la noire nuit, dialectal for la nuit noire

7. voyez-vous = vous voyez. French parenthetical sentences generally hâve the form of a question.

11. Tarascon, a Southern French city made famous ail over the world by Daudet’s novel: Tartarin de Tarascon. — Tout beau, tout nouveau! = ce qui est nouveau , est beau. Cf. the English proverb: “ A new broom always sweeps clean.”