you accused them of it they would repair your
tires without charge! The writer does not know.

From Hanover to Minden the roads improve, and when one actually
strikes the trail of Napoleon he finds the roads better and better.
Napoleon nearly broke up Europe, or saved it--the critics do not
agree, but he was the greatest road-builder since the Romans.

Finally, crossing the Rhine at Cologne and passing through Belgium,
one enters France by the valley of the Meuse.

One of the most remarkable tours was that undertaken in 1904 by
Georges Cormier, in a tiny six horse-power De Dion Populaire. He left
the Automobile Club de France in mid-October for Sens, his first
stop, 101 kilometres from Paris. His route thenceforth was by Dijon,
Les Rousses, and the Col de la Faucille, whence he reached Geneva,
after crossing the Swiss frontier, in a torrential rain.

From Geneva he reentered France by the Pont de la Caille, then to
Aiguebelle and St. Jeanne de Maurienne, where the women wear the most
theatrical picturesque costumes to be seen in France.

After passing Modane and Lanslebourg he followed the ascent of Mont
Cenis for ten kilometres before he reached the summit of the pass.
Within three kilometres he struck the snow-line, and the falling snow
continued to the summit. Here he found two _douaniers_ and two
_gendarmes_, who appeared glad enough to have the monotony of their
lonely vigil relieved by the advent of an automobile, quite unlooked
for at this season of the year.

The descent to Susa and the great plain of the Po was long and
dangerous. It is sixty-two kilometres from Modane to Susa, either
up-hill or down-hill, with the descent by far the longest. It is one
of the most enjoyable routes between France and Italy. Once on the
Italian side the whole climatic aspect of things changes. The towns
are highly interesting whenever met with, and the panoramas superb,
but there is a marked absence of that active life of the fields, of
cattle and human labourers that one remarks in France.

From Turin the route of this energetic little car passed Plaisance,
crossed the Appenines between Bologna and Florence, and so to Venice,
or rather to Mestre, where the car was put in a garage while the
conductor paid his respects to the Queen of the Adriatic.

From Mestre the route lay by Udine, Pontebba, Pontafel, Villac
Judenburg, and Murzzuschlag, through Styria to Vienna, with the
roadways continually falling off in excellence.