The Arc de Triomphe as it looked when Edward and Orra visited it. Painting by Gaspard Gobaut, 1852. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

It took four days to travel from Geneva to Paris. That the Hitchcocks took rooms in a 5th-floor walk-up is testament to their robust strength and their frugality. They befriended other Americans nearby, so had company for long walks, museum-going, dinners, and general socializing. Rather than ride in carriages, they went on foot to see the Louvre, Tuileries Gardens, Luxembourg Gardens, the Pantheon, Notre Dame, Pere Lachaise Cemetery, and all the other usual tourist sites. They were dazzled by Versailles, charmed by the gas lighting along the Champs-Elysees. They saw the chapel where “the marriages of Nap. [Napoleon] & Marie Louise & Josephine were solemnized.” Perhaps that and the Arc de Triomphe reminded them of the earliest days of their courtship, when Orra performed the part of Marie-Louise in Edward's play about what they thought at the time was Napoleon's final downfall.

If Switzerland was sublime, the Hitchcocks were nevertheless susceptible to the worldly charms of the great city’s lively cafes, and they lost their aversion to shopping. Orra looked only for several days, but at last gave into a spree that netted shawls, ribbons, a dress, buckles, bracelets, a lace Mantilla, and more. Edward acquired a silk gown and “Neckhandkerchief,” a collar, matches, a shaving kit for son Edward, some scientific equipment, and unnamed medicines, perhaps preparing for the seasickness they both dreaded on the trip home.

Edward made a few final visits to scientific and educational sites: the Ecole des Mines (School of Mines), the observatory at the Luxembourg Gardens, an artesian well, and the Royal Agronomic Institution in Grignon. At this school as at all others, he was sorry to see that they were open only to the sons of families with money and social standing. The rigidity of class systems in Britain and Europe upset him, as he realized that he himself would never have received a good education in any of the countries he visited, except perhaps Scotland.

On their last day in the city, they clambered up the "Arc de triumph" (as Orra spelled it) for the view. They were enthralled by the prospect of homes and greenery, domes and columns, hills, palaces, and gardens. And then their eyes alit upon the Hippodrome, where a hot air balloon was being filled. The event was apparently a fundraiser for the family of a man who had died in a balloon ride a few days earlier. In Orra's dreamy, yet wry, description:

“We waited until it was filled & saw it ascend with a lady on horseback, a grand sight as it rose so majestically & she perfectly possessed, waving her handkerchief so gracefully as she passed over our heads & moved off out of sight while thousands of spectators stood in mute anxiety & admiration of the scene. The poor animal hung as if entirely lifeless with his head & limbs like rags, incapable of struggling by being drugged till senseless in all probability. While my better judgment would disapprove the whole business, I could but admire the interest of the scene.”

Listen to what Orra wrote in her travel diary.

Listen to what Edward wrote in his travel diary.

Next chapter: Home Again