ANCIENT TOWN OF RIOM--THE ROUTE TO VICHY--CHÂTEAU DE
BOURBON-BUSSET--VICHY--THE LIFE THERE--DANGER OF SPEEDING--ARRIVAL
AT BOURGES
Returning to Clermont, we pass the old town of Riom, a very interesting
relic of the days of Francis I. The walls have been removed but the
town stands unchanged as it was constructed, and being built of blocks
of lava from the Volvic quarries it will endure with time. Riom holds
a beautiful chapel like the Sainte Chapelle in Paris, and many stately
mansions with façades of the renaissance period. On a flight of steps
are a group of Auvergne women with strong faces--faces one could trust.
They are spinning and give no heed to our passing.
As we are speeding through the streets, without warning, we are upon
a baby carriage,--so near that it is impossible to stop and we strike
it with great force. Believing that it holds a helpless child, one can
fancy our feelings of horror, and also our feelings of thankful relief
when out of it roll two empty milk cans. The old woman who owns it
certainly makes more racket over her cans than she would have done over
a baby.
Our ride to Vichy is uneventful and short, over the usual fine
roads. Dropping Yama and the baggage at the very excellent Hôtel
Internationale we run out twelve miles to visit the Château de
Bourbon-Busset, standing on a high plateau with a fine view of the
valley of the Allier. The Château has been restored, which destroys
the interest to my thinking and as we are not allowed to enter I can
give no descriptions nor shall I attempt any description of Vichy. It
is evidently a very gay place during the summer season and one which
would never interest me in the least. And yet one cannot but pause
an instant to compare Vichy with the great American watering-place,
Saratoga, and very decidedly to the disparagement of the latter.
Nature has not endowed Vichy as she has Saratoga. The French Spa lies
flat--very flat--the surrounding country is not of interest and is the
least beautiful through which we have passed. Yet what do we find? The
entire section of the springs has been parked and finely cultivated.
It holds the most gorgeous and largest casino in Europe--a building
comprising vast halls for promenades, concerts, and balls, great halls
for card-playing, the whole being surrounded by beautiful terraces. Of
its kind the place is a fairy-land,--where art has done all that can be
done. This holds with all the other spas of Europe.
[Illustration: THE HOME OF MADAME DE SÉVIGNÉ AT VICHY
By permission of Jules Hautecoeur]
What do we find in Saratoga? Nature there has done her best, and it
should be the greatest sanatorium of our country. Where Vichy is
only tolerable in summer, Saratoga's climate is superb the year round;
and especially is this the case in winter, when it is in all respects
equal to that of the Adirondacks, and it is within four hours of New
York. Its hotels are so superior to those in Vichy that no comparison
is possible. Its surrounding scenery is beautiful,--I do not refer
especially to that on the lake side, though that might be made a superb
drive at no great expense,--but rather to the many charming roads to
the north and west. That scene from Mt. McGregor is a gem even in
America, and it is totally neglected and the road thereto abandoned.
The scenery to the westward of the town is in its way equally fine, yet
how many of the thousands who go to Saratoga know anything about it.
As for the springs, where are they and how are they used? A very few
are in the park, which at one period with its detached white pagodas,
was lovely. Observe the gimcrackery which adorns it now. The other
springs are spread through a valley upon which all the back-yards,
stable and otherwise abut,--a disgrace to the place. The waters are
swallowed by the mob utterly regardless of their medicinal qualities
or their effects--and with dire results. As I stated above the place
might be the great sanatorium of our country the year round if our
physicians would take it in hand. That has been done at the Hot
Springs of Virginia, and has _made_ that place what it is, yet the
waters there are as nothing when compared to those of Saratoga, which,
according to the medical fraternity of Europe, has more and better
springs than almost all of the spas of the old world put together. In
Europe the visitor is warned to consult a physician before drinking
the waters--so also at Hot Springs, Virginia. Nothing of the sort is
attempted at Saratoga. The whole place is given over to gamblers and
horse-racing. Reputable people, until within the last year or so,
have been forced out of the great hotels and the future holds out no
hope for the better. The people of the village have killed the goose
provided by nature to lay their golden eggs. When they might make the
place profitable the year round, they have deliberately sacrificed that
opportunity for the few weeks--often dead failures--of midsummer. I
speak strongly and feelingly, for I remember our beautiful "Springs"
when they were the resort of all the best people in our land; and while
many will not even to-day desert the spot, they are lost in the flood
of the undesirables.
[Illustration: RUE DE L'ÉTABLISSEMENT AT VICHY
From a print]
We start from Vichy on a threatening morning, but aside from a splash
or two, have no rain, and a splendid trip all day.
The roads are fine and we meet one or two autos. I do not know of
anything more Satanic in appearance than a great auto passing one at
full speed. Just now one came upon us unheard because of the high winds
and passed with a swerve and a swish that made us gasp. Long, low and
rakish, and dark grey in color, it sped by like a spirit of evil making
our motion appear as nothing. The occupants clothed in furs and goggled
turned, mouthing and shrieking upon us because we had not given way,
which we should have done had we been aware of their approach. The
appearance of the whole thing was devilish. There was no danger in the
passing as the road was of ample width and we were upon our own side.
It seems a question to me in great emergencies as to what a man in a
great machine is to do. Mr. Croker, for instance, certainly sacrificed
his life to the man on the motor cycle, who, to my thinking, had no
business on a course where he knew those great machines were speeding
and where they had come for that purpose only. On a highway it is
another matter. Mr. Croker certainly knew also that when a machine is
making such tremendous speed it is dangerous in the extreme to swerve.
Of course it is horrible to run down a man and one would scarcely
recover from the effects of so doing, yet self-preservation is the
first law of nature. He certainly gave his life to save that of the
other man who had no business on the course. I think I should have
saved my own life and I do not consider that I am cold-blooded in
saying so. It was another case with us to-day. If, on the highway, in
approaching from the rear you cannot securely pass on you _must_ stop,
there is only one law as to that. We should have slaughtered no end of
men and beasts had we done otherwise and as the roads are open to all
from the little work dogs to the great machines, each must exercise
discretion and obey the laws of the land. So we shrieked back defiance
at the mouthing monsters and kept upon the even tenor of our way.
As for these very fast machines on the main roads, they should not
be permitted. Every railroad is forced to maintain gates at the
crossings or to pass over or under the highways, though these trains
rarely exceed forty miles an hour. Yet great autos are permitted to
exceed sixty miles an hour down the crowded highways. There certainly
would appear to be an inconsistence in allowing the latter to traverse
the length of the roads at high speed, while the former may not even
cross them without gates. Again, if the tremendous speed is to be
permitted, then certain routes should be set apart and the traveling
world advised as to what they have to expect; otherwise loss of life,
of man and beast, will occur constantly. Yet, again, if such speed is
permitted the authorities should hold those who avail themselves of
this permission blameless for accidents which the authorities know are
bound to occur.
Our route lay all day long through smiling valleys guarded by ancient
towns and picturesque castles, which I should like to have inspected
but we have lost much time in stupid Vichy and the day is fine. Also
my letters are waiting at Tours. So we pass Moulins, lunch at Nevers,
which is interesting, and reach Bourges in due time. No rain and a
glorious run, all ill health, if there was any, driven completely out
of one by the rushing winds of spring.
We enter Bourges on a bright afternoon. The ancient city is steeped in
sunshine and the towers and flying buttresses of the great cathedral
glitter as though coated in gold. Our modern machine looks strangely
out of place here as it rolls noisily through the narrow streets and
one almost expects to be challenged by the sentries of the King and
the reason for our intrusion demanded. But the gabled houses make no
complaint; no men at arms sound rude alarms from the ancient palace of
Charles VII.; and we descend at the Inn of the Boule d'Or amidst all
the busy chatter of a provincial establishment. A "Madame" as usual
welcomes us, but while she is showing my room to Yama I slip off on
foot for a tour of the ancient city.