent has touch OF
the Mediterranean, and the crisp words
II Paris are broken up and even an extra
vowel added now and then, until they
ripple like Spanish or Italian. "Pe-tite-a
ma-dame-al" rattles some little newsboy
ingratiatng himself with an indifferent
lady Of uncertain age. and the porter viii
bring your boots in no time in 'une-a
pette-a minute-a"
The war is in everybody mind, Of
courso-no one in France thinks of any
hing else-but there is none OF that
silence and tenseness, that emotiona
tremor one feels in Paris. The Germans
will never come here, one feels, no matter
what happens, and as you read the com
muniques in La Petite Cir nde and Ii
Liberie du Sud Quest the war seems further
away. ! feel pretty sure, than it does
in front Of the newspaper billboards II
New York
In fact, one of the first and abiding i'm
pressions OF Bordeaux is that il is "A grea
place for things to eat oysters from
NIarennes, Holsters and langoustes. pear
dig as canteloupes, pomegranates, mush
rooms the little ones and the big cepei
Of Bordeaux yellow dates lust up from
Tunis The fruiterers' shops not only
make you hungry. but into some Of then
you may enter and find quiet little room
upstairs, where the proprietor and In
wife and daughter, in the genial Frencl
fashion, will serve you with cosey lltt'
dinner with wine for three francs in from
of the family grato fire and the privilege
# ordering up anything Won want iron
1. Tho shul window below
There are attractive little chocolate
aud pastry shops and cheerful semi
tension restaurants where whole fam'
U",, including in ,h,s' days mino
n politicians Nth aN"s 10 grina aud occa
'.pna Young women from the Doule
Yards, all dine together in warm bustl
pt talk smoke, the gurgle OF claret am
ear OF chunks OF hard French breac
willie madhme the propricress, "A hand
some dark eyed, rather Spanish look
ing BordoIa-e, sails round, subduing o.
inpatient, smiling AT those who wis
m bee smiled ~ and ordering her faithfl
'allrrs about like a drill sergeant.
Md then there is the CDapon hl
When you speak 10 some elderly gentl'
- with fastidious gastronomlcal taste
anl an acquaintance with souther
hGance of your intention Of going
Bordeaux he murmurs reminiscent
All, yes, There Is a restaurant there
tie means the Chapon fin II va
famous in 20 when the Governmel
came here before ard to-day Wht
The young King of Spain motors ov'
from Biarritz he dimes there.
Coming down on the train ! read