NEW ZEALAND ABROAD

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 7, 8 July 1922, Page 16

NEW ZEALAND ABROAD

AN INTERESTING LETTER

The following . interesting_ letter, is from a Wellington girl, who is enjoying a specially delightful "travelogue." I am just back- in France again after the Easter holidays. I set out a fortnight ago, and met an English girl at Toulouse. We went together first to Pan, where there is 'a very fine old chateau of Henry IV. and a magnificent view of. the Pyrenees. From there we went td Lourdes—the Catholic place of pilgrimage of people from all over the world. It is a most curious place—a compound -of tinsel and real beauty. _ It seems that fifty years ago a peasant girl, Bernadette Soubirous, bad visions of the Virgin in a grotto, and asked the priests to build a shrine. ■ They did so, and people came with- all sorts of ailments, bathed in the water, and were cured. The. two churches of the grotto are in beautiful Gothic style _on the outside, but are spoiled on the inside by all sorts of queer things, such as banners, wooden legs, crutches, eyes, etc. Thence we went to Cauterets and the Cirque de Gavamie —right in the heart of the Pyrenees. The Cirque is a huge snow-clad amphitheatre of mountains with a Spanish village on the saddle. Near it is the Bretoh de Roland, which the Paladin is supposed to have made with his. sword tDurandhal.. From there we went to Bagneres de Bigorre and Foix —both villages in the Pyreflbes—and finally to Carcassonne. Do you remember it in W. J. Locke's "Adventures of Aristide Pujol"? It is a wonderful Moyen Age doubly fortified city, with parts of the fortifications Roman and parts Visigoth. At Cerbero we met a party of French people from the Syndict , d'lnitiative, and went with . them to Spain. Tlie six days in Spain were wonderfully arranged. We paid 350 francs—stayed at' the best hotels, had all our amusements, even the tiniest expenses, paid, and were entertained lavishly. Considering Spanish hotels— second-rate ones—are £1 a day, I don't yet know how tho president of the Syndicate managed it. The first night (Good Friday) we stayed at Fiqueras, and saw a curious religious procession of monks and choir boys with huge candles and with tableaux representing "The way of the Cross." On our first night at Barcelona we were serenaded (the Fete of Caramellas) by the choir of Spanish students with glorious voices. At midnight all the choirs massed at tho Place de l'Hotel de Ville and sang love songs together.

In Spain also we went to a bull fight. It was a wonderful mise-en.-scene—almost as if a book were coming true, but the reality was crudely horrible. The Spanish crowd, however, was a great study. It certainly is the Latin race with a strong dash of the wild Moorish type.

Barcelona is a beautiful city, with glorious boulevards or ramblas v with huge avenues of plane trees and rows of flower stalls among-them. The roses and carnations there were exquisite, and very cheap. Three huge bunches for sixpence; a big bag of oranges for the same amount of money. All the animation of Barcelona begins at 10 p.m., and continues until 2 a.m. Theatres and cinemas begin at 10 or 10.30.

We proceeded also to Mont Serrat, where there are the most curious perpendicular rocks I've ever seen. There the Benedictine monks make the liqueur Benedict. . .

We went also to Tarragona, and were entertained at the same time as the Belgian Consul for Spain, with great ceremony. At Tarragona there are the remains of the famous Roman city, and even old Celtiberian walls. At Oerona we were once more entertained. The president of the Syndicate was an old Professor of Latin who had been turned out for something political. He fixed me with his glittering eye,, and for solid hours, while we saw cathedrals, renaissance courts, and Moorish remains, he talked Latin to me, and made .me dig up fragments of an ancient knowledge to answer him. Tlie only Latin thing that ever remains in my mind is "Odi profauum vulgus" and about six lines of Vigil. All that part of Spain seemed to be expecting a revolution,: for there were armed soldiers everywhere.