over to the hills of the
Esterel and felt sorry I had neglected them. I thought of past
experiences, and agreed that there was something more to write about
the French end of the Riviera. And then we put our heads together over
a time table, planned to go to Agay by train, and walk on the rest of
the way to Saint-Raphael. If the weather was good, we should climb
Mont Vinaigre, and see the Esterel from its highest point.

"I don't care whether it affords good subjects for Lester or not,"
declared my boss. "I've done the trip, and I know it will be fun--and
remember what Horatio was told!"

Humankind and human habitation had occupied the Artist and myself on
almost every day afield from, Theoule. Of course we had taken in the
scenery, sketched it and spoken about it, but only as a background or
accompaniment. From Cannes to Menton it is the human side of the
Riviera that gets you. Nature is a sort of musical accompaniment to
the song of human activity. Between Cannes and the Italian frontier,
where the railway does not skirt the coast, you have the tramway. It
is with you always, night and day, and makes itself heard at every
curve. (The road is all curves!) As a result of the tramway, or
perhaps as its cause, the Cannes-Menton stretch of the Riviera is
solidly built up. Where the towns do not run into each other, an
unbroken line of villas links them up. It is all the city--you cannot
get away from that.

The road we follow to Frejus was opened in 1903, a gift to the nation
from the initiative and enterprise of the Touring-Club de France. The
building of a tram line was fortunately forbidden. But with the
railway and rapidly-developing use of the automobile, the little
villages of the Esterel coast are being rapidly built up. Around the
cape from Theoule, Le Trayas will soon rival Saint-Raphael as a center
for Esterel excursions. Then we have Antheor, Agay, and Boulouris
before reaching the long and charming villa-covered approach to
Saint-Raphael.

But we do not need to worry yet about what is going to happen. The
blessed fact remains that the Esterel, between Theoule and
Saint-Raphael, is not yet closely populated like the rest of the
Riviera. The tramway has not come. The railway frequently goes out of
sight, if not out of hearing, for a mile or two. You have nature all
by herself, with no houses, no human beings, no human inventions. The
interior of the Esterel is as refreshingly different