che, you had better start
your chapter," was her woman's answer.

You may have a confused picture, you may even forget many places you
have visited in your travels, but Villefranche? Never! Whether you
have first seen Villefranche as you came around the corner of Montboron
from Nice or across the neck of Cap Ferrat from Beaulieu on the Petite
Corniche, as you came through the Col des Quatre Chemins on the Grande
Corniche, or as you climbed up behind Fort Montalban on the Moyenne
Corniche, the memory is equally indelible. But each _corniche_ gives a
different impression of the only natural harbor on the Riviera. The
Petite Corniche, which mounts rather high around Montboron, is the near
view. You see only the _rade_ with Cap Ferrat as a background.
Approaching in the opposite direction, Montboron is the background. On
the Moyenne Corniche the _rade_ comes gradually into your field of
vision. You are way above the sea, but the harbor still forms the
principal part of the water foreground in the picture. On the Grande
Corniche, where the Riviera coast from Cap d'Antibes to Cap Martin is
before you, and the Mediterranean rises to meet the sky, every
outstanding feature of the picture is a cape or town, fortification or
lighthouse, except at Villefranche. Here the land is the setting. The
water of the harbor, changing as you look to green and back to blue
until you are not sure which is the color, is the feature that attracts
and holds you. Montboron, the littoral and Cap Ferrat are as secondary
as the prongs and ring which hold a precious stone.

The water edge of the harbor has become conventionalized to a large
extent by the artificial stone wall built at the inner end and part-way
along the Montboron slope, to make possible railway and carriage road,
and by the quays and breakwaters. But enough of the unimproved line
remains to indicate how the harbor must have looked before the masons
got to work. The rocks of Villefranche are copper with streaks of
brown-gray that change in depth of color as the sunlight changes in
intensity. Water and rocks are not afraid to compete with flowers and
trees and mountain shades for the Artist's attention. Villefranche as
a maritime picture wins. And yet foliage and flora are no mean rivals.
Turning the point of Montboron from Nice has brought you from the
climate where many southland growths are exotic to the beginning of the
tropical portion of the Riviera which extends