The Spell of France

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1912. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER IX LA ROBE DU MAI Being the History of an American Girl's Sketching Ramble in the French Alps Nice, April 29, 19--. -Y first impression of France is that nothing was ever so sudden. No outrider islands, as in the approach to Naples, signal what awaits you. We landed in Villefranche yesterday at two o'clock, coming from Palermo on the Kronprinzessin. The morning had been cloudy but without fog. Word was passed around that we would be landed soon after one. I took the liberty to disbelieve this, as the dull, grey stretch of sea and sky up to eleven offered no faintest suggestion of land. Yes, about ten one solitary gull napped broad wings over our masthead; but one gull! -- we were accustomed to ports which sent out these heralds, by the hundred, two days ahead of our arrival, to beckon us forward. Also there was one sail in the offing; elsewhere nothing to be 204 token that any but ourselves had ever sailed this grey and sullen sea. My faith in the shore of France dead ahead was not even as a grain of mustard seed, but the ship's officers seemed to have faith of a tree's stature, for lunch was served at eleven o'clock, and truly, before coffee was reached, the cry came, Land in sight! Of course we rushed to the nearest portholes and peered through with liveliest curiosity to catch a first glimpse of the far famed Riviera. We were entering a small and sinuous bay encircled by sandy capes, here and there clothed with pines. Among the trees, towers and roofs, as of villas and castles, could be seen. Just ahead of the ship's bow, incredibly near, climbing a cliff immediately from the water's edge, so that our masts seemed likely to touch the chimneys, were houses, yellow-walled and red-roofed. Villefranche! We could no longer maintain incredulity, ...