well
arranged--the most enormous cabbages I ever saw. I think the old
ladies who presided there were doing a flourishing business. I did not
find much to buy--some gray knitted stockings that I thought would be
good for my Mareuil[14] boys and some blue linen blouses with white
embroidery, that all the carters wear, and which the Paris dressmakers
transform into very pretty summer costumes. I bought for myself a
paper bag full of cherries for a few sous, then left the Florians, and
wandered about the streets a little alone. They are generally narrow,
badly paved, with grass growing in the very quiet ones. There are many
large hotels standing well back, entre cour et jardin, the big doors
and gate-ways generally heavy and much ornamented--a great deal of
carving on the facades and cornices, queer heads and beasts. Valognes
has not always been the quiet, dull, little provincial town it is
to-day. It has had its brilliant moment, when all the hotels were
occupied by grands seigneurs, handsome equipages rolled through the
streets, and its society prided itself on its exclusiveness and grand
manner. It used to be said that to rouler carrosse at Valognes was a
titre de noblesse, and the inhabitants considered their town a "petit
Paris." In one of the plays of the time, a marquis, very fashionable
and a well-known courtier, was made to say: "Il faut trois mois de
Valognes pour achever un homme de cour." One can quite imagine "la
grande vie d'autrefois" in the hotel of the Florians. Their garden is
enchanting--quantities of flowers, roses particularly. They have made
two great borders of tall pink rose-bushes, with dwarf palms from
Bordighera planted between, just giving the note of stiffness which
one would expect to find in an old-fashioned garden. On one side is a
large terrace with marble steps and balustrade, and beyond that, half
hidden by a row of fruit-trees, a very good tennis court. We just see
the church-tower at one end of the garden; and it is so quiet one
would never dream there was a town near. The country in every
direction is beautiful--real English lanes, the roads low, high banks
on each side, with hawthorn bushes on top--one drives between thick
green walls. We have made some lovely excursions. They have a big
omnibus with a banquette on top which seats four people, also a place
by the coachman, and two great Norman posters, who go along at a good
steady trot, taking a little gallop occasionally up and down