"Il pleuvait sur les calèches et les gitanes - mais dans le vieux Séville, pareil à Pompéi, les orangers embaument."

Autograph letter dated and signed by Jean Cocteau, 17 lines in black ink, to a friend describing his Sevillian sojourn.
Fold marks inherent to being placed in an envelope.
Jean Cocteau explains his silence: his patron and very close friend Francine Weisweiller had been ill: "Excuse ce long silence. mais on parle souvent de toi. Francine a été très, très malade à Kitzbühel en Autriche et longue à reprendre des forces." (Excuse this long silence, but we often speak of you. Francine was very, very ill in Kitzbühel in Austria and slow to regain her strength.)
But to cut short his bad news, he prefers to recount the enchantment of Seville: "Nous revenons de Séville. Il pleuvait sur les calèches et les gitanes - mais dans le vieux Séville, pareil à Pompéi, les orangers embaument." (We are returning from Seville. It was raining on the carriages and the gypsies - but in old Seville, like Pompeii, the orange trees are fragrant.)