at Villa Félicie
Alpes Maritimes
France
Feb 17th 1910
My dear Kathleen,
It was very nice getting your letter soon after our arrival here & I am very glad to hear about the house & hope it will prove satisfactory in every way. I am sorry I put you to the expense of 2½ by not letting you know sooner what day we were going, but last week was rather a rush, & besides though the tickets were sent from Cooks, they didn’t exactly come till Sat, till when we were not certain about getting seats in the P.L.M. express as there is a great rush to the Riviera just now. However Monday is not a crowded day so we got them all right. I was glad to have Sat at Folkestone to see Mary, but of course a week end would have been nicer we could have talked so much more at night – as it was I couldn’t realise it was really good bye, though that was put off till Monday as she promised to come down to the boat. Aunt Lottie could think of little but “Would the certificate come at the time he said? Where could the table knives be? Where had she left her key basket? How much did she owe the milk man? etc etc”. I helped Mary unpack some books & put them in shelves, we had done what shopping I had to do before lunch & before tea we had a walk along the Leas & afterwards Mary saw me off at the station. Sunday afternoon I spent solidly in packing & we left the house at 9 a.m. on Monday. At Folkestone harbour Mary met us & came on to the boat, the boy of course very chatty & friendly with her, she quite liked the look of him I think.
The sea when I first looked at it did not raise my spirits & no sooner were we outside the harbour than I had to retire to the saloon & did not reappear till Boulogne was reached. I felt a base deserter leaving Walter to his father, but it was pretty rough & I have never been as bad on a cross Channel journey as I was this time. The boy succumbed soon after I did & his father bore the brunt, not feeling too happy himself. However we were both all right when we got into the train & had some lunch & a rest. We travelled first class & had a carriage to ourselves to Paris, we got to the Lyon station by the Ceinture & just caught the 7.20 train on which our seats were booked. We nearly lost one of them for a French lady appeared just as we were settling ourselves & said one of the seats was hers, she was very insistent & almost tried to take it by force, but a nice Frenchman in the carriage took our part & finally, with the intervention of the conductor, she was proved to be in the wrong, & disappeared. Then we had some dinner & later on settled down for as much sleep as we could. The boy slept very fairly well & as did I. At sunrise we woke, we were near Marseilles, there had been a white frost & the country looked pretty with the red glow over the white. It was a relief to get out of the stuffy carriage & get a cup of coffee at Marseilles, then look out from the corridor at the scenery which became very pretty especially after Toulon when the line skirts the Mediterranean.
We reached Cannes at 10 o’clock & found Mr Burre & Miss Griffin at the station, we drove up to the villa which is about a mile uphill from the station & I put the boy to bed for a good sleep at once, I didn’t feel very stale myself but after lunch was glad to let Miss Griffin take charge of Walter & have a sleep myself. The boy & I are in a nice large room at the top of the house & from the window there is a fine view after over the town to the sea. It is a large house & stands in the upper part of Cannes known as Le Caunet. We arrived to find the parlour-maid ill & the extra maid they were getting for us did not come till yesterday, so they were rather in the state we often are in at home, waiting chiefly on themselves at table. I was told that first night what time dinner was & was glad to find I was expected to dine with them. Old Mr Burre took in Miss Halloran, a girl who is out here with them & whom I had met when at Ashford, Mr Jack Burre, the soldier, took me in & Mr Richards, Miss Burre, Miss Griffin & Miss Meg making the other couple. I had heard a great deal of Mr Jack Burre, he is Mrs R’s favourite brother & Mr R’s college friend, but I had only just met him once before, he quite comes up to my expectations & seems really very nice. I felt doubtful about sitting in the drawing-room, but solved the difficulty that evening by taking the advice offered me of retiring quite early.
On Wed morning Walter’s temperature was over a hundred so he had to stay in bed, I was afraid at first he had caught cold but when the doctor came to see the parlour-maid he thought it was only a reaction after the journey so I felt relieved. It has been going down steadily ever since, he got up to lunch today but hasn’t been out yet. While he had meals in his room I had mine with “the family” but today saw the first of our meals “a deux” in the school room. I suppose some day I shall resume my normal duties as his governess but I have been for so long his nurse & companion it seems the natural thing now. On Wed afternoon Miss Burre asked me to join the rest of them on a walk up Le Califorine, one of the hills at the north of the town while Miss Griffin sat with Walter. I did enjoy the walk, half an hour or more of climbing up steep stone paths & then on the top a glorious view of the hills lying in a sort of part circle round Cannes, from the Esterels running out to one of the headlands of the bay to the Alpes Maritimes on the Italian frontier, & below them we could see Nice quite clearly.
On Thursday afternoon I went out by myself & explored along by the sea & in the town for a couple of hours. I am continuing this on Friday as it was late when I began it last night. This afternoon I stayed with the boy as the others were all going out, but they are very kind in seeing that I get “out” every day, & this morning I drove with Miss Burre to the town & saw the market then she sent me on for a drive along the sea front while she had an engagement in the town & the carriage called for her on the way back. They have a carriage of their own, so when Walter is well enough I hope we shall get some drives. The servants here are all French except two that they take out with them from Bockhanger, I am glad of the opportunity of speaking French sometimes, one of the English maids gets me sometimes to act as interpreter to one of the French ones when she can’t make them understand her. It must be rather awkward for them. I still feel a little vague about the drawing room business sitting there in the evening I mean – I shouldn’t mind if Mr Richards weren’t there for I don’t think Miss Burre would think me presuming & after all Miss Griffin of course sits there, on Wed evening I was bold & took some work down & sat there but yesterday & today having the very real plea of letters to write I said good night after coffee was brought in & before the men came in & returned to the schoolroom to write.
I really have hardly any time to write just now except in the evening, for in my specified “off” times I must get out for air & exercise & when with Walter it is very hard to do much writing. He is very good on the whole & very affectionate to me. I had a nice letter from Judy today & one from Father, I wonder if he & Ethel will go to Oxford tomorrow. I must enclose a few lines to Arthur.
Much love from May
