Identifier: francefromseatos00riggrich (find matches)
Title: France from sea to sea
Year: 1913 (1910s)
Authors: Riggs, Arthur Stanley
Subjects: France -- Description and travel
Publisher: New York, McBride, Nast & company
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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ld be a mere gaseouswine. But the story of Reims is by no means the merestory of champagne. The two points that stand outmost clearly are the baptism of Clovis and the ful-filment of the mission of Joan of Arc, in the crowningof that sluggard, Charles VII. Like Amiens, thecity to-day is thorny with detestable chimneys thatveil it with smoke, and indicate its thriving manu-factures. But it is a pleasant enough place, withits broad boulevards enclosing beautiful parks, mod-estly called only public promenades. At the upper end of these promenades is the oldestmonument of past ages in Reims, the Roman Portede Mars, a triple triumphal arch, named after atemple of Mars that once stood near by. FlutedCorinthian columns flank the archways, with theirmutilated carvings—and Roman flutings exercisedconsiderable influence upon subsequent architecturein France. Among the shrubbery and flowers issomething that carries us back in thought still fur-ther than Rome—a bed of papyrus plants from (52)
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CHAMPAGNE AND CHURCHES the sun-steeped banks of Father Nile. How camethey here, in an alien land, and under somber skies?Who knows? Mayhap their feather-dustery pro-genitors brushed the cheek of Rameses himself, ornodded beside the barge where Antony and Cleopatradreamed and let an empire slip. Reims is a city of wide-open spaces. The streets,except for some of those in the very oldest quarter,are as broad as our own, and on every hand thereis ample evidence of intelligent effort to make thecity both beautiful and sanitary. The one thatleads from the railroad station into the heart ofthe town is broad and tree-lined, and the housesproject over the sidewalks on wide, sweeping arcades,a great convenience in the morning to travelers insuch a drippy country as France. In the afternoonthe cafetiers fill the whole arcade with tables andchairs. Then you are glad of the walk outside,between the trees and pillars, at least twenty feetwide, probably nearer thirty. This custom of mon-opolizing t

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