We were guests at the American Ambassador's reception yesterday. His house, just off the Champs Elysées, is furnished with elegance and taste. The gowns worn by both the French and American women were most of them airy creations of lace, many of them gorgeous, all of them graceful and fetching. Lace is the prominent factor in gowns here.
Refreshments were served from a buffet set in one of the drawing-rooms, and gentlemen, instead of ladies, assisted the hostess about the rooms.
BOIS DE VINCENNES
CHÂTEAU D'AMBOISE
The Bois of Vincennes is a park covering some two thousand acres laid out with drives, walks, lakes and islands, and while less frequented than the Bois de Boulogne, it is fully as attractive. Louis IX. hunted in this forest in 1270, but Louis XV. transformed it into a park in 1731.
Fontenay-sous-Bois, an odd little village, is charmingly situated on the edge of these woods. We had taken a great fancy to the petits gâteaux of France, and, happily for us, we found them at Fontenay as good as in Paris. We would stop at the old patisserie to get them, on our way to the Bois, where we went every afternoon to write or to study and to hear the band.
Not far from Fontenay is the antique al fresco theatre of Champigny where the leading actors of France can be seen during the summer months.