Viewing page 51 of 83

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

73

Cliffs of England fade from view then Heaven smiled on us & the sea glistened like an emerald under the genial sunshine - then over our Port bow we saw the misty line of land & distinguished the outline of houses & churches & before many minutes were close on the shore - then came the bustle preceeding landing. We were soon steaming up by the long line of wooden piers - with the picturesque looking fish women & odd soldiers in big pants - the plank was now ashore & the little crowd of passingers stepped up & were addressed by a gentlemanly french man at the top by "What waz zzu meaninz"- A crowd of funny looking people stood round a foreign language was spoken and I realize that we are at Calais-
  

France
74

Granville Manche 9th Septemb '74
What a noisy dirty little hotel but how refreshing to breath the fresh sea air after this summer in the interior of Barbizon and Fontainebleau. How hot and oppressive the air was at Paris last night when I came over from the coiffeur to Basses room. he found room in his trunk for my two packages and today he has gone I hope he will get over his bad knee with out difficulty. Bacon and I got a cab at the Sainte Peres and went to my room for our trunks a few moments later we were at the Gare Mont Parnasse and with nearly an hour to wait before the departure of our train and nothing to do but to amuse ourselves watching a couple of drunken peasants. A few days before at Barbizon we had stumbled on to the idea of making a little tour; I favored the plan as I am going to try for the concours this fall in the Beaux arts and wanted a little vacation so no sooner proposed than decided that we should come and spend a week in Normandy, and here we found ourselves this morning almost the only passingers getting out of the night train at this jumping off place. With true American independence last night we undid our blankets and proceeded to make ourselves comfortable, the two other occupants of the 2nd carriage looked at us in silent wonder and sat up straighter than ever. fortunately they had not far to go and by eleven oclock we were the sole occupants of the compartment, and if comfort was to be