Sincerely, Joel C. Swisher

Dear Folks,

This is real winter weather. There is over a half a foot of snow and looks like more. I have often heard about sunny France but it is about as frosty here as any place I ever struck, however the air is dry and we don’t mind the cold. The country around here certainly is pretty with the snow on the ground. The hills and valleys remind me of Pa., especially of the country around State College. It is a much more prosperous looking section than the part we were in a while. Here there are good sized barns and neat yards. The fields are big. One thing peculiar of this part is that there are a lot of small towns close to each other. Some of the buildings are quite old. All of them are of stone. For a few days we were billeted in a half-deserted village on the top of a hill. There most of the houses were built before 1700. The cathedral was about the size of Britain Church and was all of stone. Part of it had been built in the 12th and part in the 13th century. It was still in splendid condition. It had a stone floor, a high vaulted stone roof supported by large columns. It had a clock in the bell tower that struck the hours and quarter hours and a bell that many a big American church would envy. They rang it every evening at sunset. On the brow of the hill was the site of an old chateau. The part that was the tower over the gate way was still standing and in good condition, It had 3 stories, a circular stairway and rooms with stone floors, fireplaces and portholes. The ceilings of the rooms were supported by big beams and sometimes were vaulted stone ceilings. Over each of the fireplaces was the coat-of-arms on one of the shields was the date 1137.

Another interesting thing of this country is the way-side shrine. You see one at every crossroad. They mostly consist of stone cross about 8 ft. high.

There are a lot of hops grown in this district. This time of the year we see nothing but the poles which are 20 to 30 feet long and now are piled up in the shape of an Indian wigwam.

We constantly see a curious mixture of the modern and the ancient. In one farm shed I saw an American hay rake and a couple of gang plows and in another barn I saw a couple of men threshing wheat with flails.

We were billeted in town for only a few days, and now are in barracks and are comfortably fixed.

Among other things an American must learn in this country is the metric system. Their unit of weight is the kilogram and of length the meter. For instance if 300 kilometers from Paris, how far are we. However they use pounds in some of the stores.

Well, here’s hoping you are well and comfortable.

Lovingly,
Joel