Identifier: unfrequentedfran00bethuoft (find matches)
Title: Unfrequented France by river and mead and town
Year: 1910 (1910s)
Authors: Betham-Edwards, Matilda, 1836-1919
Subjects: France -- Description and travel
Publisher: London, Chapman
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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wheels. But the retrospection makes one giddy.The least accident or mishap, contingencies notdwelt upon whilst jogging on delightfully under abright sky, might, or rather must, here end in atragedy. By and by, the prospect becomes inexpressiblygrand, till the impression of magnificence culminatesas our road begins literally to drop down uponSt. £nimie, as yet invisible. Our journey mustnow be compared to the descent from cloudlandin a balloon. Meantime, the stupendous panoramaof dark, superbly outlined mountain-wall closes in.We seem to have reached the limit of the world.Before us—Titanic rampart—rises the grand CausseMejean, now seen for the first time; around, foldupon fold, are the curved heights of Sauveterre,the nearer slopes bright green with sunny patches,the remoter purply black. It is a wondrous spectacle—wall upon wall oflofty limestone, making what seems an impenetrablebarrier, closing around us, threatening to shut outthe very heavens; at our feet an ever-narrowing
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5 £ « w H FROM MENDE TO ST. fiNIMIE 121 mountain pass or valley, the shelves of the rockrunning vertically down. When at last from our dizzy height our driverbids us look down, we discern the grey roofs ofSt. Enimie wedged between the congregated escarp-ments far below, the little town lying immediatelyunder our feet, as the streets around our St. Paulswhen viewed from the dome. We say to ourselveswe can never get there. The feat of descendingthose perpendicular cliffs seems impossible. It doesnot do to contemplate the road we have to take,winding like a ribbon round the upright shafts of theCausse. Follow it we must. We are high abovethe inhabited world, up in the clouds; there isnothing to do but descend as best we can; so we trustto our good driver and steady horses, obliged tofollow the sharply winding road at walking pace.And bit by bit—how we dont know—the horizontalzigzag is accomplished. We are down at last! How can I describe the unimaginable picturesque-ness of this li

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