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[Page 7]
the most ridiculous bills for damages, imaginary or otherwise.
Wood of course is scarce, and our fellows being pressed for wood, get away with a paling or two at times, but more frequently the eagle eye of Madam catches them. They are friendly enough but very close; and I doubt that they are as poor as their appearance suggests. I refer to the farming people. These villages are built of a most inferior plaster made seemingly of mud and straw, the laths being simply rough pieces of branches and twigs of trees. The outer coating or calcine peels off in great lumps, & the plaster falling reveals the laths and so it stands. The roofs are tiled the gables sag miserably and the whole of some villages look as if the vibration of a single heavy gun, would bring the lot to Earth.
It is a rare thing to see a village house made of brick - sometimes one room is. The only thing of any importance is the Church, which is always, in glaring contrast to the others, a most substanital and even handsome edifice. It reminds me of McCarthy's descriptions of Irish villages in his "Priests and People". The interiors are as a rule neat and clean. They have queer urn-shaped little stoves for burning coal, and the leaf of it always holds the bubbling café pot, which to these French is indispensable. The coffee is nice too. There is no comparison with even a very lowly English or Australian home in point of comfort or affluence. On odd occasions you see a piece of fine old furniture possibly some heirloom. Everything looks old. There is no expansion. I cannot imagine where the young generations of the farmers family is or lives. They must migrate to the cities. Under such condition the French farming industry must have been on the decline. The present of course, with its neglected fields and orchards is no parallel. The village pond is a feature as in England of these little places, as is also the village pump or well, and Cafes, Boissons, or Estiminets [Estaminets] bear the comparison in a lesser light to the English "pub". In each village is usually a small shop or two with absolutely no display, where one might obtain at extortionate prices chocolate and such things.
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