Mary Browne -- 28 juli 1821

• Mary Browne (1807-1833) was een Engels meisje dat in 1821 met haar ouders door Frankrijk reisde, en toen een reisdagboek bijhield, waarbij ze ook tekeningen maakte.

 TOADSTOOLS, ETC. July 28th. — This was an excessively rainy day; we found ten toadstools [paddestoelen] in Catherine's room. There were several people dining here; there were fires in the rooms, which everybody was glad to get near. It was wet, disagreeable weather. We were all waiting eagerly to go home; the days seemed like weeks. To make them appear shorter, I made a list of all the days till the time we were to go home, and I scratched out one each day. This day was Nannette's fête; she went to a Dutch frow (a German woman), who gave her a nosegay [boeketje].

BELLE VUE July 29th. — We drove out this evening to Belle Vue. It was a fine evening. We saw a man standing before his door watering some boxes full of mushrooms. At Belle Vue we went through a house where we had a very fine view of Paris, the Seine and St. Cloud. We looked at a vineyard; there were no grapes on the vines there. We heard that the bad season had injured them.

PRIESTS WITH HOST—CORPSE, ETC. July 30th. — As we were walking out, we saw some priests carrying the host to a sick person across the street. A boy in red and white walked first, carrying a lantern on the top of a stick; next went another boy carrying a cross. After him two men in scarlet holding a little red canopy over the priest who carried the host. The sick man died next day. The servants saw the body laid out in the porte cochère with a vessel of holy water and a ladle beside it; every person that went past took a ladle full of holy water and sprinkled the corpse with it.

VILLE D'AVRY August 4th. — We drove out this evening to Ville d'Avry. This drive is the prettiest I saw about Versailles; there are woody banks and paths, more like England. It was late when we reached the village, but there was a clear, bright moon; and a woody hill with a house on the top, looked exceedingly pretty in the moonlight. There was also a house under a woody bank covered with vines; and a man was standing on a ladder pruning them. This place is beautiful; more like what I had imagined France. We got out of the carriage to see it plainer.