Read the passage.

excerpt from Chapter XII in The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain

Mark Twain’s best-selling travel book documented his travels across Europe aboard the USS Quaker City in 1867. Chapter 12 records his 500-mile train ride through France.

We have come five hundred miles by rail through the heart of France. What a bewitching land it is! What a garden! Surely the leagues of bright green lawns are swept and brushed and watered every day and their grasses trimmed by the barber. Surely the hedges are shaped and measured and their symmetry preserved by the most architectural of gardeners. Surely the long straight rows of stately poplars that divide the beautiful landscape like the squares of a checker-board are set with line and plummet, and their uniform height determined with a spirit level. Surely the straight, smooth, pure white turnpikes are jack-planed and sandpapered every day. How else are these marvels of symmetry, cleanliness, and order attained? It is wonderful. There are no unsightly stone walls and never a fence of any kind. There is no dirt, no decay, no rubbish anywhere—nothing that even hints at untidiness—nothing that ever suggests neglect. All is orderly and beautiful—every thing is charming to the eye.
What is the author's purpose for writing this passage?

to compare customs in France and America
to contrast rural areas in France and America
to give a detailed description of the French landscape
to provide information about French gardening