From Morteau to St. Hippolyte is a day's journey,
only to be made by starting at eight in the morning, and there are not
even decent wayside inns. So we patiently waited till the storm was
over, and as by that time it was past midday, there was nothing to do
but drive leisurely back to Maiche. More fortunate travellers than
ourselves, in the matter of weather, however, are particularly
recommended the other route. Maiche is a good specimen of the large,
flourishing villages, or _bourgs_, found in these parts, and a greater
contrast with those of Brittany cannot be conceived. There you find no
upper or middle-class element, no progress, little communication with
the outer world; some of the towns even, St. Pol de Leon, for instance,
being literally asleep. Here all is life, bustle, and animation, and,
though we are now amid a Catholic community, order and comparative
cleanliness prevail. Some of the cottage gardens are quite charming, and
handsome modern homes in large numbers denote the existence of rich
_bourgeois_ families, as is also the case in the villages near
Montbeliard. The commune of Maiche has large revenues, especially in
forest lands, and we can thus account for the really magnificent _cure_,
or _presbytere_, the residence of the cure, also the imposing
Hotel-de-Ville, and new costly decoration of the church.
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