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[[start left-hand page]] [[stamped page number, upper left]] 36 [[/stamp]] Guadeloupe 4. who gives the driving tests. He got in and I took the wheel. The car was a French make,-- Citroën, and I hadn't even looked at the controls before. The ignition switch was obvious but a glance showed there was no starter button on the floor. A push on the accelerator precluded the chance of the starter being at the end of that same stroke, so it was left to the knobs on the dashboard. I found the right one before my ignorance was noticed, and after that everything was easy. We drove about town for a few moments and then dropped the engineer at home. The license will be ready tomorrow. After some debate we then told the driver to take us to the Auberge de la Riviere Rouge in Matouba. This turned out to be a little week-end inn at an elevation of 2100 ft. on the flank of Soufrière. We got a room and arranged for the chauffeur. He had been instructed to stay with us until I received the license. By dinner time (7[[underlined superscript]]30[[/superscript]]) it was getting quite cool, so that Ruth wished she had a sweater and some warmer clothes. We had been met by a young negro, but were told that we would later meet a young lady who spoke English. At dinner we did meet her. She is French but understands and speaks [[end page]] [[start right-hand page]] [[stamped page number, upper right]] 37 [[/stamp]] a [[underline]] little [[/underline]] English. Her husband is an engineer in the Travaux Publiques, and apparently she is a sort of manager here. We had a dinner that was edible but not enticing to an American and went to bed very soon after. Everyone here seems to turn in by nine and get up sometime between four and six. I guess it is a simple way of getting the benefits of Daylight Saving Time! [[left margin note]] X-26-35 [[/margin note]] At nine-thirty the chauffeur, who appears to be quite a ^[[young]] boy, drove us down to the office of M. Zerbid, where an assistant gave me the permit to drive but told us of another formality. We went to another office where [[strikethrough]] I [[/strikethrough]] a two-franc stamp was affixed and cancelled. When it was O.K., and the driver left us to return to Pointe-a-Pitre by himself, after recieving ten francs from me on the assertion that his boss said I would pay his fare home. Then we went to a drugstore, and as we were about to start "home", remembered we were in need of a map. We went back to the government building to the Travaux Publiques, and were showed a nice large map. They do not have copies for distribution but told us where we could obtain one. A "Librairia" sold us one for 30 francs. Back to Matauba. [[end page]]