DEAREST A.,--I wish I could give you an idea of Petit Val and our life as
lived by me. Petit Val is about twelve miles from Paris, and was built for
the Marquis de Marigny, whose portrait still hangs in the salon--the
brother of Madame de Pompadour--by the same architect who built and laid
out the park of Petit Trianon.
There is an avenue of tall poplar-trees leading from Petit Val straight to
Choisy-le-Roi, where Madame de Pompadour lived, a distance of ten miles.
Like Petit Trianon, Petit Val has little lakes with shady trees bordering
them; it has grottos, waterfalls, winding paths, magnificent greenhouses,
fountains, a _rivière_, pavilions, aviaries, terraces, _charmilles_,
_berceaux_, _enfin tout!_ One feels like saying, "Mein Liebchen, was
willst du mehr?" as the poet Heine says. The park is surrounded by a _saut
de loup_ (a sunken wall about twenty feet high like "la Muette" in Paris).
There is no need of putting up sign-boards with "No trespassing here" as
no one could scale the walls of the _saut de loup_, so we feel very safe,
especially when the five iron gates are locked. Beyond the park are the
_chasse_, the farm, the vineyards, and the _potager_. We are so near Paris
that we have many visitors. The drive out here is a pleasant one, going
through Vincennes, Charenton, Alfort, etc., and one can get here in about
an hour. Duke de Morny, the Duke de Persigny and the Rothschild family,
Prince de Sagan, and different diplomats, not to speak of our numerous
American friends who are thankful for a breath of fresh air, are frequent
guests. The nearest chateau to us is Montalon, where Madame de Sévigné
used to live, and from which she wrote some of her letters. If she ever
wrote a tiresome one, it must surely have been from here, as the damp and
moldy house, covered with creeping vines and overgrown with ivy,
surrounded by melancholy cypress and poplar trees, which shut out the
view, could scarcely have inspired her with brilliant ideas.
Petit Val's _potager_ is known far and wide for the best peaches and
pears in France, and the gardener takes all the prizes in the shows: if
the prizes are in money, he pockets them; if they are diplomas, he allows
us to keep them. He is a rare old scamp.
When Mr. Moulton bought the place he had the right to call himself "De
Petit Val," and he could have--if he had wished to--been "Moulton de Petit
Val." But he turned up his American nose at such cheap nobility as this;
still he was obliged, much against his will, to conform to the obligations
which belonged to the estate. For instance, he had to give so many bushels
of potatoes to the curé, so many bushels of grain to the doctor, so many
bushels of vegetables to the postmaster, and to them all so many casks of
the awful wine we produce on the estate, known in the vernacular as "_le
petit bleu_."
When this sour wine is in the golden period of effervescing, any sick
child in the village ticketed by the doctor can be brought to the wine-
presses and dipped in. If labeled "_très malade_," he is dipped in
twice. Don't you think that this is a dreadful custom? I think that it is
awful to put such an article as this on the market; but then we know that
if a person has tasted it once they never do it again. We try to grow
green corn here; but it degenerates unless the seed is brought every year
from America. This year, not having been renewed, the corn is a failure;
but the American melons ripen here in perfection, and rivalize
successfully with the big French melons. The other day an ambassador ate
so many of them that he begged us to let him stay all night. We were quite
anxious about him, as he had an audience with the Emperor the next
morning; but he managed it somehow.
An important member of the family I must not forget! the governess,
Mademoiselle Wissembourg, who is very much of a personage. After she has
given my sister-in-law and myself our French lessons (for I still go on
studying), she gives the cook his orders, gives out the linen, writes the
letters, smooths away all annoyances, pays the bills, and keeps the
accounts, which she does in an oriental sort of way, with such fantastic
summings-up that my poor father-in-law is often on the verge of
distraction.
Our stables are well garnished; there are eleven horses (my pair
included), fourteen carriages, three coachmen, and no end of stable-boys.
My coachman, who was one of the "anciens zouaves"--so renowned for their
bravery--generally has cramps when he is told that I am going to drive
myself to Paris. And when I drive those twelve miles I do it in double-
quick time with Medjé and Hilda, my two "limousin" horses. No wonder Louis
offers up a prayer to the saints before starting, and sits, holding with
both hands on to his little seat back of me, with an expression on his
face of "O Lord, what is going to happen?"