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Matilda Betham-Edwards - Holidays in Eastern France
during the general Exhibition at Hyde Park in 1862, many Frenchmen brought home, as English
curiosities, the elegantly carved pipes of St. Claude! The United States of America also import great
quantities of these pipes. In the last American war, there was hardly a soldier who did not possess a pipe
manufactured in the little city in the Jura mountains. There is also another branch of industry more
fascinating still, which is peculiar to St. Claude and the neighbouring village of Septmoncel; but,
perhaps, I am indiscreet in speaking of it, so dire is the temptation it holds out to the traveller. As you
stroll along these quiet streets, your eyes are attracted here and there by open boxes of what appears, at
first sight, to be large beads, but which are in reality gems and precious stones; amethysts, emeralds,
sapphires, topazes, and diamonds, lie here in dazzling little heaps, and if you are a connoisseur in such
matters, and have not spent all your money on the way, you may carry home with you one of the most
delightful of all souvenirs to be set at pleasure. Diamond polishing and gem-cutting are largely carried on
here, but form, more especially, the industry of Septmoncel, a little village in the mountains, a few miles
distant from St. Claude. Several thousand souls depend for daily bread on this delicate occupation, which
none know how long has been peculiar to the inhabitants of Septmoncel, and their monopoly is only
rivalled by the diamond polishers of Amsterdam. These ateliers are well worth visiting. Besides
diamonds and precious stones, rock crystal, and various kinds of imitations, and paste jewellery are here
worked up; also jasper, agate, malachite, cornelian, lapis-lazuli, jet, &c. The work is done by the piece,
and the whole family of the lapidary is generally employed.
A journey of political propaganda had just been accomplished in these mountain regions, and the
well-known writer Jean Mace, accompanied by some leading Republicans, among these Victor Poupin,
editor of the useful little series of works called L'Instruction Republicaine and La Bibliotheque
Democratique. At St. Claude the occasion was turned into a general fete; the place was decorated with
tri-coloured flags, a banquet was held, and the whole proceedings passed off to the satisfaction of all but
the cures. In one of the little mountain towns, the cure preached in the pulpit against the sous-prefet and
his wife, because, upon one of these occasions, before taking part in the Republican fete, they did not
attend mass.
Travelling in the Jura will, doubtless, one day be made easy and pleasant, and, perhaps, become the
fashion. As it is, in spite of the glorious weather, no tourist is seen here, and the diligence to Nantua was
almost empty. It is a superb drive of five or six hours by the valley of the Bienne and Oyonnaz, a little
town which is the seat of an important comb-manufactory. Keeping by the river, here so intensely clear
that every pebble may be seen in the water, we gradually quit the severer characteristics of the Jura for its
milder and more smiling aspects. Traversing a savage gorge, we soon come to the marble quarries of
Chassal and Molinges, also, at the former place, ochre quarries. The red and yellow marbles of the Jura,
so richly veined and ornamental, will, doubtless, constitute a great source of wealth in the Department as
soon as there are improved means of transport. In that rich marble region, we find only box trees and
other dwarf shrubs, with abundance of romantic little cascades, grottoes, rivulets, and mountain springs.
All this bit of country, indeed, is most interesting, picturesquely, industrially, and geologically, and on
this perfect day, the second of October, every feature is beautified by the weather; large cumuli dropping
violet shadows on the hills, deep ravines showing intensest purple, golden mists veiling the verdant
valleys. We are soon in a pastoral country, and, as we pass chalets perched on some far off ridge, little
girls run down from the mountain sides with letters in their hands, which the conductor drops into his
little box attached to the diligence. We are, in fact, the travelling post-office. How laborious the life of
the peasant-farmer is here, we may judge from the hard work being done by the women and girls. In
some cases, they guide the team whilst the man behind holds the plough, in others they are digging up
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