Before following further Audubon's history in America, we shall return for a more intimate view of the happy home which he had left behind him in France. This was at Couëron, a small commune in the arrondissement of Saint-Nazaire, on the right bank of the Loire, nine miles west of Nantes. Here, as we have noticed, his father had acquired a country place at about the outbreak of the Revolution. The old house still stands, though in decay, and is still known as "La Gerbetière," a name possibly referring to the wheat which is harvested from the surrounding fields as of yore. In the records of that district country places are always designated by their proper names, and it is a curious fact that while such names survive, they are seldom or never displayed on door or gate. [Illustration: "LA GERBETIÈRE" JEAN AUDUBON'S COUNTRY VILLA AT COUËRON, FRANCE, AND THE NATURALIST'S BOYHOOD HOME. From a photograph of August 18, 1913.] In a journal written before 1826, Audubon says: "My father's beautiful country seat, situated within sight of the Loire, about mid-distance between Nantes and the sea, I found quite delightful to my taste, notwithstanding the frightful cruelties I had witnessed in that vicinity not many years previously. The gardens, greenhouses, and all appertaining to it appeared to me of a superior cast." Though it was occupied for many years previously as a refuge from the turmoil or heat of the city, Lieutenant Audubon made "La Gerbetière" his permanent abode only when he retired from the navy in 1801, still maintaining, as we have seen, a foothold in Nantes. Upon Audubon's first return from the United States in the spring of 1805, he said that his vessel entered the mouth of the Loire and anchored off Paimbœuf, the lower harbor of Nantes. "On sending my name to the principal officer of the customs," the narrative continues, "he came on board, and afterwards sent me to my father's villa, La Gerbetière, in his barge and with his own men." It is to be noticed, incidentally, that as the distance to be covered between the lower and upper harbors was twenty-five miles, or sixteen miles to Couëron, such journeys no doubt were made upon the arrival of incoming vessels for the regular business of the service.