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Palais d'Orsay, Paris, June 17, 1903. Dear Wanda and Helen, I suppose and hope and pray that you and your fellow mountaineers
are having a good Sierra time, and that you will all be safe at home ere this reaches you. We have been in this wonderful
city four days, and what big, novel, beautiful, and bewildering days they were so full, so crowded with exciting scenes and
sounds and events These four days seem as indefinitely long as a geological period. We have walked and driven through all
the famous streets and parks, visited the great cathedrals, Notre Dame, Magdalene, etc., and also fine private places and
homes in and out of the city. Today we visited the greatest rose garden in the world, 10 or 12 miles from here, the grandest
garden sight I ever saw. How your mother would have enjoyed it -- every rose known in the world, and varieties in apparently
endless abundance, all beautifully arranged and located in the midst of beautiful forested picturesque country. Today we also
drove through two fine parks and visited the Luxembourg Palace, picture and statuary galleries, gardens, etc. Yesterday we
walked ourselves weary in the endless galleries of paintings of the Louvre, enough for a lifetime. But I can't write even
the least faintest outline of it all. Some day you must see and study for yourselves. We leave tomorrow morning for Holland.
Goodnight, darlings, and Heaven bless you all -- mother, Maggie, and Sarah. How I weary for word from you. Not a single letter
since I left, though Sargent gets many. Address them simply John Muir, Care of Baring Bros. Co., London, England. JOHN MUIR