FRANCE WORKS AND SMILES.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LI, Issue 16918, 24 December 1925, Page 11

FRANCE WORKS AND SMILES.

1 have jiififc returned from a. threo-tbousnnd-mile motor-car tour of France, says a writer in the Daily Express. What struck me most was to find there what we do not seem to note here, that is, an air of general happiness, a “joie dei viwe”, broadly expressed on the faces of the inhabitants, whether they belong to the devastated areas or to the mort favored provinces of the centre or the south. t This is the result of work, of the hard work of a people brought up from in fancy with the idea of taking an interest in the soil, in the field which has been their property since the revolution. Meet French families own some land and, in the ea.se of other smaller estates, the whole household, men. women and children, toil right through the week, including Sundays, to make it yield its utmost. From the battlefield region to the wine country in the south, from Brttany to the centre, an extraordinary activity is to be seen everywhere. I happened to be round Narbonne and Montpellier during the gathering of the grapes. The fields were full of grapi pickers emptying their baskets into the enormous vat? which teams of yellow oxen were carrying away to the wine press houses. Work was constant, uninterrupted, ,t T fopnd it : n other provinces where ploughing was in progress nr where the harvest was being stacked. All war accompanied with songs, good temper, and that air of general happiness. The same impression prevailed in the former war zone, where a most wonderful task Ins been accomplished by the peasants of both sexos in bringing back to cultivation ground torn up by explosives and scattered with shells, and barbed wire.,. ' “LET ; US.FORGET.” Along the familiar old British front brand new villages have in many cases sprung up, the old lines of trenches have disappeared, and, if it were not for the . numerous cemeteries or war monuments to be seen every few miles, one could-hardly believe this part of France, to have been once the scene of such ghastly carnage. For one who saw in 1914 the original and picturesque villages, those that are now standing in. their plate give, however, a painlul impression of cheapness, with their brick houses all too red and too raw, intermingled with army huts still inhabited by the poorer members of the community. At the entrance to Bapaiune stands now a. re-built cafe with the sign“A la Unite,” which can be interpreted as moaning: ’‘Let us forget the bad days of the past- and think gaily of the future!" This symbol may, perhaps, explain the spirit with which Fiance is, rising from her ruins. In the larger towns, such as Arras, Rheims, or Verdun, the reconstruction is far from being as complete as that oi the villages, and they still bear to-day the marks of Uerman vandalism. Cathedrals and churches remain in most cases unrepaired, their temporary patching making it all the more noticeable. A trip through the Alps along the wonderful road that leads from Grenoble to Nice, passing the Cols tin I.autarct, de Vatrs, and de la Cayolle, or in the Pyrenees to the celebrated Cirque de Ciavarnie, is not only wonderful from the purely spectacular point of view. The most important water chutes have been mastered, electrical plants have been built here and there and the power is distributed miles away to the towns and villages. Tramways and railways are propelled by electricity, and not one ounce of coal is used.