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Matilda Betham-Edwards - Holidays in Eastern France
if a breath were only needed to disperse its delicate galleries, hanging arcades, and miniature vaults,
gorgeous painted windows forming the background - jewels flashing through a veil of guipure. English
travellers may be reminded that Shakespeare's favourite hero, Henry V., was married to Katherine of
France in the ancient church of St. Jean at Troyes, now the oldest congeries of different kinds of
architecture. The betrothal took place before the high altar of Troyes Cathedral. Lovers of old stained
glass must visit St. Nizier and other old churches here; all possess some peculiar interest either within or
without.
Troyes - from the standard weight of which we have our Troy weight - is the birth-place of many
illustrious men. Mignard the painter, Girardon, sculptor, whose monument to Richelieu in the church of
the Sorbonne will not fail to be visited by English travellers, and of the famous painter on glass, Linard
Gonthier, who had engraved on his tomb that he awaited the Last Day,
"Sans peur d'etre ecrase."
Among minor accomplishments of the Troyen of to-day, it may be mentioned that nowhere throughout
all France - land par excellence of good washing and clear-starching - is linen got up to such
perfection as at Troyes. The Blanchisserie Troyenne is unhappily an art unknown in England. It
is curious that, much as cleanliness is thought of among ourselves, we are content to wear linen washed
and ironed so execrably as we do. Clean linen in England means one thing, in France another; and no
French maid or waiter would put on the half-washed, half-ironed linen we aristocratic insulars wear so
complacently. Here indeed is a field for female enterprize!
From Troyes to Belfort is a journey best made by night-mail express, as there is little to see on the way;
nor need Belfort - famous for its heroic defence under Danfert, and its rescue from Prussian grasp by the
no less heroic pleadings of Thiers - detain the traveller. It is pleasant to find here, as at Troyes, a Rue
Thiers, and to see Thiers' portrait in every window. If there is one memory universally adored and
respected throughout France, it is that of the "petit bourgeois." No one who gets a glimpse of Belfort with
its double ramparts and commanding position, will wonder at Thiers' pertinacity on the one hand, and
Bismarck's reluctance on the other. Fortunately the "petit bourgeois" gained his point, and the
preservation of Belfort to France was the one drop of comfort in that sea of misery.
CHAPTER IV. AMONG FRENCH PROTESTANTS AT MONTBELIARD
Half-an-hour's railway journey brings me to the quaint little town of Montbeliard in the Department of Le
Doubs, whose friends' friends give me hearty welcome, and I feel in an hour as much at home as if I had
known it all my life. My friends had procured me a little lodging, rather, I should say, a magnificent
appartement, consisting of spacious sitting and bedroom, for which I pay one franc a-day. It must not
be supposed that Montbeliard is wanting in elegancies, or that the march of refinement is not found here.
The fact is, the character of the people is essentially amiable, accommodating, and disinterested, and it
never enters into their heads to ask more for their wares, simply because they could get it, or to make
capital out of strangers. A franc a day is what is paid in these parts by lodgers, chiefly officers, and no
more would be asked of the wealthiest or unwariest. You find the same spirit animating all classes,
tradesmen, hotel-keepers, and others, and doubtless this is to be traced to several causes. In the first
place, Montbeliard is one of the most enlightened, best educated, and most Protestant
departements of all France. Le Doubs, part of the ancient Franche-Comte, is so Protestant, indeed,
that in some towns and villages the Catholics are considerably in the minority, as is even the case still at
Montbeliard.
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