. Unfrequented France by river and mead and town. comes in sight, rather more than twelvehours since quitting the quay of Lyons, and wellrewarded were we for having preferred the slowerwater-way to the four hours flight in the railwayexpress. The approach to Avignon by the Rhone may beset side by side in the travellers mind with the firstglimpse of Venice from the Adriatic, or of Athensfrom the ^Egean. The river, after winding amid cypress-groves,makes a sudden curve, and all of a sudden we seethe grand old city, its watch-towers, palaces, andbattlements pencilled in delicate grey against awar
. Unfrequented France by river and mead and town. comes in sight, rather more than twelvehours since quitting the quay of Lyons, and wellrewarded were we for having preferred the slowerwater-way to the four hours flight in the railwayexpress. The approach to Avignon by the Rhone may beset side by side in the travellers mind with the firstglimpse of Venice from the Adriatic, or of Athensfrom the ^Egean. The river, after winding amid cypress-groves,makes a sudden curve, and all of a sudden we seethe grand old city, its watch-towers, palaces, andbattlements pencilled in delicate grey against awarm amber sky, only the cypresses by the watersedge making dark points in the picture. Far away, 96 UNFREQUENTED FRANCE over against the city, towers the stately snow-crowned Mont Ventoux and the violet hills shuttingin Petrarchs Vaucluse. How warm and southern—nay, Oriental—is the scene before us, althoughpainted in delicatest pearly tints! It is difficult tobelieve that we are still in France; we seem sud-denly to have waked up in Jerusalem!. Mft. O o CHAPTER XI TO MENDE BY WAY OF LE VIGAN On a former occasion I had set out for the Gorgeof the Tarn from Le Puy, thence by train journey-ing to Langeac, from that little junction to anothernamed Langogne, and from that point finishing thelong day in the crazy old diligence plying betweenLangogne and Mende. An amazing six hoursdrive it was, and well worth the fatigue, every bitof the way abounding in scenery, splendid orpastoral. France can hardly show fairer or morestriking scenes than these highlands of the Lozere. The first part of our way lay amid wild moun-tain passes, deep ravines, dusky with pine and fir,lofty granite peaks shining like blocks of diamondagainst an amethyst heaven. Alternating with suchscenes of savage magnificence are idyllic pictures,verdant dells and glades, rivers bordered by alder-trees wending even course through emeraldpastures, or making cascade after cascade over arocky bed. On little lawny spaces
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectfranced, bookyear1910
