SUMMARY
AVERAGE DAILY COST OF MOTORING TOR FOUR PERSONS, 1914
| Average daily cost of dinner, lodging, and breakfast | 22 francs ($4.40) | |
| Average daily cost of gasoline and oil | 8 francs ( 1.60) | |
| Average daily cost of roadside luncheon | 4 francs ( | .80) |
| Average daily cost of tips at hotel | 3 francs ( | .60) |
| Average daily cost for sight-seeing | 3 francs ( | .60) |
| ————————- | ||
| Total | 40 francs ($8.00) |
That was reasonable motor travel, and our eight dollars bought as much daily happiness as any party of four is likely to find in this old world.[15]
Another thing I wish to record in this chapter is the absolute squareness we found everywhere. At no hotel was there the slightest attempt to misrepresent, to ring in extras, to encourage side-adventures in the matter of wines or anything of the sort. We had been led to believe that the motorist was regarded as fair game for the continental innkeeper. Possibly there were localities where this was true, but I am doubtful. Neither did the attendants gather hungrily around at parting. More than once I was obliged to hunt up our waitress, or to leave her tip with the girl or man who brought the bags. The conclusion grew that if the motorist is robbed and crucified in Europe, as in the beginning a friend had prophesied we should be, it is mainly because he robs and crucifies himself.
Chapter XVIII
THE ROAD TO CHERBOURG
It is easy enough to get into almost any town or city, but it is different when you start to leave it. All roads lead to Rome, but there is only here and there one that leads out of it. With the best map in the world you can go wrong.
We worked our way out of Paris by the Bois de Boulogne, but we had to call on all sorts of persons for information before we were really in the open fields once more. A handsome young officer riding in the Bois gave us a good supply. He was one of the most polite persons I ever met; also, the most loquacious. The sum of what he told us was to take the first turn to the right, but he told it to us for fully five minutes, with all the variations and embroideries of a young and lively fancy that likes to hear itself in operation. He explained how the scenery would look when we had turned to the right; also how it would continue to look when there was no longer a necessity of turning in either direction and what the country would be in that open land beyond the Bois. On the slightest provocation I think he would have ridden with us, even into Cherbourg. He was a boon, nevertheless, and we were truly grateful.