still _voix de femme_ is a noun-phrase modified by _une;_ cf. _une cour de
caravanserail_ (_70_ 21) 'the court of a caravansary,' _un coin de
mechante route_ (_70_ 28) 'the corner of a wretched road'--_Avignon:_ city
on the Rhone, above Tarascon; famous as the residence of the Popes from
1309 to 1377.

_1_ 6: _devant_: adverb, 'in front'; cf. _derriere_ in this sentence,
_dessus_ _24_ 1, _46_ 12, _depuis_ _56_ 32, _autour_ _79_ 15.

_1_ 8: Savoyards: boys and men from Savoy, southeastern France, are seen
throughout the country exercising such trades as those of bootblacks,
chimney-sweeps, charcoal-venders; cf. note to _74_ 27.--Savoyards
... tete ... leurs boites: cf. note to _29_ 11.

_1_ 10: _Du dehors ... rien_: 'seen from the outside the house seemed
nothing at all,' 'was in no way remarkable'.

_1_ 12: _coquin de sort_: a characteristic Southern oath, lit. 'rascal of
(a) fate' translate 'heavens and earth!' cf. _monstre de sort_ _63_ 27,
_coquin de bon sort_ _68_ 21. For the construction cf. _coquin de lievre_
_4_ 24, _diable d'homme_ _9_ 3. The genitive (_de_ + noun) in these
expressions replaces a noun in apposition/ Cf. Engl. "rascal of a man,"
Latin _scelus viri_; "the city New York," "the city of New York."

[Footnote _1_ 16: _du pays_. i.e. 'native' to that part of Europe; cf. _au
pays_ _64_ 27, _du cru_ _26_ 6.]

_1_ 17: _rien que_: 'nothing but'; i.e. _il n'y avait rien que_. Cf. _37_
10, and notes to _13_ 1,_4_ 23.--plantes exotiques: a few lines farther
on, our author explains that these exotic plants were, of course, not of
full natural size. The baobab in its native African home is only 40-70
feet in height, but its trunk is sometimes 30 feet in diameter. In _17_
20-21 we are given to understand that Tartarin's baobab, the most admired
of his botanical rarities, is perhaps after all nothing but a turnip, and
we are led to suspect that some of the others are not what they pretend to
be. If we are gifted with even a small portion of the imagination
possessed by Tartarin and his fellow-townsmen, we can understand how a
turnip may after a while come really to be a baobab; if we have not
sufficient imagination to admit this possibility, we shall not be able to
appreciate the story of the life and adventures of Tartarin de Tarascon.

_2_ 2: _a se croire ... Afrique_: '(enough) to (make one) believe himself
in the very heart of (cf. _5_ 7) Africa.' a = _assez pour_; cf. _c'est a
mourir de rire_, 'it'