But the best fruit
is that which is gathered in April and May. Hieres is a village of about
five thousand inhabitants, at the foot of a mountain, which covers it
from the north, and from which extends a plain of two or three miles to
the sea-shore. It has no port. Here are palm trees twenty or thirty feet
high, but they bear no fruit. There is also a botanical garden kept by
the King. Considerable salt-ponds here. Hieres is six miles from the
public road. It is built on a narrow spur of the mountain. The streets
in every direction are steep, in steps of stairs, and about eight feet
wide. No carriage of any kind can enter it. The wealthier inhabitants
use _chaises a porteurs_. But there are few wealthy, the bulk of the
inhabitants being laborers of the earth. At a league's distance in the
sea is an island, on which is the Chateau de Geans, belonging to the
Marquis de Pontoives: there is a causeway leading to it. The cold of the
last November killed the leaves of a great number of the orange-trees,
and some of the trees themselves.
From Hieres to _Cuers, Pignans, Luc_, is mostly a plain, with mountains
on each hand at a mile or two distance.
Pages:
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292