Grand Tour 1932

[Letter 11] Hotel Victoria, Cannes, FRANCE December 15, 32 Dear Folks, These last two weeks have been the quietest we have had since we started our trip. On many of the days the skies were gray; occasionally it rained. We therefore did not undertake the trips we had in view. Several times I went down to the harbor and made use of my watercolors. Dora took a trip to Nice to reserve rooms for our homeward trip early in April. Being unencumbered by Marcus and me, she "did" the city thoroughly. The straight, tree-lined Avenue de la Victoire is crowded with people. Window-shopping is delightful -- and safe. Another day Dora accompanied three old ladies, fine old British specimens, to Monte Carlo . No, they did not go near the Casino. They went to reserve rooms (for the three old ladies) who are going there after Christmas. Later they will move on to Menton. The run from Cannes to Nice is nothing wonderful, but from Nice to Monte Carlo it is truly marvellous, says Dora. One pass...

[Letter 8] Hotel Victoria, Cannes, FRANCE November 11, 32 Dear Folks We are very comfortably established in our rooms. Dora emptied the bags and the trunk as soon as they arrived. There is a lot of space to put things away, as shown by this floor plan. The larger room is ours, but Marcus has plenty of space, a lovely table with mirror, a bedlight etc. "W" in the diagram means window. His room overlooks a private garden across the street. In several letters I discussed prices in some detail. You understand, of course, that I have no undue interest in such figures, but merely wish to pass along first-hand information which you can give to anyone in need of it. A matter of very divergent opinion was the wisdom of shipping our trunk on to Cannes. The cost was said to be prohibitive. We sent out our trunk from the boat to Cannes by "slow freight". It was claimed about five weeks after it was shipped. The total charges were 230 francs or $9.20. To this should be added del...

[Letter 7] Hotel Victoria CANNES, FRANCE Nov 4, 1932 Dear Folks My last letter would have contained, had there been room, some notes of our visit to the chateau of Fontainebleau . This historic structure is 150 years older than the palace of Versailles. We motored over there after our visit to Millet's cottage. The various salons and chambers we saw were as numerous as they were interesting. There is so much fine workmanship in it, that wonderful things get merely a moment's attention--there is so much else to see. There was a parquet floor made of seventeen different kinds of matched woods. The ceilings in the various rooms were the finest imaginable. They were truly masterpieces of the arts of the joiner, the painter and the gilder. Prior to this big excursion we had had the same lecturer for a morning trip through Paris to see famous buildings and monuments. We got out of the taxi to inspect the Pantheon, Notre Dame etc. We also saw the Jewish section. At Dijon (where I wr...