Toulon – July 24th, 1947

Ian has now moved on to Toulon and I’ll let him tell the story.

Dear Mum and Dad

Please forgive this wretched letter but the circumstances under which I write are not of the most favourable; it is the small hours of Thursday morning and I have eaten far too much supper and because of that and the heat I cannot sleep, and there is no ink in my pen.

Since I last wrote you I have spent two whole days and an evening in Toulon. Toulon is of very much the same character as Portsmouth, it being a big naval port. The evening of my arrival – after a somewhat hectic journey – we went for a short walk round the port and watched the docking of an American vessel which had come for bauxite – aluminium ore. The next day (Tuesday) we – Jean, myself and the part of the Vial family with whom we are staying – went for a walk round Toulon and the neighbouring district of Le Mourillon. In the afternoon we went bathing at a town two bus rides off. The evening I spent, as usual, eating and talking. Yesterday, in the morning, we played ping-pong for a short while and after that we went bathing once more – I am now getting quite brown, but painlessly luckily. In the afternoon we went to the pictures and saw an English film – Journey Together – which had a French soundtrack. Although yesterday was the hottest day of my stay it was nice and cool in the cinema and I understand that it is the custom in France – at my sortie with J. Giraud – to take refuge in the pictures when it is excessively hot elsewhere. In the evening we – that is Jean G, myself and Jean Vial – went out to dinner with some distant relations of JG. Here – as I have said – I ate far more than was good for me and I am now paying the price. It was a significant repast – although the said relations were only ordinary people of the Grandma Clay sort – where wine flowed like water and of which for me the chief delights were ice-cream and chicken. I was rather out of the conversation which was – I believe – mainly about family topics and had to confine myself to talking to two little kiddies – one aged three and a half and the other five – but they spoke beautifully and it wasn’t difficult to understand them. Today, we will make our way to Tourrettes – a long journey which for me will be spent in sleep. The Vial family are very pleasant people – it consists of father, mother, two sons and grandma – and once again I have found myself in circumstances which could hardly be better. Father and Mother are both elementary school teachers and Mme V is very much Mrs. Morris. We don’t see very much of the elder son but the other one is a few months younger than I. It appears that he wants to come to England on an exchange visit and I think that his mother is not without designs on the peace of our household. However, don’t worry! I have persuaded her to write to Miss Smith on the subject. Well, I think that I have told you everything important now (although there will be a host of little things to tell you when I return) except to say that I now find myself commencing my second week in France with confidence. This week seems to have gone both very quickly and very slowly – most odd.

It is now 2.45 and so I will say goodbye, asking you to remember me to everybody and to give my love to Whisky.

Yours lovingly
Ian