Automobile travel; France -- Description and travel
renting, as I did, from a responsible party, all that was upon his
shoulders, not mine. If the car had been wrecked past repair and the
chauffeur killed, in fact, from every sort of accident, I was held
blameless.
When I dismissed it at Geneva, I asked George whether it would be of
service for another long tour. "Certainly, sir. It would be well to
expend about one hundred dollars on it, but it would go all right
without even that. We have covered nearly five thousand miles and it
is in very good condition. Also we have met with no losses, save a few
pneumatics." But I anticipate--
I noticed at Montpellier, when Jean thought a new envelope was
necessary for one of the rear wheels, he telegraphed to the owner at
Nice before he bought it.
Toulouse, a city of 150,000 people, is one of the most prosperous in
France, but it is not a place of interest for the tourist, and if the
automobilist finds dusty, disagreeable roads anywhere in France it will
be around this city of the Southwest, because of the very high winds
prevailing in this section. Its past dates back some centuries before
its capture by the Romans, and around and in it history has been made
hard and fast throughout all these passing years until the present,
when it is happy, contented, and prosperous, even if commonplace. It
possesses probably the oldest literary institution in Europe, dating
from 1300, and one which observes the singular custom of distributing
flowers of gold and silver to its laureates; all of its prizes take the
form of different flowers in gold or silver.
But this does not interest the ordinary mortal and as we roll into the
city over her rough pavements, I feel ordinary,--the high, hot winds
irritate, and I am glad, after a very comfortable luncheon at a very
good hotel to start forth towards Pau.
The people of Toulouse have evidently never seen a Japanese before and
I feel sorry for Yama, so great is the crowd around us at all times,
but if he objects to the scrutiny his stolid, expressionless face gives
no sign thereof.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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