The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram., 1919-05-05


ceived by Mrs. Edward Thompson
from her son, Robert c. Thompson,
now located at Lahochelle, France:
II have taken vacation and have
been too busy to write. We are having
good time at Eau Bonne and have
taken several trips to other places.
We saw Pau, Faux, Chande Lourdes,
and have taken several trips up the
mountains and have waded in snow
waist deep. We have a room in hotel
Bernis, No. 13, which is good enough
for a commissioned oficer-lucky
thirteen! They have treated us roy
ally, SO you see We hate to return to
camp. ! spent one day in Paris and
saw the main parts Of interest.
Has Postal Views.
Il have several hundred postal
views which / will mail home at vari-
GUS times. At first l will get thu
diary up and write you about our trip.
We are in the Pyrenees mountains,
near Pau. This place / mention is
the home of King Henry ", and you
will receive picture Of his castle.
l saw inside tapestries of all descrtp-
tions. War trophies and oddities are
kept here. We visited the museum
and saw rare art of the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries. Millet and Raph-
ael had painting there. Here we saw
the American dollar among the coins
of different nations. At Lourdes, we
saw Calvery Hill, where the Passion
Play Is mimicked in iron statury. We
saw the big cathedral and you will get
these views. We went to the top of a
high mountain in a special car that
goes almost straight up track for
1922 feet and then we climbed UP the
rest Of the way, where an iron cross,
fifty feet high, is mounted. 1t is cleo
trically lighted and is beautiful after
dark. This is the best place to go to
see the country. 1t is said that forty
towns are visible. know it was the
best mountain view / have gotten. We
saw a large panorama picture of the
town, painted pears ago in oil. We
went to the fort and here we found
the guard. We asked him to let us go
through. This was fine sight. We
climbed all over 1t, and on top 1t Is
several hundred feet above the city,
so we took in the town again. To
show you the magnitude of Pau, |
might say that one million people on
vacation, visit there every summer.
Some days forty-fve special trains are
used to handle the crowd.
Bread is Good.
"The bread Is better than the white
bread at home. We usually get soup
for dinner and supper, fried goat
meat, potatoes and mineral water is
the rest of the variety for dinner and
the same with fruit and nuts for sup
per. / have just completed saving
some wood in order to obtain some
string with which to wrap a package.
Il have not said much about Paris.
It is fine. Now the funny part OF 1t
all Is the fact that we missed out on
the "Y" trip, so we hired limosine
to take us. We can't understand
much French, but we understood the
taxi drive to say thirty-one and one.
half france We bought his dinner
Give francs) and when we went to pay
him he had a bill for one hundred
and fifty francs more for taxi hire
We were rather provoked at first, but
paid him and had a good laugh over 1t
to think our French was so poor.
81 saw Notre Dame, the finest ca
thedral inside and out, of any church
l have ever seen. / saw the big ferris
wheel (not running) and Effeil Tower
The base of this steel structure is .
city block square and 984 feet hlgh
A wireless station is on the tower
SO we could not go up. l saw Napo
Icons tomb. 1t is made of fine choco
late-colored marble and weighs sixty
thousand pounds. He is buried in sia
caskets, one within the other. The
building is fine with hand painted
ceilings. l saw the Pantheon. Thi:
is a big war picture of which so mucf
talk was about 1t is an oil painting
put in a circular building. 1t tool
one hundred artists four years t
make it. In one section, the ptctur'
shows a big building with steps II
front On these steps you can Sc
five thousand French soldiers, all o
whom can be recognized. All nation
are represented that are considere
as one Of our allies. In the part ded!
Gated to Uncle Sam you can see Ger
eral Pershing and President Wilson
These characters are just as real a
life.
Sees Many Palaces.
81 saw the small and large palaces
The palace of Trocodero had i'm
museum for sculptures. We saw VII
tor Huber church. The opera buildin
was very classy. Hamlet was playin
here, but we did not go in as our tim
was rathered limited, for we had
leave at 8:25. The Seine river
lined on both side with hundreds {
fine marble and stone buildings Th
river itself is very calm and about
square wide. 1t is spanned with man
beautiful bridges about square apar
I'VE saw the Louvre and passe
through the small arch of TRIUMPH
dedicated to the victory over tn
Italians. The soldiers on their r
turn from victory passed through
I'VE went through the Tuleries
park. A place called Concord is alon
this same route. We went right 9
and through the big arch of TRUMP