The evening Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1918-1920, 1919-03-07
Tours, France,

Tours, France,
Jan. IA, 1919
Every time that go upon such an
excursion as l did on Sunday l think
what rare opportunity it is that l
have been able to leisurely inspect
these historic old places in which this
region abounds. There is no doubt
that outside of Paris, Touraine,
which includes this country for per-
haps a hundred miles about Tours,
the boundaries of the old province of
Touraine, in fact, is the most in
teresting and historic part of France.
And when think of it, it seems rath-
er interesting in this critical period
through which France has just passed
that the Greatest American Head
quarters should be situated in the
center of this section while scattered
throughout it, at places whose names
are already historic were great
American projects. / have no doubt
that future historians will not fail to
take account of this.
Sunday we visited Chinon, some 35
miles to the southwest of Tours.
Here it was on the 9Th of March,
1889 that Jeanne dare came for her
interview with the young king and
to gain his permission to go to the
relief of Orleans. l had set myself on
going down to Chinon and the fact
that l had to get the train at 5:45 a.
m. and that when | got up it was
raining couldn't stop me. l went
with another fellow, an architect by
the way, from New York, who has a
fondness for going "chateauing' as
we call it, also. The train was To-
cal, which in France means half a
dozen stops or more even in 35 miles,
and we arrived at 7.30.
I wish that I could stop to describe
this quaint little town, but to go into
details would take all night. Of
course the first thing we saw almost,
was &C ompany of American soldiers
lined up for roll call, and others
everywhere in the streets. It is
hard to go anywhere in this section
without finding Americans. 1t hap
pens that Chinon is the headquarters
for members of the Gas Service re-
turning to the United States and that
there is an aviation school near by.
A great statue of Jeanne dare In
armor astride a galloping charger was
the second thing of Importance that
attracted our attention as we walked
up the streets from the little station.
1t is one of the most impressive and
yet thrilling pieces of statuary that l
have ever seen. Her sword in one
hand, flying banner in the other, she
sits erect on the galloping horse,
whose flying name and tail stream out
to the wind The detail in the piece
is wonderful and the action and the
expressiveness in it is superb. To
me it typifed more than Jeanne d.
Arc, it typifed France, the France we
like to think of.
Proceeding up the street, that par
alels the Vienne river we came to a
little market place and turned down
that. Not having had breakfast, we
stopped at the Hotel de France and
SOt SOiiiC Gigs dIio CIOCO1dtC, oAtSA
which we were ready to start on our
tour of the castle. A narrow cobbled
pathway led up at a steep angle be-
tween two buildings just beyond the
hotel. A few moments later, quite
out of breath, we stopped at the head
of the steps to look back over the
town from the vantage point that we
had gained. The rain had stopped
and the sun was trying to shine. We
had really climbed to quite height
and the village was ever SO much
smaller and the river beyond looked
almost below us. We still had bit
of a climb up broad road that lead
up from the village by a long route.
Finally, passing over a high, arched
stone bridge, we stood before the
high tower that guards the entrance.
We pulled rope with a handle on
it and a bell tinkled somewhere
within and an old man opened the
light wooden door in the framed bar
rier that sets in the slots of great
archway where the old portcullis was
raised and lowered. Passing through
the gate way we found ourselves in
a great garden set with shrubs and