Read "The Christmas Kalends of Provence" by Thomas A. Janvier online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
In the early morning a lively clatter rising from the farm-yard came through my open window, along with the sunshine and the crisp freshness of the morning air. My apartment was in the southeast angle of the Chateau, and my bedroom windows -- overlooking the inner court -- commanded the view along the range of the Alpilles to the Luberoun and Mont-Ventour, a pale great opal afloat in waves of clouds; while from the windows of my sitting-room I saw over Mont-Majour and Arles far across the level Camargue to the hazy horizon below which lay the Mediterraenean.
In the court-yard there was more than the ordinary morning commotion of farm life, and the buzz of talk going on at the well and the racing and shouting of a parcel of children all had in it a touch of eagerness and expectancy. While I still was drinking my coffee -- in the excellence and delicate service of which I recognized the friendly hand of Mise Fougueiroun -- there came a knock at my door; and, upon my answer, the Vidame entered -- looking so elate and wearing so blithe an air that he easily might have been mistaken for a frolicsome middle-aged sunbeam.