Letter to Edith Foster Dulles

Paris II 12 276 Boulevard Raspail Paris, France D. June 29 1917 Dear Mother, I think I wrote you that our passports were returned to us in Bordeaux on Wednesday and we were given safe conducts to motor to Paris. Then we finely got the auto and started at three oclock on Saturday. We had another adventure, however. Just 88 we were leaving the city, an old man got off a street car and ran desperately for another. We turned sharply and stopped but hit him a little with the mud guard and he fell over. He picked himself up and started to get on the car but we took him to a drug store and sent him home in a carriage with a policeman. He seemed pretty much dazed and shocked but he was not at all injured. Miss Ely Was driving very slowly. It was extremely unpleasant and made us feel shaky for quite a while. We drove about eighty miles to Angouleme, Saturday, getting there about eight oclock. It is little old town on a hill with a wonderful view over the country from the top. The streets are in tiers it is so steep. Sunday morning we went to Mass before we started. We got off early and had lunch at Poitiers and stopped at Tours for tea. The roads were wonderful and we went along with out stopping at all, so, though we did not go fast we made the trip in very short time. At Amboise we stopped for half an hour to see the Chateau, a part of which is now used by wounded soldiers. It was a lovely drive along the river in the evening. We went along the south bank and saw the little houses built into the side of the hill. It was eight when we got to Blois where we stopped for the night, but because we are an hour ahead it was still light enought to get a look at the chateau and the old concierge let us go into the court, though it was closed; for the right The next day we went through Orleans to Chartres where we took lunch and stopped long enought to see the cathedral. Then we went through Versailles to Neuilly whete we left the automibile and took a taxi to the Hoted Crillon. It was a fine trip up. The country was beautiful and seemed very well cultivated. Everyone was nice to us all the way. We had to take a lot of gas- oline from Bordeaux as it is so hard to get that we did not want to take the time to go to all the officials necessary every time we stopped. It costs about a gollar a gallon and more than that in Paris. If we had not been 80 delayed getting off we would have stopped on the way more, but I got a good idea of French country any way. Tuesday morning we went to the embasyy and saw Ambassador Sharp and Mr Bliss who were both very nice to us. Then we tended to the automibile, which is a Dodge Miss Ely is going to use here in the work. We stopped at the American Ambulance Hospital in Neuilly for a while. One of the interns gave me my last typhoide picquer. The hospital seems wonderfully & equiped but does not seem to be more than half full due to lack of harmony between the directorsand the french. They do wonderful work with jaw cases, and especially difficult things. It ought to be nearer the front. - We then went to call on the Shurtleffs and stayed to dinner. Dr Shurtleff went out with us to look for a place to live and we continued the search Wednesday morning. That afternoon Mr Dresel from the legation in Berne came to see me at the hotel, because Allie had told him to look me up. Thursday I spent the moring at the Vestiare, not doing much work but seeing how some of the things are done. In the afternoon I whet with Miss