Itinerary of Provence and the Rhone: Made During the Year 1819Hughes, John
History
Itinerary of Provence and the Rhone: Made During the Year 1819
Hughes, John
Provence (France) -- Description and travel; Rhône River (Switzerland and France)
Our inn at Peage de Rousillon, although the only place in the
neighbourhood at which we could have slept in any comfort, somewhat
resembled, in its general style, those recorded in Don Quixote, and
afforded similar adventures. In the midst of our supper, (which was by
no means a bad one of the kind), in burst a fat German woman in a
transport of fury, who thought herself ill-used in the allotment of the
rooms; squabbling in a very discordant key with the landlady, who
followed her "blaspheming an octave higher." Both were apparently
viragos of the first order, and the keen encounter of their wits was so
loud, that we turned a deaf ear to the German's appeal, and insisted on
their choosing another field of battle. Battle however was the order of
the day, or rather night, for both myself and my servant were roused in
the middle of the night to put a stop to a drunken quarrel on the
staircase, which we effected by ordering down stairs the Maritornes, who
proved the bone of contention. The Hotel du Grand Monarque, is evidently
on a par with that class of inns in our English country towns, which
bear the royal badge of the George and Dragon, through some fatality
attendant on high names and dignities.
From Peage de Rousillon to St. Vallier, you traverse eighteen miles of
flat road, only enlivened by the hills to the right of the Rhone, which,
becoming gradually more rocky and abrupt, meet at length with a
corresponding barrier on the left, and enclose the river in a narrow
valley. Just beyond its entrance, which we had distinguished from above
Peage de Rousillon, stands the town of St. Vallier, where the conducteur
intended that we should breakfast. The Hotel de Poste is a most dismal
hole indeed, in every respect, and no appearance of any other inn: but
soon after we learnt by experience, that wherever there is a cafe of
tolerable appearance, it affords a much better chance for breakfast than
any inn of the same rank. Neatness is the more the trade of the
cafetier, and his notions of breakfast much more English, than those of
the inn-keeper, who is usually put completely out of his way by our
habits.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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