第50章 生活与品德 (5)
《居里夫人自传》章节:第50章 生活与品德 (5),宠文网网友提供全文无弹窗免费在线阅读。!
These days in the open, filled with beautiful sights, made a deep impression on us, and we loved to recall them. One of our radiant memories was of a sunny day, when after a long and wearying climb, we reached the fresh, green meadow of the Aubrac, in the pure air of the high plateaus. Another vivid memory was that of an evening, when, lingering until twilight in the gorge of the Truyère, we were enchanted to hear a popular air dying away in the distance, carried to us from a little boat that descended the stream. We had taken so little notice of the time that we did not regain our lodging before dawn. At one point we had an encounter with carts whose horses were frightened by our bicycles, and we were obliged to cut across ploughed fields. At length we regained our route on the high plateau, bathed in the unreal light of the moon. And cows that were passing the night in enclosures came gravely to contemplate us with their large, tranquil eyes.
The forest of Compiegne charmed us in the spring, with its mass of green foliage stretching far as the eye could see, and its periwinkles and anemones. On the border of, the forest of Fontainebleau, the banks of the Loing, covered with water buttercups, were an object of delight for Pierre Curie. We loved the melancholy coasts of Brittany and the reaches of heather and gorse, stretching to the very points of Finistère, which seemed like claws or teeth burying themselves in the water which forever rages at them.
Later, when we had our baby with us, we passed our vacations in some one locality, without traveling about. We lived then as simply as possible in retired villages where we could scarcely be distinguished from the villagers themselves. I remember the stupefaction of an American journalist when he found us one day at Pouldu, at a moment when I was sitting on one of the stone steps of our house in the act of shaking the sand from my sandals. However, his embarrassment was short-lived and, adapting himself to the situation, he sat down beside me and began jotting down in his notebook my answers to his questions.
The most affectionate relations existed between my husband's parents and myself. We often went to Sceaux, where the room my husband used to have before our marriage was always reserved for us. I had also a very tender affection for Jacques Curie and his family (he was married and had two children); for Pierre's brother became mine, and has always remained so.
Our eldest daughter, Irène, was born in September, , and only a few days afterwards my husband suffered a great loss in the death of his mother. Doctor Curie came to live with us in a house which had a garden and was situated on the old fortifications of Paris ( Boulevard Kellermann) near the park of Montsouris. Pierre Curie lived in this house until the end of his life.