Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 21, Number 104, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 September 1900 — A Trip to France. [ARTICLE]

A Trip to France.

Louis Josserand of Douglas Co. 111., Who was here Thursday, in company with his son, L. B. Josserand, of east of town, talks entertainingly of his trip to France, from which he bad just returned. He was accompanied by his son Paul, a young man just pf age. They were away nearly 0 weeks, two weeks of which were spent in France. One week was at the scene of Mr. Josserand’s boyhood, a rural region in the Department Cote De’Orr. It is 59 years since Mr. Jcoperand left there, but things are a good deal the same there as when he left. The same old ways of life, the same old houses, mostly, and the same-old tools and methods in farming. In France the farmers do not live on their furme, but in small villages, which occur every few miles, and .from which, they, go every day to work on their farms. House, barn and granery are built side by side, and the villages ffre generally tumble-down, dirty and unpleasant places. The crops are planted, cultivated and harvested by hand. The threshing however is done by threshing machines, but they are much 4iff eren t from what we'have here. The farmers own their own houses and farms, but the farms are usually very small. The wagon roads in France are very fine, being made of broken stone, all broken by hand, and kept in excellent order. The railroads have fine road-beds and tracks, but the cars are about as fine as American freight cars. They are of the plainest furniture, and no closets and no drinking water in them. The passenger fares are a little cheaper than in tins country. Mr. Josserand had some trouble in pioking up his native tongue, which he had not spoken for 40 years but got along fairly well. His son could not speak nor understand a word of Frenob. Mr. Josserand found a sister and various cousins, nephews and nieces in the region of his old home. They spent a week in Paris, and visited the exposition. The only particular in which they thought it exceeded the Chicago world’s fair, was in electrical machinery, which has been developed greatly since 1893.

It was a very pleasant journey across the ocean, both going and coming. There was but little rough weather and neither Mr. "Josserand nor his son wero seasick at all.