[Illustration: TOMB OF AGNES SOREL AT LOCHES By permission of Mansell & Co.] WINGED WHEELS IN FRANCE BY MICHAEL MYERS SHOEMAKER Author of "Islands of Southern Seas," "The Great Siberian Railway," "The Heart of the Orient," "Prisons and Palaces of Mary, Queen of Scots," Etc. ILLUSTRATED G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS NEW YORK AND LONDON The Knickerbocker Press 1906 _Copyrighted 1906 by Michael Myers Shoemaker_ TO MY DEAR FRIEND MRS. W. P. HULBERT OF CINCINNATI PREFACE This is not a love story. These wings are wings of motion, not of Cupid, yet there is much of romance and story in these pages,--for who can travel the _plaisant pays de France_ and not dip deeply into both? When I entered my red machine at Nice no route had been laid out,--to me there is small pleasure in travel when that is done,--so I told Jean to start and left the direction to him. Being French he naturally turned towards his own country, and knowing whither the superb highways and enchanting byways could lead one, I tacitly agreed, and we glided away by the level sea and on into the olive-crowned hill of Provence, to where Aix--the home of politeness--dreams the years away and the air seems still to echo to King René's music. Arles, Narbonne, fantastic Carcassonne, Lourdes, and Pau followed in rapid succession, and then we rested awhile at Biarritz with short journeys into Spain. Turning northward we rolled off into Central France, pausing daily in some ancient city or quaint village, climbing mountains to long forgotten castles, or rolling into valleys in search of deserted abbeys. So we wandered through Auvergne, through courtly Touraine, sad Anjou, and stormy Brittany, until Normandy and Picardy smiled into our faces and Paris received us within her gates. Exploring the surroundings of that great city as one can do only in an auto, we finally glided off through the forest of Fontainebleau and Côte-d'Or to the mountains of the Vosges and thence over the Schlucht to the Rhine Valley to Freiburg, and up to Baden-Baden. There the spirits of the woods seized upon us and we promptly got lost in the Black Forest, and so rolled on into Switzerland to Geneva and finally to Aix-les-Bains, where the journey ended and I bade goodbye to my staunch car which had carried me without mishap or delay for near five thousand miles. To its winged wheels the highest mountains of France were no barrier. If all this pleases you, read these pages--if not, drop the book. M. S. M. Union Club, N. Y. June, 1906. CONTENTS PAGE CHAPTER I. MONTE CARLO 1 CHAPTER II. OUR DEPARTURE FROM NICE--THE ROAD TO AIX--THE CITY OF KING RENÉ 8 CHAPTER III. THE ROAD TO ARLES--THE CAMARGUE--RUINS OF ARLES--THE "ALISCAMPS" 17 CHAPTER IV.