Diary of Marie Bashkirtseff
CZENUKFR

Thursday, 12 August 1880

We go riding --- Potin, I, and a very nice young lady whose name I do not know. Talk to me about Mont-Dore when one gets away from it. That's more like it! We go into the mountains and it is charming. And this ride did not prevent me from painting. Before, there was even an incident: my valise came loose from the saddle. Potin was obliged to dismount to pick it up, but having dismounted, he had to remount, and his saddle turned at the slightest effort; it was only by mounting from a tree trunk that he succeeded, after catching by the tail the recalcitrant nag --- and not right away even, and the beast having stepped aside, he remained suspended in the most comical position...
Here are speeches by Gambetta, very skillful. For a long time I have wanted to hear all these things said to me... a reply to the snarling attacks of the republican colleagues, better called radicals or intransigents. Ah! certainly M. Rochefort with his Parisian street-urchin wit has reason to be envious and furious. I am keeping M. Clemenceau's newspaper on purpose because he is one of the most envious.