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Show t ' JiesiinieaS &p'. a . Roman Arch at Orangs In the Rhone Valley. (Prepared by th National Geographic Society, Washington. D. CI IT WAS ovei some of the most varied va-ried and picturesque terrain of Prance, the Valley of the Uhone and the country lying on each side of It that the Ornf Zeppelin fought her way recently, Hnully to find a haven hav-en at the French nuvl airport near Toulon, on l lie edge of the Mediterranean. Mediter-ranean. Of this southeastern region of Frunee, l.ytn g the Interior metropolis. metropo-lis. I.yon might he called the New York of France, a great manufacturing city, its heart on the tongue of land at the continence of two Kient rivers, the Rhone and the Snone, nnd dominated at one side by a tone. lug palisade, on whose very summit rises the monstrous modern Byzantine Church of Four-vlere. Four-vlere. The people Inevitably suggest Americans the benutlful women gowned with taste and restraint; the men broad-shouldered, energetic and alert; the flocks of pretty children well dressed nnd with charming manners, while what one sees of the life of the city Is as spirited and delightfully refreshing re-freshing us the cool floods that sweep past Its long quays. It Is a beautifully arranged city, which has taken full advantage of Its situation. Its twin rivers, spanned by 22 handsome bridges and dotted with view along the great river, 300 feet below, and across the outlying country Is broad and brilliant wide fields under un-der cullvntion, olive orchards and flower-spangled meads that roll upward In gentle slopes toward the grim fort of St Andre, Hint might be a walled city In Itself, and below, opposite the broken brok-en bridge of St Benezct, the former defense tower of Phlllppe-le-Bel. a shaft of l.oney against Hie cloudless sky. But that view pules beside the one from the fort of the gaunt gray nick with Its white palace, that grows and grows us It Is looked upon until It dwarfs Die city and Itself becomes the only object In the greut flat plain a towering tombstone over dead ambitions. King Rent's Castle. Tarascon means unlucky King Rene's benutlful square castle, that clambors up the rocks of the liver buuk, a soft-toned medieval picture. At its feet the smootn green mirror of the Ithone, that has reflected so many a chlvalrlc pageant in Its day, holds up a quivering counterfeit of the stately structure, with every angle smoothed, eery color softened. The view from the great stone bridge is perfect, tin delicate tan of the stones cut clean against the background back-ground of embaying trees and azure overhead. And what a scene at sun- battered public wash-bonls, are lined with superb, tree-shaded quays on all sides. There are miles of other fine streets and many parks nnd squares. Imposing modern commercial and public buildings In no way detract from the interest of the remarkable Cathedral of St. Jean and Its attendant, attend-ant, the incrusled and arcaded Eleventh Elev-enth century Manecnnterle, or Chor. Ister's house or from the quaint Romanesque Ro-manesque Church of St. Martln-d'-Alnny, with Its Inlays of colored stones nnd its tower with ncroterlu. A superb su-perb view from the balconies of the tower of the Fourvlere church sweeps a hundred-mile circle of city nnd plain, fenced In by snowy peaks, among which Mt filnnc Is clearly visible In good weather. On Its southern trip the great dirigible dirig-ible sailed easily over I.yon at grent Sliced, helped by the Southward flow of the Mistral.' the famous wind of the' Ithone valley. Hut or the attempted attempt-ed trip northward, with engines crippled, crip-pled, this same Mistral proved an en eir.y nnd the ship whs sent drifting ROIlthwnrfl fnnp ho 'urn I vin u-na set on the low hills of the opposite shore! Silhouetted black and spectral against the flaming orb that goes down behind its slender, towering donjon keep, the storied castle of Beaucalre pulses egalii with life, and one feels the gentle ghosts of Aucassln and Nlc-olette Nlc-olette hovering about the scene of their romance. . On up the beautiful' Ithone valley the great ship fought 1(3 way past Orange nnd Montlmnr to Valence where the dangerous drift to the southeast began. The danger lay in the nature of this southern region. A very short distance east of the ribbon of the Rhone valley the country rises sharply. This Is the oid province of Dnuphlne which has been called an "Itullnn Switzerland" by the French themselves, them-selves, for It has the sunny skies and rich vegetation of the Mediterranean peninsula nnd the cold, stern, snowcapped snow-capped mountains of the Swiss. The most characteristic feature of lbs province Is Its vivid contrasts; tremendous tre-mendous masses of granite pyramids. reached. ' . Niames and Avignon. In its battle to fly northward the crippled ship first sailed over the Hut Ciiiiiargiie country In the ilelto of the Rhone; then over Nlmes. The latter city Is the most notnide of those in this region a big, lienltliy-mlnded. sprawling city full , of languorous southern fragrance, rich In splendid avenues, and a park liner than any other In provincial France, nnd glorying glory-ing In the finest Itoinau ruins outside Italy Itself. Right through I he smiling, smil-ing, scented heart of the city runs the" little walled stream whose source Is the cool stuing at the foot of Mont ravaller, that feeds the ancient Roman Ro-man hntbs. Every art that man could wield has tollpd tn rmik- ihp nnrk nnri bare and blasted and savagely deso-late; deso-late; long stretches of primeval forest, pines nnd firs of noble girth and height, from among which here and there huge rocks leap up like uncouth animals of another age; smiling pasture pas-ture lands and farms, cut by profound gorges; stormy-looking peaks starred with glaciers; tiny hamlets nestling among the ,ilneg; milky roads nnd sky-brushing sky-brushing sierras of needlelike peaks; deep, Irregular, narrow little gorges, each with its rushing, boiling torrent far down among the contorted rocks of the bottom. The engineering difficulties throughout through-out Pauphine are exceptional. Along the railroad half the scenery Is black tunnels and stinging clouds of cinders. But one cures not a whit for that baths lovely beyond compare hind scape architecture, sculpture, hydra u lie engineering, horticulture, and nil the rest. With Its formal Eighteenth century urns, balustrades, statuary and arrangement, It Is not Roman now In anything save meinoi j ; but It Is perfect. The great, shtiltere.l amphitheater tells more truly of Itoinnn days, with Its terrific masses of masonry and lis suggestion of cruel spurts ; and where two busy streets rrns. among the scanty renin ins of thp form, rises the most brilliant of nil the ruins In Knince, the little "temple of the for tmiate princes of youth." It Is exquisite ex-quisite a Jrwel so rare that not even Its brummagem setting can dim the luster of the fireek spirit that Infuses every detail of It, Roman though It be A little to the northeast lies Avlg non. city of the popes It Juts boldly up from the plain on great Isolated rock, from which springs the huge Fourteenth century papal palace, a wonderful mixture of pilson and fortress for-tress nnd iMaililicial res'deiiee. All about the town of Mia Minny battlement battle-ment ed walls seem entirely appropriate, appropri-ate, and the clattering trolley cars that dart through I lie now always opened gates nn anaolni.nlsm The town Is lively with color, and from the attractive park at'p the rock the wnen me train nursrs rroin mem upon spidery. Inspiring viaducts, and goes slgzagging up or down the mountain side In graceful spirals that deprive one alike of speech and breath. Grenoble Is Beautiful. A little further north tlinn the aren which at one time threatened destruction destruc-tion to the huge airship, but character Islic of the entire region, is Grenoble, superbly placed at the Junction of the Isere nnd the Drac. in an exquisite plain, swept about on every side by range upon range of glorious mountains moun-tains that tower up 10,000 feet. Uto the realm of perpetual snow. Has-tinned, Has-tinned, turreted walls leap picturesquely picturesque-ly up to the forts on the top of the hill on the other side of the river. The Fifteenth century Palace of Justice, wllh its hl(.h-pltched roof, bold dormers, dor-mers, and elegant chimneys. Is said in lie the finest Itennlssance building In the Valley of the Rh wfc. The handsomely hand-somely towered Hotel de Vlile has a very effective formal garden. Indeed. Crenoble blossoms with gar dens, and one of Its tree-decorated avenues runs straight as an arrow's lllght five miles out Into the country to the Drne, where the Seventeenth cent my Hurdle Bridge humps Its back for the leap across the stream, and gives an exquisite picture. In the rough frame of Its arch, of the peaks beyond. |