All its alleys and gardens are flat and formal, and all in the midst of the town itself, surrounded by colossal houses, and only bounded by a thick clayey river, which it is unpleasing for the eye to rest upon.
The sight of several of the most admired and important towns in France, has reconciled me, in a singular degree, with that of Tours, whose fame appeared to me, when I first saw it, to be undeserved.

I judged, as one accustomed to English splendour, and English neatness, and I scarcely gave Tours all the credit it deserved.

When I compare the clear, rapid, sparkling Loire--shallow though it be--with the ugly waters of the sluggish Garonne, I feel that it is indeed superior to most other French rivers; and when I recollect the long, broad, extensive street which divides Tours into two parts, is paved throughout, and connects it with a bridge of noble proportions and most splendid approach, I am not surprised that Tours is so much the object of a Frenchman's pride; and I confess, that, if I had seen it after the boasted city of Bordeaux, its river, and its bridge, I should have found little to find fault with; for though it lies in a plain, it is not a marsh; and though it is glaring and flat, it is dry and sandy, and not damp and unwholesome.
Bordeaux is--notwithstanding that it failed to impress me with a sense of admiration of its _beauty_--full of interest in every way, and worthy of the most minute inspection and examination.

We scarcely neglected a single street, of all its mazes, and scarcely left unvisited a single monument.

As in all other French towns, building is actively going on, and new public works are in progress: some on a very grand scale.