Normandy Picturesque Part 11

_List of the_ WATERING-PLACES OF NORMANDY, _from east to west, with a few notes for Visitors_.

Dieppe (Pop. 20,000).--Busy seaport town--fas.h.i.+onable and expensive during the season--good accommodation facing the sea--pretty rides and drives in the neighbourhood--s.h.i.+ngly beach, bracing air.

HOTELS: _Royal, des Bains, de Londres, &c. Ry. to Paris._

Fecamp (13,000).--A dull uninteresting town, inns second-rate and dear, in summer--situated on a river, the town reaching for nearly a mile inland.

HOTELS: _de la Plage, des Bains, Chariot d'Or. Ry. to Paris._

etretat (2000).--Romantic situation--bracing air--rocky coast--s.h.i.+ngly beach--only two good hotels--a few villas and apartments--no town--very amusing for a time.

HOTELS: _Blanquet, Hauville, Dil. to Fecamp, and Havre._

Havre (75,000).--Large and important seaport on the right bank of the Seine--harbour, docks, warehouses, fine modern buildings, streets, and squares--picturesque old houses and fis.h.i.+ng-boats on the quay--bathing not equal to Dieppe or Trouville.

HOTELS: _de l'Europe, de l'Amiraute, &c., and Frascati's on the sea-sh.o.r.e. Ry. to Paris; Steamboats to Trouville, &c._

Honfleur (10,000).--Opposite Havre, on the Seine--old and picturesque town--pleasant walks--English society--sea-bathing, "_mais quels bains_," says Conty, "_bains impossible!_" Living is not dear for residents.

HOTELS: _du Cheval Blanc, de la Paix, &c. Ry. to Paris_.

Trouville (5000 or 6000).--Fas.h.i.+onable and very dear at the best hotels--ample accommodation to suit all purses--good sands--splendid casino--handsome villas, and plenty of apartments.

Less bracing than Dieppe or etretat.

HOTELS: _Roches-Noires, Paris, Bras d'Or, &c. Ry. to Paris._

Deauville.--A scattered a.s.semblage of villas and picturesque houses--very exclusive and select, and dull for a stranger--grand casino--quite a modern town--separated from Trouville by the river Touques.

HOTELS: _Grand, du Casino, &c. Ry. to Paris._

Villers-sur-mer.--A pretty village, six miles from Trouville--crowded during the season--beautiful neighbourhood--good apartments, but expensive--inns moderate.

HOTELS: _du Bras d'Or, Casino, &c. Ry. to Paris._

Houlgate.--One large hotel surrounded by pretty and well-built chalets to be let furnished; also many private villas in gardens--beautiful situation--good sands--small Casino--becoming fas.h.i.+onable and dear--accommodation limited. _Dil. to Trouville, 11 miles_.

Beuzeval.--A continuation of Houlgate, westward; lower, near the mouth of the Dives--one second-rate hotel close to the sands--quiet and reasonable--sea recedes half-a-mile (no boating at Houlgate or Beuzeval)--beautiful neighbourhood--a few villas and apartments--no etabliss.e.m.e.nt. _Dil. to Trouville or Caen_.

Cabourg.--A small, but increasing, town in a fine open situation on the left bank of the Dives--good accommodation and moderate--not as well known as it deserves to be. HOTELS: _de la Plage, Casino, &c. Dil. do. do_.

[Then follow nine or ten minor sea-bathing places, situated north of Caen and Bayeux, in the following order:--Lies, Luc, Lasgrune, St, Aubin, Coutances, Aromanches, Auxelles, Vierville, and Grandcamp; where accommodation is more or less limited, and board and lodging need not cost more than seven or eight francs a-day in the season. They are generally spoken of in French guide-books as, '_bien tristes sans ressources;_' 'fit only for fathers of families'! St. Aubin, about twelve miles from Caen, is one of the best.]

Cherbourg (42,000).--Large, fortified town--bold coast--good bathing--splendid views from the heights--wide streets and squares--docks and harbours--hotels--good and dear.

HOTELS: _l'Univers, l'Amiraute, &c. Ry. to Paris_.

Granville.--See pp. 122 and following; also Appendix, p. ii.

The average charge at seaside hotels in Normandy, during the season (if taken by the week) is 8 or 9 francs a-day, for sleeping accommodation and the two public meals; nearly everything else being charged for 'extra.' At Trouville, Deauville, and Dieppe, 10 or 12 francs is considered 'moderate.' Furnished houses and apartments can be had nearly everywhere, and at all prices. The sum of 10_l._ or 15_l_. a week is sometimes paid at Trouville, or Deauville, for a furnished house.

Conty's guide-book, '_Les Cotes de Normandie_,' should be recommended for its very practical information on these matters, but not for its ill.u.s.trations.

_London, May, 1870._

FOOTNOTES:

[1] We have not put CHERBOURG, DOMFRONT, or EVREAUX, as a matter of course, on our list, although they should be included in a tour, especially the two latter towns, for their archaeological interest.

[2] The same remark applies to Mantes, familiar to us from its historical a.s.sociations, and by its graceful towers, which so many have seen from the railway in going to Paris. "All the world goes by Mantes, but very few stop there," writes a traveller. "The tourist, on his way to Paris, generally has a ticket which allows him to stop at Rouen but not at Mantes. People very anxious to stop at Mantes, and to muse, so to speak, amongst its embers, have had great searchings of heart how to get there, and have not accomplished their object until after some years of reflection."

[3] Trouville and Deauville-sur-mer.

[4] The architecture of Rouen, which is better known to our countrymen than that of any other town in Normandy, is later than that of Caen or Bayeux. Notwithstanding the magnificence of its cathedral, we venture to say that there is nothing in all Rouen to compare with the norman romanesque of the latter towns.

[5] 'I am not enthusiastic about gutters and gables, and object to a population composed exclusively of old women,' wrote the author of 'Miss Carew;' but she could not have seen Pont Audemer.

[6] The brightness and cleanliness of the peasant and market-women, is a pleasant feature to notice in Normandy.

[7] It is worthy of note that the very variety and irregularity that attracts us so much in these buildings does not meet with universal approval in the French schools. In the _'Grammaire des Arts du Dessin_,'

M. Charles Blanc lays down as an axiom, that "sublimity in architecture belongs to three essential conditions--simplicity of surface, straightness, and continuity of line." Nevertheless we find many modern French houses built in the style of the 13th and 14th century; especially in Lower Normandy.

[8] There is a great change in the aspect of Pont Audemer during the last year or two; streets of new houses having sprung up, hiding some of the best old work from view; and one whole street of wooden houses having been lately taken down.

[9] There is one peculiarity about the position of Pont Audemer which is charming to an artist; the streets are ended by hills and green slopes, clothed to their summits with trees, which are often in suns.h.i.+ne, whilst the town is in shadow.

[10] We, human creatures, little know what high revel is held at four o'clock on a summer's morning, by the birds of the air and the beasts of the field; when their tormentors are asleep.

[11] The approach to Lisieux from the railway station is singularly uninteresting; a new town of common red brick houses, of the Coventry or Birmingham pattern, having lately sprung up in this quarter.

[12] There is something not inappropriate, in the printed letters in present use in France, to the 'Haussmann' style of street architecture; some inscriptions over warehouses and shops could scarcely indeed be improved. We might point as an ill.u.s.tration of our meaning to the successful introduction of the word NORD, several times repeated, on the facade of the terminus of the Great Northern Railway at Paris.

[13] We lately saw an english crest, bearing the motto "Courage without fear;" a piece of tautology, surely of modern manufacturer?

[14] The contrast between the present and former states of society might be typified by the general subst.i.tution of the screw for the nail in building; both answering the purpose of the modern builder, but the former preferred, because _removable_ at pleasure.

It is a restless age, in which advertis.e.m.e.nts of 'FAMILIES REMOVED' are pasted on the walls of a man's house without appearing to excite his indignation.

[15] The 'renaissance' work at the east end of this church is considered by Herr Lubke to be 'the masterpiece of the epoch.' 'It is to be found,'

he says, 'at one extremity of a building, the other end of which is occupied by the loveliest steeple and tower in the world.'

[16] It is remarkable that with all their care for this building, the authorities should permit apple-stalls and wooden sheds to be built up against the tower.