MONT-DE-MARSAN TO PÉRIGUEUX
Motoring on to St. Justin, we plunged into an immense forest broken only
now and then by small clearings and extending for nearly sixty miles to
the lumber town of Casteljaloux. Woodland depths shut out the view. Mile
followed mile of dark pines and somber perspective, an endless
succession of dim forest glades. The sappers were at their work, peeling
the bark from the long trunks and attaching small earthenware cups to
catch the resinous gum. The road was so easy and smooth that we did not
find it difficult to take notes. From the lumber yards of Casteljaloux
was blown the fragrant odor of fresh-sawn pine. Bright sunshine flooded
the wide-open country. The freedom of the fields was around us again.
Here and there a maple showed the first gorgeous colors of autumn.
In the enjoyment of these peaceful scenes we ran unexpectedly through an
encampment of French soldiers. The army was getting ready for the
autumn maneuvers. Rifles were stacked, and heavy accouterments deposited
on the grass. There were three or four large Paris omnibuses transformed
into kitchens, motor-propelled and equal to a speed of twenty miles an
hour. Soldiers and officers watched us curiously, almost suspiciously.
Our notebooks were hastily put aside. To be detected taking notes from a
German motor car in a French encampment might have had unpleasant
consequences, or at least subjected us to serious inconvenience. One of
the officers took our number; another "snapped" us with a camera, but
there was no attempt to interfere with our progress.
The infantry wore long blue coats and red trousers. One wonders why the
French army, otherwise so scientifically equipped, should have such
showy uniforms. If France went to war to-morrow, her soldiers would be
at a great disadvantage. These uniforms would be a conspicuous target at
the farthest rifle range. All other modern armies, like those of
Germany, England, or Italy, have adopted the "invisible" field dress.
But in France the colors have not changed from the blue and red of
Napoleon's soldiers. A few years ago the War Minister Berteaux tried to
introduce a uniform of green material. His efforts were without success;
the old color tradition was too strong. A French officer commented as
follows: "The French army is one of the most routine-bound in Europe. In
some things, like flying, we have a lead, because civilians have done
all the preliminary work, but in purely military matters, like uniforms,
officialdom delays reform at every turn. It was not until 1883 that we
gave up wearing the gaiters and shoes of Napoleon's time, and took to
boots like other armies." Even the officers whom we saw from our motor
car were dressed in scarlet and gold, red breeches, and sky-blue tunics
with gold braid.
A little farther on we passed several motor cars filled with French
officers; just behind them came a dozen Berliet trucks of a heavy
military type, loaded with meat and ammunition. These are the times of
motor war. The automobile has revolutionized the old method of food
supply. The long, slow train of transport wagons, unwieldy and drawn by
horses, has been replaced by swift motor trucks. The French army is
unsurpassed in mechanical equipment. No effort has been spared to give
the army the full benefit of technical and scientific improvements. This
year, for the first time, the Paris motor omnibuses are serving as
meat-delivery vans. With this innovation, the army can have fresh meat
every morning, instead of the canned meats of other years. The supply
stations can be, in safety, thirty miles from the front, and yet remain
in effective communication with the troops. France is in grim earnest.
The army is ready and competent. The terrible lessons of the
Franco-Prussian war of 1870 have been learned.
A French officer with whom we conversed on the subject of the French and
German armies, spoke of the superiority of the French artillery over
German guns in the recent Balkan war. He said that the French were
counting upon their great advantage in this respect to offset the German
superiority in numbers. Commenting on the wish of the Kaiser to visit
Paris, he was quite sure that the Kaiser would never repeat the
performance of his grandfather, Emperor William I, and arrive in
Paris at the head of the German army.
[Illustration: Copyright by Underwood & Underwood
_A miracle of Gothic splendor_]
Our lunch in Marmande reminded us of a banquet, but we were not yet
French enough to do full justice to three kinds of meat. France is
essentially a country of fields and gardens. How we looked forward to
every _déjeuner_ and every _dîner_ so bountifully spread with the famous
products of her soil! The cuisine of these small towns would not suffer
in comparison with the hotels of larger cities. One is served more
generously for half the price, and the cooking is just as good.
A delightful succession of little foreign touches brightened the ride
from Marmande,--the sluggish bullock carts, and vineyards interspersed
with tobacco fields, small churches with bell cotes guarded by solemn,
century-old cypress trees; or perhaps it was an old Gothic house or an
ancient gateway with a piece of mediæval wall still clinging to it. In
one village we saw bizarre stores, where the doorway and window were
one. This must be a survival of Roman times, because we had seen the
same thing in Pompeii. We were quickly called back from antiquity,
however, by the cement telegraph poles which lined the road for some
miles. It was a surprise to see such evidence of progress in a region
where the years leave so few traces of their march.
By this time the weather had become the chief topic of conversation. A
storm was swiftly approaching. Tall cypress trees creaked and swayed in
the wind; the dark clouds, nearly above us, shot out murky, ominous
streamers, like the tentacles of a gigantic octopus; a few big drops
fell; then the floodgates burst. The drenching downpour was so sudden
that there was no time to put up the top of the car. A tall tree offered
refuge, but soon each separate leaf had a tiny waterfall of its own.
Fortune did not entirely desert us, for a small farmhouse, near by,
promised a more substantial shelter. It was just the kind of peasant's
home that we had often seen from the roadside: an exterior of rustic
quaintness, built of stone and rough timbers, and artistically framed in
rustic vines and flowers. What would the interior look like? We knocked.
A barefooted peasant woman opened the door. She was surprised to see
three dripping apparitions, apparently swept in by the rage of the
elements, but her invitation to enter could not have been more cordial.
The "_salon_" served the purposes of kitchen, bedchamber, and dining
room. There was no trace of carpet or rug on the cobble-stoned floor.
The heap of straw in the corner did not disclose whether it was for dog
or goat. On the wall hung a cheap color-print of Napoleon. The
hospitable "_Asseyez-vous_" called our attention to a single decrepit
chair. There was not even a wooden table. The rain, pattering down the
chimney, had almost extinguished the blaze in the small open fireplace.
Could anything have been more barren or forlorn! Judging from the
appearance of our _hôtesse_, the bathtub either did not exist or had
long since ceased to figure prominently in the domestic life of the
household. Two other peasant women of the same neglected appearance
entered without knocking. One of them was barefooted; the other would
have been if she had not worn heavy _sabots_. Both of them greeted us,
but their dialect was unintelligible. The sun coming out we said
good-by with all the polite French phrases at our command. The three
peasant women stood in the doorway and waved their ragged aprons till we
disappeared over the hill.
The bridge spanning the Dordogne into cheerful Bergerac showed a town
busy with festal preparation for the coming of President Poincaré. Pine
branches were being wound around telephone poles; festoons of green
decorated the houses; windows were bright with flags; the streets
overhung with arches bearing inscriptions of welcome. We stopped at a
tea shop which was also a _boulangerie_.
It was interesting to discover, from the local papers, that our route
for the next two days was to be part of the itinerary selected by
President Poincaré for his tour through the French provinces.
This trip resulted from the president's desire to know his people
better, to become acquainted with their local life, to visit their
industries, and especially to attract the attention of the motor world
to beautiful and interesting regions of France which had too long been
neglected,--these slumberous small towns of the Dordogne, Limousin and
Périgord, hidden from the broad travel track, rich in local traditions
and peculiarities, wrapped in their old-world atmosphere, surrounded by
exquisite landscapes with marvelous horizons. For these towns, the
president's coming was a big event. Some of them recalled that since the
days of Louis XI no ruler of the state had visited their village.
We were to see Périgueux, with its precious relics of Roman life and of
the Middle Ages; Limoges, noted for its beautiful enamels and the center
of the porcelain industry. It was this part of France, so little visited
even by the French themselves, that President Poincaré chose for his
week of motoring. For him, as well as for us, it was to be a delightful
voyage of discovery.
The twenty-nine miles to Périgueux proved a memorable motor experience.
Much of the way was among steep, tree-covered slopes. No one met us
along the road.
It is surprising how far one can motor in France without seeing any
trace of human life; areas of deserted country are so common; abandoned
farmhouses appear so frequently. The reason lies not alone in the drift
of population to the larger towns and cities, but in the fact that the
French birth rate is failing to hold its own. France, so rich in other
respects, is actually threatened by a decreasing population. In 1911 the
number of deaths exceeded the number of births by 33,800. In the first
third of the last century, when the death rate was much higher than now,
there were six births to every death; in 1871 the ratio had fallen to
two births to each death; in 1901 it was even. If we consider the number
of births per 10,000 inhabitants during the decades of the last century,
we find the series to be an invariably decreasing one--from 323 in 1800
to 222 in 1900. In 1870 Germany and France had each about 38,000,000.
Germany now has over 67,000,000, a gain of 27,000,000 over the present
French population of 39,340,000. France is thus placed at a great
disadvantage in the matter of national defense. If we assume the German
army to be only 750,000 soldiers, there would be one soldier to every 89
inhabitants; France, to have the same army, would be obliged to have one
soldier to every 52 or 53 inhabitants. The fact that the French
soldiers will now be compelled to serve three years in the army, as
compared with two years in Germany, shows how France is now paying the
penalty for neglecting that vital national problem of population.
Our ride to Périgueux gave vivid emphasis to the above figures. There
was little evidence of peasant life. One had the impression of roaming
through a vast, uninhabited country.
From the top of a hill the town, and the valley of the Isle, stretched
beneath us a lovely view; the windings of the river Isle, its bridges
mirrored in the crimson flood. Wooded hills faded slowly into the blue
depths of twilight. The graceful Byzantine _campanile_ and domes of St.
Front reminded us of the church of St. Marks in Venice. Europe has few
more romantic corners. Descending the hill, we motored over the river
and into the town, under arches of electric lights arranged in letters
to spell words of greeting to the president.
The Grand Hôtel du Commerce should have been torn down years ago. It was
a good example of how poor a provincial hotel can be. Even the
recommendation of the Touring Club of France could not make us forget
the musty smells that filled rooms and corridors. We opened wide all the
windows. After a few minutes, the fresh air revived us.
For a place that occupies so little space in the pages of Baedeker,
Périgueux is unique. Numerous remains from the different epochs of
history may be found. The Roman period, the Middle Ages, the
Renaissance, and modern times have all left their imprint. There is the
massive tower of Vesône, once part of a Gallo-Roman temple. The Château
Barrière has one curious feature: a railroad runs through the deep moat
of feudal times. We shall need all our superlatives to describe the
Jardin des Arènes. Where else will you find a public garden laid out on
the site of an ancient Roman amphitheater, keeping the same size, the
same circular form, and even preserving some of the original arches to
admit the modern public? A French journalist once wrote that "even
without its bright sunlight, even without imagination, Périgueux remains
one of the quaintest towns in the world and one of those places which
the French people would visit in crowds if it were situated in another
country." Viewed from a distance, the cathedral of St. Front makes a
striking appearance; the five huge domes might have been transplanted
from St. Sophia of Constantinople.