e walls of one
large room are covered with pictures and sketches given her by her
_chers artistes_."

Brest

This great naval town has better cafes than it has dining or lunching
places; the Cafe Brestois in the Rue de Siam, and the Grand Cafe in the
same street being both good. Besides the restaurants attached to the
Hotels des Voyageurs, Rue de Siam, Continentale, and de France in the
Rue de la Mairie, there are the Restaurant Aury and the Brasserie de la
Marine, both on the Champ de Bataille, but I have no details concerning
them.

Skipping Nantes as being out of the route of the Anglo-Saxon abroad,
though in the Place Grasselin the Francais and the Cambronne both
deserve a word, and the Plages d'Ocean which lie between Nantes and
Bordeaux as being purely French, though Rochefort has a European
reputation for its cheese, and Marennes for its oysters, I step down
from the platform to make room for my co-author A.B., who will take up
the parable as to

Bordeaux

Bordeaux is, of course, the home of claret, and good feeding goes with
good liquor, the combination being essential. The result is that here
you can procure a good dinner with the best of wines, which being
consumed, so to say, on the spot where they have matured, are in
perfection both as to flavour and condition.

The Hotel Restaurant du Chapon Fin, under the management of MM. Dubois
and Mendionde, is perhaps the best in the town. Here an excellent dinner
_a la carte_ is to be had and the service is _tres soignee_. The cellar
comprises the finest wines of the Gironde, Lafite, Haut Brion, Latour,
Margaux Leoville, etc., with Pommery, Mumm, Cliquot as champagnes. But
to my idea, any one asking for champagne at Bordeaux would order a pork
pie at Strasbourg. The Chapon Fin is fairly expensive, but good food and
good Lafite are not given away. The appointments of the hotel are
excellent.

The Cafe de Bordeaux is a more popular establishment with brilliant
decorations, and if you do not wish for an _a la carte_ dinner, you are
provided with a very good "set" _dejeuner_ for 4 francs. Dinner can be
had for 5 francs, with a concert thrown in.

Another good hotel and restaurant with fairly moderate terms is the
Bayonne, also boasting of a fine cellar of wine and service _a la
carte_. In fact many people aver that at the Bayonne one can get as
good if not a better dinner than at any other restaurant in Bordeaux.

The Hotel des Princes et de la Paix has