the afternoon cleaning up, eating
fruit purchased from peddlers, and selling all kinds of little trinkets
to the S. O. S. men as German souvenirs, and explaining to them who "won
the war." In the evening we were given passes into Marseilles, good
until midnight. Some went to the theatre staging a burlesque show, which
was very similar to an American show. Others went around the town, to
the water front, and sampled all of the fruits available, none of which
are as good as the fruits which can be procured in American cities.
However, we found Marseilles a cosmopolitan city, both in regard to
civilians and soldiers. The main streets were very much like the streets
of an American city.
Early in the afternoon of October 31st we were marched to the
ambulances, and busied ourselves looking over the machines preparing for
the start. During the evening we looked around the immediate vicinity of
the Motor Park and sampled the vintage of southern France.
At 8:00 A. M., on November 1st, the convoy of 29 ambulances left the
park in a gentle shower, but before traveling very far it became a
regular cloudburst, with a strong wind. The first day's drive was over
very good roads, in a narrow valley, with high, rocky hills and peaks in
the distance and an occasional village at the foot of the hills. We
stopped the first night just outside of St. Aminol, a very small
village, and being the first American soldiers who had stopped near
there, we were enthusiastically received by the mademoiselles, and
invited to visit the town.
During the next day we passed through Avignon, where we were given
flowers by French children. We crossed several suspension bridges over
streams flowing into the Rhone River, and drove for miles through
vineyards, with their beautiful red and yellow leaves. We saw many wine
presses, most of which were operated by women, in fact a greater part of
the manual labor was done by the women. We stopped for the night near
Valence, a city of many narrow crooked streets, beautiful squares and
fountains. We saw there many patterns of Val lace.
Leaving Valence at 7 A. M. November 3rd, we passed through St. Symphone
on a market day. The farm products and animals were lined up along the
street; vegetables piled on the sidewalk, while the pigs, geese and
calves were in excelsior-lined crates and baskets. We arrived at Lyons
in the afternoon and drove down one of the main streets--and it was
agreed by all that they had ne
|