THE MAYOR AND A NICE, RED-CHEEKED, WRINKLED OLD WOMAN WERE WAITING FOR US
THERE WAS ONE HANDSOME BIT OF OLD LACE ON A WHITE NAPPE FOR THE ALTAR
THEY WERE ALL STREAMING UP THE SLIPPERY HILL-SIDE
ALL THE CHILDREN IN PROCESSION PASSED
THERE WAS ONE POOR OLD WOMAN STILL GAZING SPELL-BOUND
L'ETABLISSEMENT, BAGNOLES DE L'ORNE
IN DOMFRONT SOME OF THE OLD TOWERS ARE CONVERTED INTO MODERN DWELLINGS
CHÂTEAU DE LASSAY
ENTRANCE TO HÔTEL OF THE COMTE DE FLORIAN
MARKET WOMEN, VALOGNES
OLD GATE-WAY, VALOGNES


[Illustration: A fine old château.]




I

CHATEAU LIFE


My first experience of country life in France, about thirty years ago,
was in a fine old château standing high in pretty, undulating, wooded
country close to the forest of Villers-Cotterets, and overlooking the
great plains of the Oise--big green fields stretching away to the
sky-line, broken occasionally by little clumps of wood, with steeples
rising out of the green, marking the villages and hamlets which, at
intervals, are scattered over the plains, and in the distance the blue