The day worker, who cares for the vines and superintends the picking of the grapes by the womenfolk and the children, works for two francs fifty centimes per day; but he invariably carries with him to the scene of his labours a couple of cutlets from a young and juicy brebis, or even a poulet rôti, so one may judge from this that his pay is ample for his needs in this land of plenty.

[The Vintage in Touraine]

In the morning he takes his bowl of soup and a cup of white wine, and of course huge hunks of bread, and finally coffee, and on each Sunday he has his rôti à la maison. All this demonstrates the fact that the French peasant is more of a meat eater in these parts than he is commonly thought to be.

Touraine has no peculiar beauties to offer the visitor; there is nothing outré about it to interest one; but, rather, it wins by sheer charm alone, or perhaps a combination of charms and excellencies makes it so truly a delectable land.

The Tourangeaux themselves will tell you, when speaking of Rabelais and Balzac, that it is the land of "haute graisse, féconde et spirituelle." It is all this, and, besides its spirituelle components, it will supply some very real and substantial comforts. It is the Eden of the gourmandiser of such delicacies as truffes, rilettes, and above all, pruneaux, which you get in one form or another at nearly every meal. Most of the good things of life await one here in abundance, with kitchen-gardens and vineyards at every one's back door. Truly Touraine is a land of good living.

Life runs its course in Touraine, "facile et bonne," without any extremes of joy or sorrow, without chimerical desires or infinite despair, and the agreeable sensations of life predominate,—the first essential to real happiness.

Some one has said, and certainly not without reason, that every Frenchman has a touch of Rabelais and of Voltaire in his make-up. This is probably true, for France has never been swept by a wave of puritanism such as has been manifest in most other countries, and le gros rire is still the national philosophy.

In a former day a hearty laugh, or at least an amused cynicism, diverted the mind of the martyr from threatened torture and even violent death. Brinvilliers laughed at those who were to torture her to death, and De la Barre and Danton cracked jokes and improvised puns upon the very edge of their untimely graves.

Touraine has the reputation of being a wonderfully productive field for the book collector, though with books, like many other treasures of a past time, the day has passed when one may "pick up" for two sous a MS. worth as many thousands of francs; but still bargains are even now found, and if one wants great calf-covered tomes, filled with fine old engravings, bearing on the local history of the pays, he can generally find them at all prices here in old Touraine.