old draw-bridges are nowadays always left open. To-day is Sunday - and
Sunday in France is equivalent to a holiday - consequently Vitry le Frangois,
being quite an important town, and one of the business centres of the
prosperous and populous Marne Valley, presents all the appearance of
circus-day in an American agricultural community. Several booths are
erected in the market square, the proprietors and attaches of two
peregrinating theatres, several peep-shows, and a dozen various games
of chance, are vying with each other in the noisiness of their demonstrations
to attract the attention and small change of the crowd to their respective
enterprises. Like every other highway in this part of France the Marne
and Bhine Canal is fringed with an avenue of poplars, that from neighboring
elevations can be seen winding along the beautiful valley for miles,
presenting a most pleasing effect.

East of Vitry le Francois the roads deteriorate, and from thence to Bar-
le they are inferior to any hitherto encountered in France; nevertheless,
from the American standpoint they are very good roads, and when, at five
o'clock, I wheel into Bar-le-Duc and come to sum up the aggregate of the
day's journey I find that, without any undue exertion, I have covered
very nearly one hundred and sixty kilometres, or about one hundred English
miles, since 8.30 A.M., notwithstanding a good hour's halt at Vitry le
Francois for dinner. Bar-le-Duc appears to be quite an important business
centre, pleasantly situated in the valley of the Ornain River, a tributary
of the Marne; and the stream, in its narrow, fertile valley, winds around
among hills from whose sloping sides, every autumn, fairly ooze the
celebrated red wines of the Meuse and Moselle regions. The valley has
been favored with a tremendous downpour of rain and hail during the
night, and the partial formation of the road leading along the level
valley eastward being a light-colored, slippery clay, I find it anything
but agreeable wheeling this morning; moreover, the Ornain Valley road