Read "The Mediterranean" by Grant Allen online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
In the days of the Doges -- Origin of the name -- The blue bay of Cannes -- Ste. Marguerite and St. Honorat -- Historical associations -- The Rue L'Antibes -- The rock of Monaco -- "Notre Dame de la Roulette" -- From Monte Carlo to Mentone -- San Remo -- A romantic railway.
"Oh, Land of Roses, what bulbul shall sing of thee? " In plain prose, how describe the garden of Europe? The Riviera! Who knows, save he who has been there, the vague sense of delight which the very name recalls to the poor winter exile, banished by frost and cold from the fogs and bronchitis of more northern climes? What visions of gray olives, shimmering silvery in the breeze on terraced mountain slopes! What cataracts of Marshal Niels, falling in rich profusion over gray limestone walls! What aloes and cactuses on what sun-smitten rocks! What picnics in December beneath what cloudless blue skies! But to those who know and appreciate it best, the Riviera is something more than mere scenery and sunshine. It is life, it is health, it is strength, it is rejuvenescence. The return to it in autumn is as the renewal of youth. Its very faults are dear to us, for they are the defects of its virtues.