Royal Spain of Today (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: of her perfect sincerity and complete understanding of situations and circumstances. France, Toulouse, March My dear M: We have visited Chenonceaux, which is now owned by a friend of the Infanta, Count Stanislaus de Castellane, and also Langeais, and this morning, when we were all packed and ready to start again on our journey, the Infanta suggested having a photographer take our pictures in marching order. While we were waiting for the development of the plates, to make sure they were satisfactory, we looked over several pretty water- color sketches that had been made by the photographer, and concluded to run over to Chinon and verify his attractive paintings. The view up and down the river from the hill of Chinon is certainly one of the prettiest in France. On the way back we stopped at the Chateau d'Usse. The old woman who showed us about seemed greatly excited when she learned that she was showing the chateau to a Royal Princess of Spain, for it turned out that she was herself Spanish, having come with her mother from Badajoz to France. It was a pleasure to see the beautiful library of the Chateau d'Usse which, to my way of thinking, is by far the most beautiful room of the kind I have ever seen. In one of the salons there hung an excellent portrait of Philip V of Spain, and I asked the Infanta to stand beside it, for the mouth in the painting might have been taken from hers, so strongly are the lines of Bourbon resemblance and characteristics maintained throughout the generations. The Infanta is delighted with the car, and says it runs smoother than any she has been in, and has nicknamed it "My gondola." From Tours the road was very beautiful, and we ran across the lovely Touraine country to Limoges, where we stopped for tea. There we bought photographs of the p...