Marseilles – July 20th, 1947

This was the first letter that Ian sent to his parents from the South of France. The school party had left London on the sixteenth and from the letter it appears he sent a postcard en route.

Dear Mum and Dad

As you see, I am writing from Marseilles as I thought I might because I don’t quite know when I shall arrive at Tourrettes. Tomorrow we leave Marseilles for Toulon where I believe we shall stop a day only and then we go on to Tourrettes.

Before I tell you what I have been doing I shall speak of the people with whom I find myself. Jean Giraud is a month or so younger than me and we get on very well together. He is quite different to Michel. He is an excellent companion and we always have plenty to talk about. We are as you know stopping with the family of his cousin. These people could not be nicer, especially Mme Andrieu and as I said in my card, they spoil me dreadfully. Jean’s cousins – Jean and Robert – are both very friendly and indeed the whole family seems to put itself out to satisfy my least need – it would be impossible to meet with more sympathetic people – even in France. M Andrieu has this minute returned (he is away all the week) with his face rather mauled after a bicycle accident but he is ______ other Frenchman that I have met so far.

Now to tell you a little about my day. I get up about half-past seven but Jean and Robert don’t get up until eight-o-clock or a little after. The French are not such early risers as I had expected (though of course those – like Mme Andrieu and Jean Andrieu – who go out to work get up rather earlier.) About quarter past eight we have breakfast which consists of a large bowl of milky coffee with toast floating in it. It is quite sufficient for me but I have no doubt that Dad would find it a little frugal. About ten or half we go out for a short trip somewhere – yesterday we went swimming in the Med (very nice) and the day before we went round one or two of the big shops (very expensive). We return for lunch at about half-past twelve.

After that there is the ‘sieste’ during which one sleeps because it is too hot to do anything else. Having awoken from the siesta at about four o’clock they make me a cup of tea although nobody else in the house likes it. This tea is drunk without milk but with sugar and is most refreshing. About half-past four we set out on our afternoon excursion which is usually much longer than that of the morning – we don’t return until about eight o’clock. About nine we sit down to supper which lasts until getting on for half-past ten and we talk the whole time and even afterwards up to about eleven when we start to go to bed.

I am surprised at the ease with which I have taken to French food. It is mostly rather highly seasoned but there is not so much garlic as I had expected. What I like especially is the amount of wine which one drinks – between us we drink a whole bottle of Castille at each meal.

The journey as far as Paris was both comfortable and interesting. After Paris it was only interesting. We crossed Paris by bus and saw quite a few of the famous buildings. We had a horrible time at the Gare de Lyon looking for our train but finally we found it and we installed ourselves fairly comfortably but I am afraid that we didn’t sleep very much. We spent thirteen very long hours in that train and towards the end I began to think that we would never get to Marseilles but we did and I found John without……………..(whole section missing, but the next day it seems they probably drove along the Corniche.) In the afternoon we visited the Church of St. Victor under which are the catacombs containing the first Christian church in France – circa 100 AD. Yeaterday we went swimming in the morning and in the afternoon we took the boat for the Chateau d’If, the island prison made famous by Dumas in “The Count of Monte Cristo”. Other famous prisoners include The Man in the Iron Mask and Count Mirabeau. Before arriving at the Chateau we went around the main port.

(The concluding paragraph of this letter also has a section missing but it seems as though Ian is saying that he has covered all the important things since his arrival and he will fill his parents in on other things when he returns.)

Yours
Ian
PS: I enclose the Ration Books, they were not needed at the Customs.