ce diable de pays : this bewitched country

12. Provence. The southeastem corner of France was called by the Romans Prtruincia Nostra. During the Middle Ages it was govemed by the counts of Provence, but in i486 it was united to the Kingdom of France by Charles VIII. The Provençal language, which retains a doser affinity to the Latin than the French, is the common colloquial language of Languedoc, west of the Rhône, as of Provence east of that river. Indeed, in various dialects it is spoken as far north as the Loire in France, in Northwestern Italy, and in Northeastem Spain. The national characteristics of the two old provinces are also so nearly alike that Daudet uses indifferently the adjectives Pravetiçal and Méridional in speaking of the popular peculiarities of the southem French.

13. la butte Montmartre. A hill, three hundred feet high, on the northem edge of Paris now closely built over.

14. la Maison carrée de Nîmes. The little Roman temple at NSmes, though very well preserved, considering its âge of 1900 years, is only 82 feet long by 40 wide. The cathedral of Notre Dame at Paris, built in the thirteenth century, is more than five times as long as the Maison carrée, and covers about forty times as much ground.