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Matilda Betham-Edwards - Holidays in Eastern France
the heart of the Jura; and no sooner did I arrive at Lons-le-Saunier than I found myself as much at home
in two charming family circles as if I had known them all my life. Amid the first of these I was
compelled to accept hospitality, and at once took my place at the hospitable family board opposite two
little curly heads, boy and girl; while, an hour or two after my arrival, I was sitting in the old-fashioned
artistically furnished drawing-room of a Franche-Comte Catholic family, father, mother, son and young
married daughter, all welcoming me as an old friend. This was not in the cheerful little town of
Lons-le-Saunier itself, but in a neighbouring village to which I drove at once, for I knew that I had been
expected several days before. Fruits, liqueurs, preserves, cakes, I know not what other good things were
brought out to me, and after an hour or two delightfully spent in music and conversation, I left, promising
to spend a long day with my kind friends before continuing my journey. It is impossible to give any idea
of Franche-Comte hospitality; you are expected to taste of everything, and your pockets are crammed
with the good things you cannot eat.
I had fortunately no experience of hotels here, but a glance I got at the first in the place, when calling
there for letters, was far from inspiring confidence. A detachment of troops was passing through the
town, and large numbers of officers were lodged in the hotel, turning it into a scene of indescribable
confusion. The food is said to be first rate, but the rooms looked dirty and uninviting, and the noise was
enough to drive anyone out of his wits. How refreshing to find myself in this quiet Presbytere on the
outskirts of the town, no noise except the occasional pattering of little feet and happy sound of children's
voices, almost absolute quiet indeed from morning to night! My window looks upon a charming hill
clothed with vineyards, and, immediately underneath, the large straggling garden of the Presbytere. The
little church adjoins the house, and the school is also under the same roof, while the schoolmaster takes
his place as a guest at the family table of the pastor. All is harmony, quiet enjoyment, and peaceful
domestic life.
Ah! what a different thing is the existence of a Catholic priest from that of a Protestant pastor! On the
one side, we find selfishness, sensuality, and enforced isolation from the purifying influences of home
and the domestic affections; a life out of harmony with the holiest instincts of human nature, and by the
force of circumstances, detrimental not only to the individual himself, but to society at large - on the
other, a high standard of social and domestic virtue, a career of persistent self-denial, simplicity, and
dignified obedience to the natural laws and exigencies of society, a life indeed edifying to all, and, by
virtue of its unselfishness, uplifting to the individual. No one who knows French life intimately can fail
to be struck by the comparison between the two, and painful it is to think how the one is the rule, and the
other the exception, in this favoured land of France!
CHAPTER IX. LONS-LE-SAUNIER.
Lons-le-Saunier, capital or chef-lieu of the Department of the Jura is charmingly situated amid
undulating vine-covered hills, westward, stretching the vast plain of La Bresse, eastward and southward,
the Jura range, dimpled heights changing the lofty mountain ranges into distance. The town known to the
Romans as Ledo Salinarius and fortified under their auspices, also a fortified town in the Middle
Ages, is dominated by four hills, conspicuously rising above its undulating environment, and each of
these offers a superb view from the top. My first walk was to the height of Mont-ciel, Mons
Coelius of the Romans, north of the town, and a delightful walk it is, leading us upward between
vineyards to a broad open space planted with fine trees, and sufficiently large to afford camping ground
for soldiers. From this summit we gain a wonderful prospect, vineyard, hill, and valley, with villages
dotted here and there, picturesque mediaeval castles crowning many epochs, and far away the vast plain
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