The Car That Went Abroad

Customs paperwork gives Albert Bigelow Paine's family a reason to linger in Marseilles before their motoring trip begins. While the car awaits licenses, they explore a crowded port of sidewalk cafés, flower stalls, tramcars and competing calls from cabmen. Their first attempts at French turn an order for coffee and chocolate ice cream into iced coffee and hot chocolate. Such small mishaps give this first-person travel account its conversational humor.

The route takes in France and Switzerland, with the contents also tracing roads through the Black Forest. In the Rhône valley, Paine weighs the appeal of an old château against its uncomfortable rooms, records the cost of a modest inn and stops at Orange to examine Roman remains. His attention to meals, lodging, scenery and historic buildings makes everyday arrangements part of the story. The June 1921 preface looks back on these travels before the war. Readers interested in early motoring can follow how a family's practical needs shape each stop.