Item 04: Walter Bruce Rainsford diary, 3 January 1917-31 December 1917 - Page 95

[Page 95]

a crowd of friends to dinner.

The weather was good practically the whole time with bright summer days. Much milder than the bleak climate of the north.

The people of Orange are of the real southern type, some with dark eyes and olive skins. They speak French (with a very bad accent), Provencal – the old language of the South, and a local patois – a dialect of French, Italian Provincial & slang mixed.

Orange is a base for Salonica and in addition to French troops I saw plenty of Servians and Greeks belonging to Venizelos' National Army as well as a few Russians. The latter, of course, are very unfavourably regarded by everyone in view of the way in which Russia is backing out of the war.

The town has a population of several thousand and is on the main line between Lyon (200 kiloms) and Marseille (150 kiloms). The streets are fairly narrow, plenty of well lighted shops and a busy market place. The cafés are large and covered in with glass. The surrounding country is quite flat. Living is fairly dear although products of the south,