The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1916-01-02
ONCE GAY FRANCE NON
N DEADLY EARNEST
is A LAND OF BEAUTY


Washington. d. c., Jan. 1.--withsa
mood Tor every fancy and q character
for every need, France. at the begin
ming OF the war, was the favored land
OF travellers. for there was not only
jewelers. Paris. but a social and
learned Paris, a tourists France. an
artists France, a France OF eternal
springtime, while the automobilists'
paradise lay enclosed within the
French boundaries The physical
beauties or the country, and the rich
ness and variety of the charms that
1t hes to offer are told by Arthur
Stanley Riggs In a bulletin just L.
sued by the National Geographic So
ciety. The bulletin reads:
ut might fairly be said that the
general impression France as a whole,
leaves upon the beholder is. green.
Perpetually moist of ilimate--except
In the south--endowed with heavy and
continuous rainfalls and having O
temperature which Is astontshingfy
even, year in and out, the country is
like an enormous dollhouse. The re-
suit Is a study in green's of every con-
ceivable and incohceivable shade. Yer
dure and foliage range from green's
that are gray or black to green's that
are hardly more than yellow. From
the hardy pastures high upon the
sides of the towering Pelvoux range,
thousands OF feet above the sea, to
the castus and agaves and olives that
grow at the waters edge, the verdant
nuances are q revelation In rural COL
oring.
But France In not all green, either.
That Is only the background. the fl
Ter, as 1t were; for a m-toned
picture full of highiights, touched
with the gold of grain. the rudy tiles
of ancient roofs. the fiery spatter of
peoples. the tawny food of a river or
the glistening southern shore, with
cliffs as red as any soil New Jersey
boasts, water like melted sapphires.
villas covered with majolica tiles that
make the beholder rub his eyes and
wonder IL he is dreaming the amazing
inebrieties Of style and color that
strive to. but cannot shatter the har-
mony OF creation.
1.-THE Land OF Pardone"
Almost every one of the older d.
visions OF the country has some fea-
ture distinctly It's own that fixes II
indelibly in mind. Brittany Is always
the Land OF Pardons," bleak, wind
swept peninsula full of silent. undem-
onstrative folk who live by the har-
vest OF the sea. Dauphine. whose
Alpine sierras saw the horizon with
/ the snowy teeth, burns with glorious
sunsets that re its savage grandeur.
Burgundy, of the wine: Champagne
of the liquid sunshine; Auvergne, of
the dead volcanoes, like giant bee
hives, and Tonraine, that was and still
Is the playground of France, are all
| characteristic and easily remembered.
MOT less 80 is Normandy with It's
shtmmering streams and It's wide
spread orchards of cider apples-acres
and clouds OF pink and white and
green in the tender spring-the air
with the thin, sweet. subtitle fragrance.
And spring Is not only APPLE blossom
time In Normandy By every farm,
about the railroad stations, along the
loads. and in private estates bristiy
| hedges of scented haws vie with -ths
purple and the white clusters Of great
chestnuts, the long festoons of the
towering acacias and other flowers In
| Vulnerable. '-.f .'.'+
"The real Brittany is an omen, wind
threshed. compelling country of gray
and green, hardy province able to
Withstand the buffeting of the sea and
its gales, inhabited by a race who fear
only God and the sea. but man not At
all. They live in and by the sea-
and the sea by them. Their clouds
of blue nets hang high In the sun
from cleaning brown mast and yard
| in the harbor of Douranenez the sym
Dol of their victories. And in the
nave of many a little country church
throughout Brittany the sea has her
SYMBOL waiting catafaique.
'sPoitou, \ Comedy Province"
''Poitou IL o comedy province. of
soft and delicate coloring. tender
azure skies unhurried streams that
moving, seem asleep The whole
rich and fertile region Is q tone-har-
mony. full of subtitle shades OF color.
Among the burrows great oxen toll