Arcadia Discussion Zone

Chapter I

In which the main character of this story
is not presented to the reader.



hen both went down into this station - train from Paris to the Mediterranean - Marcel Lornans, addressing Taconnat Jean, said:

"What shall we do, please, until the departure of the ship? ...

- Nothing, 'said Jean Taconnat.

- However, to rely on Traveller's Guide , this is a city curious, although it is not of great antiquity, since it is after the creation of the harbor, the terminus of the canal of Languedoc, had Louis XIV ...

- And perhaps that Louis XIV was more useful for the duration of his reign! Jean replied Taconnat. No doubt, the great king foresaw that we would come we embark today, April 27, 1885 ...

- So be serious, John, and do not forget that the South can hear us! What seems to me wise, is to visit this, since we are in this, its ponds, canals, ferry terminal, twelve miles of docks, promenade watered by the clear waters of an aqueduct ...

- Have you finished, Marcel, to recite the Joanne? ...

- A city, Marcel continued Lornans, which could have been a Venice ...

- And who was content to be a little Marseilles! Jean replied Taconnat.

- As you say, my dear Jean, the rival of the beautiful Provençal town after her, the first free port in the Mediterranean, which exports wine, salt, water spirits, oils, chemicals ...

- And that matters, 'replied Jean Taconnat turning his head, the bores of your kind ...

- And also of raw hides, wool of La Plata, flour, fruits, cod, staves, metal ...

- Enough ... enough! cried the young man, eager to escape the cataract information that fell from the lips of his friend.

- Two one hundred seventy-three thousand tons at the entrance and two hundred thirty-five miles to the exit, said the ruthless Marcel Lornans, not to mention his workshops for salting anchovies and sardines, its salt that produce annually from 12 to 14,000 tonnes, of its cooperage so important that it occupies two thousand workers and produces two hundred thousand barrels ...

- Where I wish you were once contained two hundred thousand, my verbose friend And, in good faith, Marcel, what all this superior industrial and commercial might it affect two brave boys on their way to Oran, with the intent to engage in the seventh hunter in Africa? ...

- Everything is worth a trip, even what is not said ... Marcel Lornans.

- And is there enough cotton to this so we can cover their ears? ...

- We ask as we walked.

- The Argeles in two hours, observed Jean Taconnat and, in my opinion, it is best to go on board of Argeles ! "

And maybe he was right. In two hours, what likelihood that one could visit this ever-growing city - at least with some profit? He would have had to go to the Thau lagoon, near the gray after which it is built, climb the mountain limestone, isolated between the pond and the sea, the Pillar of St. Clair to the side where the city is arranged like an amphitheater, and pine plantations reforestation in the near future. Deserves does not stop the tourists for a few days, the sea capital of South Western, which communicates with the ocean by the Canal du Midi, with the inside of the canal of Beaucaire, and two lines railway, one by Bordeaux, the other by the center, connected to the heart of France?

Marcel Lornans, however, insisted no longer, and he followed John obediently Taconnat that preceded a commission pushing the cart with the luggage.

Jules Verne? Already done this.

If my memory serves me correct a character in the book is called Bugarach.

ARINGAROSA

Thanks for the Link Rain