Ogden Nash to His Daughters

Ogden Nash

February 6, 1939

My sweet girls,

I wish so that you were here with us. the next time we must surely bring you along. so remember to practice your manners and (learn to eat all sorts of food. Paris is full of children. There are lots of parks, and every park is full of boys and girls on bicycles and roller skates, or playing football and other games all day long. Also, I think everybody in Paris has a dog, but none of them are as pretty as Spangle. A beautifu1 river, the Scine, runs right through the middle of the city, and Mummy and I have already counted 22 bridges that cross it. Don't you think that you could have fun here? The French children are very polite, as everyone is in France, and I am sure you would enjoy playing with them; so, Linell, you must pay great attention to your French teacher and learn very fast, in order to be able to understand well when you come here. You might teach Isabel some of what you learn, too.

There are many, many interesting things to see here. Paris is a very old city, and today Mummy and I saw a beautiful building, that was started by the Romans more than 1600 years ago. It is called Cluny. We have also been to the Louvre,a museum now full of the most beautiful paintings and statues; but years ago the kinds and queens of France used to live there, until the French people got angry with them and chopped off their heads.

This afternoon we went to a beautiful cathedral on an island in the middle of the river. It is called the Cathedral of tre Dame, which means the cathedral of Our Lady the Virgin. It is more than 900 years old, and so high that you can hardly see the top. The windows are of gorgeous stained glass, red and blue and yellow and green and purple, so that they cast light like a rainbow on the walls. A very good king of France who lived 700 years ago and later became Saint Louis was buried there. Tell Delia that we offered a candle to the Virgin Mary for each of you there, and that we are bringing her back a rosary from there also. Mummy and I climbed the tower later. We were very tired when we got to the top, but it was interesting. Some hideous stone gargoyles were looking right into our faces, so we looked down at Paris lying at our feet, and it was beautiful. We could see miles of river, at the bridges and the lovely old buildings.

I think you would like the French trains. We rode on one from Le Havre to Paris just like the one that Gaston et Josephine took when they were leaving for America. When the engine whistles it says "tweet tweet" instead of "toot toot", and the porters are very polite. You would like the boat, too. There is a little theatre where there are puppet shows for children every afternoon, and there is plenty of room to run and play on the decks. Sometimes, when the wind blows hard and the sea is rough, the boat joggles a little bit, but that is good fun, like being in a swing.

I must tell you that whenever you walk along the banks of the Seine you see dozens of old men fishing with long, long poles. I don't think they ever catch anything, but they have a lovely time thinking about what they might catch just supposing there were any fish there. We'll try it when you come here with us; perhaps we'11 catch the first fish ever to be caught there.

I adore you both, my darlings, and don't forget me

Daddy