The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Idler in France, by Marguerite Gardiner

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Title: The Idler in France

Author: Marguerite Gardiner

Release Date: July 28, 2004 [eBook #13044]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE IDLER IN FRANCE***

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THE IDLER IN FRANCE

By MARGUERITE GARDINER, THE COUNTESS OF BLESSINGTON

1841.

CHAPTER I.

NISMES.

I have omitted to notice the route to this place, having formerly
described the greater portion of it. I remarked a considerable
improvement in the different towns we passed through: the people look
cleaner, and an air of business has replaced the stagnation that used
to prevail, except in Marseilles and Toulon, which were always busy
cities.

Nismes surpasses my expectations, although they had been greatly
excited, and amply repays the long _detour_ we have made to visit it.

When I look round on the objects of antiquity that meet my eye on every
side, and above all on the Amphitheatre and _Maison Carree_, I am
forced to admit that Italy has nothing to equal the two last: for if
the Coliseum may be said to surpass the amphitheatre in dimensions, the
wonderful state of preservation of the latter renders it more
interesting; and the _Maison Carree_, it must be allowed, stands
without a competitor. Well might the Abbe Barthelemy, in his _Voyage
d'Anacharsis_, call it the masterpiece of ancient architecture and the
despair of modern!

The antiquities of Nismes have another advantage over those of Italy:
they are kept wholly free from the disgusting _entourage_ that impairs
the effect of the latter; and in examining them in the interior or
exterior, no risk is incurred of encountering aught offensive to the
olfactory nerves, or injurious to the _chaussure_.

We devoted last evening to walking round the town, and so cloudless was
the sky, so genial the air, and so striking the monuments of Roman
splendour, that I could have fancied myself again transported to Italy.

Our inn, the Hotel du Midi, is an excellent o