diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 35678-8.txt | 5688 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 35678-8.zip | bin | 0 -> 113402 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 35678-h.zip | bin | 0 -> 1398757 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 35678-h/35678-h.htm | 5626 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 35678-h/images/covera.jpg | bin | 0 -> 18528 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 35678-h/images/illus001a.jpg | bin | 0 -> 46760 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 35678-h/images/illus016a.jpg | bin | 0 -> 43200 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 35678-h/images/illus027a.jpg | bin | 0 -> 35416 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 35678-h/images/illus037a.jpg | bin | 0 -> 35263 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 35678-h/images/illus046a.jpg | bin | 0 -> 23914 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 35678-h/images/illus057a.jpg | bin | 0 -> 23625 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 35678-h/images/illus066a.jpg | bin | 0 -> 35495 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 35678-h/images/illus085a.jpg | bin | 0 -> 22185 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 35678-h/images/illus094a.jpg | bin | 0 -> 27512 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 35678-h/images/illus099a.jpg | bin | 0 -> 25746 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 35678-h/images/illus104a.jpg | bin | 0 -> 33449 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 35678-h/images/illus118a.jpg | bin | 0 -> 26758 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 35678-h/images/illus125a.jpg | bin | 0 -> 25893 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 35678-h/images/illus155a.jpg | bin | 0 -> 18507 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 35678-h/images/illus160a.jpg | bin | 0 -> 28376 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 35678-h/images/illus173a.jpg | bin | 0 -> 26539 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 35678-h/images/illus182a.jpg | bin | 0 -> 24995 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 35678-h/images/illus192a.jpg | bin | 0 -> 26020 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 35678-h/images/illus197a.jpg | bin | 0 -> 20801 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 35678-h/images/illus202a.jpg | bin | 0 -> 31180 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 35678-h/images/illus207a.jpg | bin | 0 -> 23097 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 35678-h/images/illus213a.jpg | bin | 0 -> 39449 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 35678-h/images/illus218a.jpg | bin | 0 -> 26434 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 35678-h/images/illus223a.jpg | bin | 0 -> 22462 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 35678-h/images/illus228a.jpg | bin | 0 -> 25860 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 35678-h/images/illus233a.jpg | bin | 0 -> 24008 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 35678-h/images/illus245a.jpg | bin | 0 -> 42025 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 35678-h/images/illus250a.jpg | bin | 0 -> 27162 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 35678-h/images/illus254a.jpg | bin | 0 -> 27843 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 35678-h/images/illus258a.jpg | bin | 0 -> 29766 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 35678-h/images/illus267a.jpg | bin | 0 -> 24800 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 35678-h/images/illus276a.jpg | bin | 0 -> 28603 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 35678-h/images/illus281-8-1500.png | bin | 0 -> 286050 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 35678-h/images/illus281-8-500.png | bin | 0 -> 44964 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 35678.txt | 5688 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 35678.zip | bin | 0 -> 113196 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 |
44 files changed, 17018 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/35678-8.txt b/35678-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..97b801c --- /dev/null +++ b/35678-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5688 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of France, by Gordon Cochrane Home + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: France + +Author: Gordon Cochrane Home + +Release Date: March 25, 2011 [EBook #35678] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FRANCE *** + + + + +Produced by Melissa McDaniel, Juliet Sutherland and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + Transcriber's note: + + Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document + have been preserved. Obvious typographical errors have been + corrected. + + + [Illustration: THE WESTERN FAÇADE OF AMIENS CATHEDRAL.] + + + + + FRANCE + + + BY + GORDON HOME + + + WITH 32 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR + + + LONDON + ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK + 1914 + + + + + CONTENTS + + PAGE + + CHAPTER I + INTRODUCTORY 1 + + CHAPTER II + THE GENESIS AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE FRENCH 6 + + CHAPTER III + FAMILY LIFE--MARRIAGE AND THE BIRTH-RATE 23 + + CHAPTER IV + HOW THE FRENCH GOVERN THEMSELVES 49 + + CHAPTER V + ON EDUCATION AND RELIGION 67 + + CHAPTER VI + SOME ASPECTS OF PARIS AND OF TOWN LIFE IN GENERAL 86 + + CHAPTER VII + OF RURAL LIFE IN FRANCE 114 + + CHAPTER VIII + THE RIVERS OF FRANCE 143 + + CHAPTER IX + OF THE WATERING-PLACES 169 + + CHAPTER X + ARCHITECTURE--ROMAN, ROMANESQUE, AND GOTHIC--IN + FRANCE 193 + + CHAPTER XI + THE NATIONAL DEFENCES 205 + + INDEX 213 + + + + + LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + + 1. THE WESTERN FAÇADE OF AMIENS CATHEDRAL _Frontispiece_ + + FACING PAGE + + 2. COMBOURG, A TYPICAL _CHÂTEAU_ OF THE MEDIAEVAL TYPE 8 + + 3. IN THE CAFÉ ARMENONVILLE IN THE BOIS DE BOULOGNE, PARIS 17 + + 4. IN THE PLACE DU THÉÂTRE FRANÇAIS, PARIS 24 + + 5. EVENING IN THE PLACE D'IÉNA, PARIS 31 + + 6. IN THE CENTRE OF PARIS 40 + + 7. THE MARKET-PLACE AND CATHEDRAL AT ABBEVILLE 48 + + 8. FIVE-O'CLOCK TEA IN PARIS 64 + + 9. CHILDREN OF PARIS IN THE LUXEMBOURG GARDENS 71 + + 10. LE PUY-EN-VELAY IN THE AUVERGNE COUNTRY 75 + + 11. LA ROCHE, A VILLAGE OF HAUTE SAVOIE 78 + + 12. A TYPICAL _COCHER_ OF PARIS 90 + + 13. AUTUMN IN THE CHAMPS ELYSÉES, PARIS 95 + + 14. A BRETON _CALVAIRE_: THE ORATORY OF JACQUES CARTIER 122 + + 15. A PEASANT CHILD OF NORMANDY 126 + + 16. THE CATHEDRAL AND PART OF THE OLD CITY OF CHARTRES 136 + + 17. THE CHÂTEAU OF AMBOISE ON THE LOIRE 144 + + 18. CHÂTEAU GAILLARD AND A LOOP OF THE SEINE 150 + + 19. MONT BLANC REFLECTING THE SUNSET GLOW 155 + + 20. EVIAN LES BAINS ON LAKE GENEVA 158 + + 21. THE CHAPEL ON THE BRIDGE OF ST. BÉNÉZET, AVIGNON 162 + + 22. CAP MARTIN NEAR MENTONE 164 + + 23. THE CHÂTEAU OF CHENONCEAUX 168 + + 24. ST. MALO FROM ST. SERVAN 171 + + 25. MONTE CARLO AND MONACO FROM THE EAST 174 + + 26. MONT ST. MICHEL AT HIGH TIDE 177 + + 27. THE VEGETABLE MARKET, NICE 187 + + 28. THE PYRENEES FROM NEAR PAMIERS 190 + + 29. THE GALERIE DES GLACES AT VERSAILLES 192 + + 30. THE ROMAN TRIUMPHAL ARCH AT ORANGE 194 + + 31. FRENCH DESTROYERS 200 + + 32. SOLDIERS OF FRANCE IN PARIS 208 + + _SKETCH MAP OF FRANCE ON PAGE 212._ + + + + + FRANCE + + + + +CHAPTER I + +INTRODUCTORY + + +The more one knows of France and the French at first hand, and the +more one reads the ideas and opinions of other people concerning this +great people, so does one feel less and less able to write down any +definite statements about the country or its inhabitants. Whatever +conviction one possesses on any aspect of their characteristics is +sure to be shaken by the latest writer, be he a native or a foreigner. +Every fresh sojourn in the country upsets all one's previous ideas in +the most baffling fashion. One used to think the Parisian _cocher_ a +bad driver, and then discovers a writer who eulogises his skill. When +he knocks over pedestrians, says this writer, he does so because his +whole life is given up to a perpetual state of warfare with the +public, from whom he gains his livelihood. This point of view being +new to one, it takes a little time before it can be safely rejected or +accepted, and before this process is completed a man of most decided +views, and possessed of a wide knowledge of France and the French, +comes along with the statement that no Frenchman can drive. He +supports it with a dozen good reasons, and leaves one with a bias +towards earlier convictions. + +It used to be axiomatic, platitudinous, that Frenchwomen dressed +better than Englishwomen. People whose knowledge of France is, say, +ten, perhaps fewer, years out of date would accept this without a +thought, and yet one is inclined to think that the Frenchwoman's +pre-eminence has gone. No doubt all that is truly _chic_, all that is +essentially dainty in feminine attire, emanates from the brain of the +Parisian, but the women of the French capital no longer have any +monopoly in the wearing of clothes that give charm to the wearer. + +Then as to French cooking. The day has not long passed when to breathe +a syllable against the cooking of the French would be to proclaim +oneself a savage, but what does one hear to-day? Openly in London +drawing-rooms people are heard expressing their preference for the +food supplied in English homes and hotels. They dare to state that +many of the courses provided in French hotels and restaurants are +highly flavoured, but uneatable; that the meat provided is nearly +always unaccountably tough and full of strange sinews and muscles that +give one's teeth much inconvenience; that the clear soup is commonly +little more than greasy hot water containing floating scraps of bread +and vegetables; that the sweet course is incomparably inferior to that +of the English table. + +The difficulties confronting those who attempt to describe the Gallic +people are only realised when one grasps the fact that almost anything +one writes is true or untrue of a fragment of the nation. Who could +suppose that the inhabitants of soil facing the North Sea would have +similar virtues and faults to those who dwell on the shores of the +Mediterranean? They seem of a different race, and yet a curious unity +pervades the Norman, the Breton, and the Burgundian, the Provençal, +the dwellers on the great wheat plain, and the Iberians of Basses +Pyrenees. One is tempted to deal with each portion of the country +separately, but to do so would make it necessary to produce a library +of books, and in trying to pick out qualities common to the whole +nation one is checked at every turn by the contradictions that present +themselves continually. With the mind resting for a time on one part +of France, it would be easy to describe the people as very clean, but +mental visions of other parts arrest the pen, and a qualified +statement is alone possible. Then the mind hungers for an opportunity +of preparing a series of maps, showing by various colours where the +people live who possess this or that salient quality. If such maps +were presented to the reader, and supposing that districts in which +the inhabitants were inclined towards thriftiness were shown red, the +whole country would be of the same glowing colour, and therefore this +map need not be drawn, but the same does not apply to wages and +prosperity, nor to religious fervour, nor to the social manners of the +people, and on these and a very large number of subjects the +variations are so great that what the writer has ventured to condense +in the chapters which follow may be open to much limitation, and even +to contradiction. He has always felt a very deep appreciation of the +country and the people, and the joy of arriving in France is one of +the pleasantest things in his experience. The curious smells that are +wafted to the deck of the steamer as it is tied up by the quayside +bring to him in one breath the essence, as it were, of the life of +France, which has for him so great an attractive force. In that first +breath of France, the faint suggestion of coffee brings to mind the +pleasant associations of meals in picturesque inns or in the cafés of +Paris in sight of the amazing movement of the city; the suspicion of +vegetables recalls the colour and human interest of countless +market-places and chequered patches of cultivation on wide hedgeless +landscapes; and that indefinable suggestion of incense and a dozen +other impalpable things brings with it the whole pageant of French +life, its colour and gaiety, its movement, its pathos, and its grand +moments, all of which act as a magnet and irresistibly attract him to +the southern shores of the Channel. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE GENESIS AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE FRENCH + + +In fairly clear weather the strip of salt water cleaving England from +France seems so narrow, that to a Brazilian familiar with the Amazon +it might be taken for nothing more than a great river. To a geologist +the English Channel is a recent feature in the formation of Europe of +to-day, while the modern aeronaut regards it as a blue mark on the +landscape as he wings his way from London to Paris. Turbine steamers +plough from shore to shore in less than an hour, so that on a windless +day the crossing is a mere incident in the journey between the +capitals; yet the race which dwells on the chalk uplands terminating +precipitously at Cape Gris Nez is so entirely different from the +people who have for the last thousand years made their homes on the +Kentish Downs, that the twenty miles of sea seem scarcely adequate to +explain the complete severance. The intercourse between the +inhabitants of Gaul and Britain must have been both considerable and +constant for some time before the domination of Rome had swept up to +the Channel, for it is known from Caesar's records that the +Armoricans, who extended from Cape Finisterre to the Straits of Dover, +were able to send 220 large oak built vessels against his galleys. +From the same source one is aware of the large trade carried on across +the narrow sea, and there were Celtic tribes in the south of England +colonised from the Belgae of the Continent. Further than this, the +megalithic remains of Wiltshire and Brittany suggest a very real and +remarkable link between the peoples of Britain and Gaul. Caesar and +Strabo are both very definite in their statements that the people of +Kent were similar to the Gaulish tribes, not only in the way they +built their houses, but also in their appearance and their manners. +The coming of Roman civilisation tended to restrict racial +intermingling, and from the beginning of the Christian era the Channel +became more and more a real frontier. When Norsemen had settled both +in England and in the north of France, this frontier again weakened +and vanished with the Norman Conquest of England, but racially there +was practically no sympathy across the water beyond what might have +been felt for the Welsh and the Britons in Cornwall. Thus, from the +Romanising of Britain onwards, the similarity between the peoples who +faced one another across the Channel waned. It is quite probable that +in neither country was there any appreciable infusion of Italian-Roman +blood among the Celtic populations, for the conquering legions were +composed of troops raised from all parts of the Empire, but in Britain +the Romanised population was swept westwards by new invaders from +northern Europe, while the Romanised Gauls were never ousted from the +territory they had held east of the Rhone and the Rhine. The Latin +tongue had probably made very little headway in Britain, while in Gaul +the Romans had thrust their language upon the Gallic tribes. It was +not, however, the classical Latin of Livy and Virgil, but most +probably the colloquial Latin of the common soldier and camp-follower. +This debased Latin formed the solid foundation of the literary +language of France of to-day. + + [Illustration: COMBOURG. A TYPICAL CHÂTEAU OF THE MEDIAEVAL TYPE.] + +The English Channel is therefore a very effective dividing line +between two peoples completely different in every characteristic. But +who were these people whom the Romans called Galli? + +Their coming was possibly not earlier than 600 or 700 B.C., and by 300 +B.C. they occupied that part of Europe now covered by France, Belgium, +Holland, Rhenish Germany to the Rhine, with Switzerland and northern +Italy. No doubt they had moved westward from southern Russia in that +Aryan stream of which they had formed a part. In the south they +intermingled with the ancient Iberian population; they appear to have +remained fairly pure in the centre, while in the north they became +more or less mixed with Teutonic elements pressing forward across the +Rhine. Besides occupying what is now known as France, these Celts +settled or squatted all over northern Italy, and drove a very +considerable wedge into central Spain, where they formed the fierce +warrior people called Celtiberians, who served in masses in the +Carthaginian and Greek armies, and held out against the Romans until +about 100 B.C. Further than this a wing of these Gaulish Celts made +their way along the Danube, wasted Greece in about 270 B.C., and +formed an important settlement in Asia Minor which was called Galatia +up to about A.D. 500. + +The Celts in Italy were the first to come under the heel of Rome +between 300 and 190 B.C. Gaul itself followed, and a Roman province, +named Narbonensis after its chief city Narbo Martius (now Narbonne), +was formed along the Mediterranean coast. All the rest of Gaul was +added between 58 and 50 B.C. by Gaius Julius Caesar, and from that +time until the disruption of the Roman Empire was one of its greatest +and richest provinces. + +With the weakening of Roman domination in the 4th century A.D. a +fierce German race or confederacy, calling themselves "Franks" (_i.e._ +Freemen), flooded into northern Gaul. They gave their name to the +country they had subjected, and for some five centuries their +Merovingian and Carolingian kings ruled without interruption. The +Franks were numerically a small proportion of the population of France +during this period, and they and other tribes which had irrupted into +Gaul during the same period gradually became completely absorbed by +the stubborn Celto-Roman people, and their language was to a great +extent lost owing, perhaps, to the fascination the splendour of Latin +would exert upon the users of an uncouth tongue. The Franks had +disappeared as a race by the year 1000, but their name had become +permanently attached to the land and the people in whose midst they +had settled--a phenomenon repeated in the case of Bulgaria. + +Towards the north and east of France there is a very considerable +Germanic strain, although entirely French in language, customs, and +sympathy. In the south-east the people have much Italic blood in their +veins, while in the extreme south-west the Gascons and the Landais +(the people of Les Landes near Bordeaux) are probably of Iberian +stock, nearly related to the Basques who belong to the pre-Celtic +inhabitants of France, and are therefore more or less distinct from +the main mass of the population who remained Gallic with a Romanised +language. Although it is true that, with one exception, all the +different elements have been quite assimilated, the _patois_ spoken in +some districts is barely comprehensible to the ordinary Parisian. The +exception is Brittany, where the people are an admixture of the +primitive inhabitants with Gauls and Celts from Britain who migrated +to the peninsula during the 4th and 5th centuries, their language +being pure Celtic to this day, and so similar to Welsh that a Breton +onion-seller in Wales can make himself understood without much +difficulty. The seamen Brittany provides for the French navy are +undoubtedly the finest sailors the country possesses, and they have +for some time past formed a very real portion of French sea power. + +The people of Normandy have a strong infusion of Scandinavian blood +and certain peculiarities of speech, but they are scarcely greater +than the difference between that of the Londoner and the Yorkshireman. +Whatever has been the stock from which the inhabitants of modern +France has sprung, their extraordinary capacity of assimilation seems +to have endowed them generally with those national characteristics +popularly labelled the genius of the French. This process, discernible +all through the pages of history, seems as vital to-day as ever. + +To any one familiar with the French people, it is a matter for +astonishment that the average Briton fails in the most profound +fashion to realise the most obvious of the national characteristics +of his neighbours across the Channel. The popular notion is that the +French are a frivolous people, devoted to pleasure; they are supposed +to be veritable Miss Mowchers for volatility; to speak with extreme +rapidity; to have a taste for queer dishes which the same Briton +regards with abhorrence; and are, generally speaking, a people with +the lowest of morals. All these ideas are more or less erroneous, and +only as the average Englishman comes to learn the truth can the French +character be better understood. In the first place, the French, far +from being a mass of frivolity, are one of the most serious peoples in +the world. They have to such an extent woven a care for the future +into the fabric of the nation, that the humblest _bonne-à-tout-faire_, +the underfed _midinette_, and simplest son of the soil, aim at and +generally succeed in becoming modest holders of State _rentes_. +Instead of the happy-go-lucky methods of the middle and lower class +Anglo-Saxon, who will turn a family of sons and daughters loose upon +the world with very little thought as to their future beyond the bare +necessities of food, clothing, and shelter, the French parent regards +it as his duty to see that each daughter is provided with a _dot_ +suitable to her position, and the Civil Code requires a parent to +leave a proportion of his property to each member of his family. +French men and women work out their incomes with such exactness that +they know to a _sou_ what they have to spare for pleasure, and with a +very large mass of the people in town and country that margin is so +microscopically small, that pleasure in the sense of a commodity that +is bought is often only obtainable at long intervals. In Paris, where +the inaccurate ideas of French life are generally gathered, it is the +almost universal custom for a family to dine at a restaurant on +Sundays, in order that the _bonne-à-tout-faire_, who cooks the meals +and waits at table in the average flat, may have most of the day off. +Thus the week-end visitor to the capital sees in every café and +restaurant families dining in public, and gathers the impression that +all these people are spending their money on an evening's amusement. +Probably, if the flats to which these people return a little later +were examined, it would be found that there was practically nothing in +the tiny larders, for it is the French custom to buy daily at the +markets in small quantities at the lowest prices, and the meals taken +at a restaurant on Sunday do not entail any loss through deterioration +of food at home. + +It is wrong, too, to suppose that the average French people speak more +rapidly than the Anglo-Saxon. They are more vivacious, and they often +put more emphasis and gesticulation into their conversation than their +island neighbours; but there are Englishmen who have a right to speak, +who will affirm with the greatest assurance that the French are the +slower and more deliberate speakers of the two! No doubt it will take +a long time to entirely eradicate from among ill-informed Anglo-Saxons +the notion that a French menu is largely composed of strange creatures +not usually regarded as edible, but the excellence of French food and +cooking is getting so widely known and appreciated that this ancient +misconception is being steadily dissipated. + +Perhaps it is because no sooner does the visitor land at Calais or +Boulogne, or step out of the railway terminus in Paris, than he sees a +kiosk where comic papers full of improper drawings are boldly +exhibited, that he comes to the conclusion that the French are an +entirely immoral people. But painful as it is to witness this +flaunting of vulgar suggestion before the casual passer-by, it is not +quite a fair gauge by which to take the standard of morals in France. +There was no wave of Puritanism in France as in England, and the +standard of public decency is therefore lower, but French home life is +probably nearly as moral as in England, and it is a well-known fact +that girls belonging to the middle classes live irreproachable lives +in the almost unnatural seclusion maintained by their parents. The +attitude of the young man towards the other sex before he marries is +certainly lamentably inferior to that of the Anglo-Saxon who may fall +from the ideal to which he has been trained, but nevertheless regards +his failure as a disaster, while the French youth looks upon such +matters as a recognised feature of his adolescence. + +Justification for the idea prevalent in Anglo-Saxon countries that the +French are exceptionally lax in their morals, can be found in the fact +that in all ranks of French society there is no secrecy maintained +when irregular relations have been established, and also in the fact +that the illegitimate births are considerably more than twice as +numerous as those of Great Britain and Ireland. It should be +remembered, however, that Germany stands only a trifle better than +France in this matter, while six other European countries are +infinitely worse. + + [Illustration: IN THE CAFÉ ARMENONVILLE IN THE BOIS DE BOULOGNE, + PARIS.] + +What are to the man in the street the characteristics of the French +race are, therefore, so wide of the truth, that until simple and +accurate books on this great and talented people are used in all +British schools it will take a considerable time to put matters +straight. In the meantime an opportunity occurs here to do something +in this direction. + +More than any other nation on the whole face of the earth the French +are a people of great ideas. They frequently leave their neighbours to +carry out the conceptions with which they enrich the world, but they +think on a great scale, and produce men and women whose agility of +mind is often hugely in advance of the age in which they live. It was +a Frenchman who first thought it feasible to sever Africa from Asia, +and made the first attempt to cut the cord that unites North and South +America; it was the French who led the way in applying the internal +combustion engine to locomotion, and they have dazzled the world with +the brilliant performances of their flying men. A Frenchman was the +pioneer in tunnel boring, and his son Isambard Brunel devised a +railway on such a magnificent scale that it still remains an ideal +which engineers regard with admiration. Another Frenchman, Charles +Bourseul, invented the telephone, and yet another led the way in the +science of bacteriology. As conscious empire-builders on a world-wide +scale the French were also putting their ideas into practice when +England was still thinking commercially in such matters. England as a +whole always does think in pounds, shillings, and pence, and in +empire-building possessions have mainly been added to the British +Empire with the idea of increasing its trade. In naval developments +France recently led the way with the submarine and submersible, +setting an example to the rest of the world which has been followed so +thoroughly that the lead in this arm of sea-power is no longer with +the pioneer country. Innumerable instances could be given of the +initiative in big ideas being taken by Frenchmen, and of other nations +taking them up and developing, perfecting, and sometimes consummating +for the first time projects devised in France. + +Mr. C. F. G. Masterman has laid stress on the patience of the British +working man, but that willingness to endure hard circumstance is not +so pronounced in England as in France. There endurance continues too +long, so that when harsh treatment becomes absolutely intolerable +there is not a fraction of patience left, with the inevitable result +that explosions of varying degrees of violence take place. British +workers bestir themselves and demand redress of grievances before they +are at the end of their patience, and can therefore wait while the +country becomes familiar with their new needs. England has thus known +no "Reign of Terror," nor does the Government of the day suddenly +collapse before some public outburst of passionate feeling. The people +who can endure the inconvenience of a Government monopoly in matches, +which makes that commodity vile in quality while costing a penny a +box, must indeed be patient. + +The average Frenchman desires to live a quiet and peaceful life +without hurry or bustle. He is content with long hours of work if he +can carry on that occupation at an easy pace, for he is steadily +industrious, and his easy-going nature lets him disregard +misgovernment too long for safety, for when at last he is roused out +of the ambling pace of his normal life, underground elements of +cruelty and bloodthirstiness may come to the surface with sudden and +terrible swiftness. If fair and honest government and tolerable +conditions of labour could be perpetually guaranteed to France, there +is scarcely a people in the world who would live more peaceable and +uneventful lives, for the British relish for adventure and the +enthusiasm for hustle to be found in the United States finds no echo +in the average French mind. Alongside this disinclination to go +helter-skelter through life is the fact that in certain ways the +French people are all artists, and that they have the critical faculty +developed to a most remarkable degree; their capacity for +discrimination and criticism might indeed be singled out as the most +salient characteristic of the whole people. Even the humblest citizen +is seldom prepared to express unqualified admiration for any piece of +handicraft or painting, but will look with thoughtful care on the +object of consideration, and probably supply an intelligent reason for +only giving it partial approval. + +On the other hand there is a great tendency to over fondness for +generalising without sufficient data; there is a delight in reasoning +and logic which often leads to false conclusions owing to a want of +real knowledge. This love of reasoning and the capacity for criticism +seem to have given the nation a regard for consequences and a care to +avoid the more or less inevitable economic day of adverse reckoning +which comes to those who are careless and indefinite in their +arrangements. It is the general thriftiness found all through the +peasant and bourgeois class of France that has, to such a great +extent, saved the various grades in the social scale from emulating +the ways of those above them. The disgrace of insolvency is so +terrifying to a French household that a thousand economies are +practised to keep such a contingency afar off, and in following this +rule of life much social intercourse, and nearly all effort to seem +more opulent than the family purse will permit, go overboard. Thus it +has become a characteristic of a most definite order that a +Frenchman's home is his castle in a fashion far more real to the +stranger than is the case in Anglo-Saxon countries. + +Briefly it may be stated that the French are a serious, cautious, +patient, and exceedingly industrious and home-loving race, enjoying +their hardly earned hours of pleasure in a more demonstrative fashion +than do the nations whose climates are less sunny. They are critical +and fond of generalisation, are capable of large and splendid moments +of inspiration, and have on the whole feminine rather than masculine +characteristics. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +FAMILY LIFE--MARRIAGE AND THE BIRTH-RATE + + +For an English resident in France to become an intimate in the home of +a French family is a rare enough occurrence, and for a visitor to +attempt to discover anything as to French family life first hand is +generally a quest doomed to failure. In the vast mass of the middle +classes the habit of mind is to remain as far as possible on the +estate of one's ancestors or in the place in which one is known. There +is no wish to live in foreign lands; those who are obliged to do so +are pitied, and foreigners who come to take up permanent residence in +France are in most instances regarded as people who, for some +regrettable reason, are obliged to live outside their native land. +This idea prevents the foreigner from receiving a cordial welcome, and +he generally labels the people of his adopted land as inhospitable. +On the other hand, it must be remembered that Belgians and Italians +belonging to a common stock are assimilated with extreme rapidity into +the great body of the nation. + +The hospitality of the average French household of the middle classes +is, owing to the need for great thrift, narrowed down to the +necessarily limited circle of the family. No sooner is the aforetime +stranger joined to a family by the tie of marriage than the doors of +the homes of all the relations are thrown wide open to receive him. It +is this custom which makes it so essential for the prospective +parents-in-law to ascertain the antecedents, the status, and financial +prospects of a proposed husband for their daughter. Should some +disaster, monetary or otherwise, fall upon this new addition of the +family, the blow is inflicted upon all the members and all the +branches of that circle. Similar enquiries are put on foot by the +parents of a son who is intending to ally himself to another family. + + [Illustration: IN THE PLACE DU THÉÂTRE FRANÇAIS, PARIS.] + +Wherever the family tie is given undue importance there is inevitably +less willingness to entertain the stranger and to take the risks this +wider sociality involves. So English people, with Paris (which they +do not really know) as the basis of their observations, are too ready +to state with confidence that there is no real home life in France. It +may be that there is less in the capital than in the rest of the +country, but Paris is the least French portion of France. The English, +or more accurately the British, quarter of Paris remains outside the +closely guarded circles of Parisian family life, and large sections of +the city live in water-tight compartments even as they do in London. +What does the average middle-class family know of the French residents +in London? Probably the number of those of the upper classes who are +closely in touch with French residents of their own social rank is +very small, and the humble French population of Soho and Pimlico live +their hard-working lives almost as detached from the rest of the city +as though they were on the other side of the Channel. + +One of the most marked differences between the Anglo-Saxon and the +French home is the fact that in the latter the place of the housemaid +is to a very great extent taken by men. The sterner sex dust and sweep +and polish as a matter of course. There is little restriction on the +amount of noise made by the servants, male and female, while they are +about their work. It is quite usual to hear them laughing, talking, +singing, and even shouting to one another, where in an English +household there would scarcely be a sound above the quietest +conversation drowned by the noise of the broom. + +The ordinary house of the middle classes does not enjoy that +periodical refurbishing and redecorating accepted as necessary north +of the Channel. With a wife as keen as himself on living well within +their joint income the French head of the family is not urged to put +aside a certain annual sum for new curtains, carpets, chair and sofa +covers, and such expensive items. The initial outlay on the home is +generally considered to be almost sufficient for a lifetime if care is +used in maintaining what has been purchased. It is not necessary to +have entered many French homes to become familiar with the typical +bedroom which is reflected faithfully enough in the average hotel. One +essential feature of a bedroom as the Anglo-Saxon knows it is alone +allowed to form a feature of the furnishing of the apartment. It is +the bed, draped as a rule with elaborate curtains and coverings and +surmounted by some form of canopy. A massive feather-bed-like +eiderdown, covering about one-half of the necessary area of the bed, +reposes at the foot and leaves those unfamiliar with these nightmare +pillows wondering if the people who use them are a practical race. The +dressing-table and washstand are generally hard to find. If there is a +_cabinet de toilette_, these essentials of a bedroom will be stowed +away in what is often a roomy cupboard, and where the feature does not +exist, both pieces of furniture will be so modest in dimensions and +sufficiently well disguised to be almost unrecognisable at a casual +glance. Conspicuously placed, however, will be an ample sofa and a +writing-table not necessarily provided with adequate writing +materials. Every effort is made to give the sleeping apartment as much +the atmosphere of a reception-room as sofas and chairs and an absence +of toilet appliances will allow, for when, right away in the fifteenth +century, it became the custom for the sovereign to hold audiences in +the bed-chamber the rest of French society imitated the royal example, +until it became an established usage in _bourgeois_ circles as much as +in those of the class which enjoyed the direct influence of court +fashions. Democratic and Republican France has swept away the whole +edifice of the monarchy, but unconsciously perpetuates in a most +remarkable fashion the weakness of a sovereign to carry on the +business of the day from his bed! + +The average husband regards the _cabinet de toilette_ as the peculiar +possession of his wife, and would hesitate to enter that annexe to his +bedroom unbidden. Possibly to those who have been brought up with this +idea the English custom of providing a small dressing-room for the +husband and allowing _madame_ paramount rights over the whole bedroom +may seem unaccountably odd. + +Formality is generally the prevailing note of the reception-rooms. +Comfortable chairs have only lately begun to make their appearance at +all, and as a rule the middle-class household maintains a traditional +severity in the arrangements of its drawing-room. Straight uninviting +chairs and an absence of any indications of books, magazines or +papers, or anything in the way of a needlework bag or a writing-table +that is in regular use, deprive the room of any home-like +individuality. The extreme economy exercised in the use of fuel makes +the unnecessary lighting of a fire a wanton extravagance. Commodities +in Paris cost double or even more than double what they do in the +British Isles, and in the country generally one-third more; the +salaries of the civil and military officials, who form such a big +section of the middle-class population, are considerably less than +those enjoyed in England, and the incomes of the professional classes +are as a rule smaller than those of the Englishman. Add to this the +abnormally high rents of Paris and it will be understood that in the +capital there is always need for the most rigid economy. _Madame_ must +keep a watchful eye on the household store of coal, not only to see +that it is not wasted in her own fires, but to make sure that +pilfering is not carried on by her servants. Where in England a fire +is kept quietly smouldering, it will be raked out in France and +relighted when required a few hours later. In this way a good deal of +hardihood in the endurance of cold is developed, and contrivances in +the way of stoves that burn fuel with extreme economy are much in use. +This restraint in coal consumption reduces the quantity of carbon +particles discharged into the atmosphere of French cities, and +accounts to a great extent for the clearer air the inhabitants enjoy, +at the same time keeping the annual bill for coal and wood down to +very modest proportions. + +Economy must also be rigidly maintained in the purchase of food, and +this is generally accomplished by discreet buying in the markets. A +servant or a member of the household makes daily purchases in this +manner, and the middleman's profits on the chief part of the food +required are successfully avoided. In Paris the maid-of-all-work, who +is generally the only servant employed in a modest flat, makes these +daily purchases, out of which she obtains from those with whom she +deals a commission of a _sou_ in every _franc_ expended. This is a +universally recognised custom, but in addition there is a prevalent +but altogether reprehensible practice, known as _faire danser l'anse +du panier_. It is pure dishonesty, for the _bonne_ puts down in the +books a small overcharge on each item, and this with the market-man's +_sou du franc_ amounts to a considerable sum in the course of a year, +often nearly equal to her wage. It is an interesting fact that Breton +servants are generally quite guiltless of the overcharge system, for +the people of Brittany are of much the same stock as the Welsh, +concerning whom there is a proverb for which the writer fails to find +justification. + +_Déjeuner_ at 11.30 or 12 and dinner at 6.30 or 7 are the two +essential meals of the day. Breakfast, served in the bedroom, consists +of coffee or chocolate and small crisply baked rolls with butter and +perhaps honey, while the Anglo-Saxon meal called tea is only an +established feature among the upper classes, where English customs are +extremely fashionable. The two chief meals both consist of at least +four courses, with a cup of coffee added to give a finish to the +whole. It might be thought absurd for those who are poor or living +with great economy to begin their meals with an _hors-d'oeuvre_, but +Miss Betham-Edwards, whose knowledge of the French is sufficiently +wide to be an authority, asserts that a careful housekeeper will give +this preliminary course as an economy, for being great bread-eaters a +little scrap of ham or sausage or herring eaten with several mouthfuls +of bread will take the edge off the appetite and enable her to be less +lavish with the other courses. Soup is very frequently made out of the +water in which vegetables have been stewed with a suspicion of +flavouring added, and the meat courses are provided not from large +joints, but from little scraps of meat which the French butcher +produces in astonishing quantities from the same animal as his English +neighbour handles in an entirely different and very much less +economical fashion. These methods of cutting with a view to quantity +rather than quality give much of the meat an unhappy toughness as +though it were cut across or against the grain. Even the +_bonne-à-tout-faire_ will prefer to make a sacrifice in the quantity +of food in each course of a meal if by so doing she can be quite sure +of finishing with a cup of coffee. + +The contrast of the mid-day meal, consisting of a chop and bread and +cheese, supplied by the small provincial hotel to the commercial +traveller in England, with that provided or obtainable in France, is +astonishing. It is true that the knife and fork given for the first +course must be retained for those that follow, but this little +labour-saving custom can be overlooked in the presence of the savoury +dishes that follow. Still more pronounced is the contrast when +dinner-time arrives, for a very large majority of country hostelries +in England will offer nothing more varied than a large plate of ham +and eggs or cold meat, followed by bread and cheese and perhaps +apple or plum tart. It is the universal demand for appetising and +well-cooked meals throughout France that ensures for the wayfarer +wherever he goes an excellent dinner of several courses. It would, +however, be unfair not to mention that a very great improvement has +been taking place in the hotels of England in the last few years owing +to the demand for well-cooked meals caused by motorists. The +pre-eminence of France in this matter will cease to be remarkable +before long if the present rapid progress is maintained. If one +enquires still further into the reasons for French folk being dainty +in the way their food is prepared, the explanation given by Mr. T. +Rice Holmes that Celtic peoples as a rule have weak stomachs may +perhaps be the correct answer. + + [Illustration: EVENING IN THE PLACE D'IÉNA, PARIS.] + +If wall-papers are not often renewed in French houses, there is a +delight in clean raiment which is most commendable. Clothes which are +not washable are frequently sent to the cleaner, and as the most +poorly paid _midinette_ generally buys good materials for her clothes +they last some time, and will stand cleaning and refurbishing better +than the average clothes worn by her equals in England. This is +typical of the inborn thrift of the whole nation. Personal ablutions +are, on the other hand, not so frequent or so thorough as among +Anglo-Saxons, the supply of water for this purpose being generally +very meagre and the basin for washing the face and hands awkwardly +small. The itinerant bath is still to be found in country towns. It is +brought to the house of those who desire to indulge in this luxury, +and the water at the required temperature is provided also. The +rinsing out of a bath with a little clean water after it has been used +is not considered a sufficiently thorough method of satisfying +individual fastidiousness, and a cotton covering large enough to +entirely line the bath is therefore usually provided for each person. +If one adds to this the difficulties confronting those for whom it is +considered scarcely within the limits of propriety that they should be +entirely unhampered by garments while in the bath, this simple +operation of the toilet becomes a somewhat laborious undertaking! + +It has been already stated how great is the reverence of the French +for the family. It is certainly fostered by that wonderful institution +the Family Council, a form of highly developed autonomy dating from +the far-away days when France was a Romanised province. The council +is formed to look after the welfare of orphans and weak-minded and +ne'er-do-weel minors. It consists of six members--three from among the +relatives of each parent--and is presided over by a local _juge de +paix_, who is attended by his clerk. + +For those sons of wealthy parents who are developing into incorrigible +idlers and a source of perpetual anxiety to their parents, owing too +often to the excess of ill-judged kindness lavished on only sons by +widowed mothers, there has been instituted in France what is known as +_la maison paternelle_. If sent to this establishment the boy +generally threatens to commit suicide or some other desperate act. He +is at first placed in a solitary cell, where he is under the constant +supervision and the special care of a "professor," who is appointed to +deal with the particular case. By salutary talk, the most inflexible +discipline, and regular studies, accompanied by a judicial kindliness, +the refractory youths are almost invariably brought to their senses +after a few months, and retain the warmest affection for the +professors in after years. + +As a rule the French child of almost every class except the very +lowest comes into the world with the prospect of some future +inheritance of land or capital. The first infant in a very large +proportion of families is both alpha and omega, and it is very +exceptional for parents not to restrict their offspring to two or +perhaps three, which is almost counted as a large family. For some +time past census figures reveal the very remarkable fact that +considerably over 1¾ millions of married couples are childless. +Rather more than a quarter of the marriages result in one child; +another quarter has two children, and 17 per cent are childless. Thus +the duty of making up the deficiency of one large section and the +total failure of another falls upon one-third of the married couples, +and the latest returns show that this task is only just accomplished, +the average number of births for each family hovering about the +bed-rock figure 2. The year 1907 was altogether alarming, for the +figures showed 19,890 more deaths than births for the twelve months, +and it has been with considerable relief that the civilised world has +seen the surplus turned over to the more healthy direction in +subsequent years. With a population that does not increase there is +less and less danger of overcrowding or of extreme poverty, and +therefore France houses her citizens better than Germany, England, or +the United States. The individual child arrives in the world with his +or her place more or less made in advance, and as the years pass by +the son or daughter steps into the vacancy caused by the departure to +"the land o' the leal" of a parent or relation. Such an even balance +of vacancies and new arrivals tends to make livelihoods more stable in +France than in the countries where the number of persons to the square +mile is steadily increasing; it robs the whole nation of any desire to +find homes outside the limits of the fatherland, and makes it +practically impossible to make any real use of colonial possessions. +Until civilised countries come to settle their differences without the +senseless and futile appeals to brute force, by which they have +unsuccessfully striven to do so in the past, this static condition of +the population of France can only be looked upon as a calamity, but +the growing strength of commercial ties is weakening bellicist +prejudices and national antipathies every day, and the fact that the +nations are now asking themselves whether any advantage is gained by +fighting a civilised people shows that the world is on the threshold +of emancipation from what is most truly a great illusion. + +Being so often the only child or one of two, the infant enters on life +as the ruler of the household. The devoted parents, instead of +following the golden maxim, which says "Apply the rod early enough and +there will be no need to use it at all," give way to every passing +mood or whim of their offspring, and insist that the nurse shall +follow the same foolish course. If the infant cries it obviously needs +something, and this must be supplied regardless of character-building. +No wonder that _la maison paternelle_ has been found a needful +institution in the land! Maternal duties are not as a rule undertaken +by the mother, and in a very large number of instances this is +necessitated or at least encouraged by the large share in the +maintenance of the household taken by the wife. In Parisian flats the +_concierge_, owing to the smallness of his wage, is generally obliged +to go out to work and depute his wife to undertake his duties during +his absence. A mewling and puking infant under these conditions is a +nuisance and must be brought up elsewhere. + +In the average middle-class home the children are not given their +meals in the nursery, but at a very early age eat at the same table +as their parents, and enjoy a varied menu including wine when English +children are still having little besides milk puddings and mince. + +Much more is concentrated into the earlier years of life in France +than across the Channel. This is particularly so in regard to the +_jeune fille_, who ceases to come under that title as soon as she has +reached the age of twenty-five. The business of getting married must +be achieved by that time, or else there is nothing for it but +acquiescence in the popular judgment that the young girl has become an +old girl--is on the shelf--and to preserve her self-respect must +retire either to a convent or a conventual boarding-house. This custom +is, like many others, as undesirably mediaeval, gradually breaking +down owing to the strongly intellectual training now given to the +_jeune fille_ at state _lycées_. No religious instruction is given in +these schools, and the girls are therefore developing a new +independence. A change, too, is taking place in the extremely secluded +life that girls of the middle and upper classes have hitherto led. +They are not invariably taken to school and fetched by a maid, and it +is quite possible that this emancipation from continual supervision +may lead to a considerable modification in the present method of +arranging marriages. The existing system of the choice of a husband +for their daughter being made by the devoted parents has a striking +similarity to the customs of the Far East. The young men the _jeune +fille_ is allowed to see are only those who are eminently eligible, +that is, whose financial position is sound and whose family +connections are not likely to cause anxiety when brought into the +family circle by the union of the two young people. + + [Illustration: THE CENTRE OF PARIS.] + +To the French mind the idea of the betrothal of a man and a girl +without the necessary means for immediately entering the state of +matrimony is looked at with the most extreme disfavour. "Falling in +love" might lead to most undesirable family ties, for each of the two +parties concerned marries a family as well as a husband and wife +respectively. No, the _mariage d'inclination_ is a danger, and the +young people must learn to fall in love during the honeymoon, a task +the French girl seems to find less impossible than it sounds. The +Anglo-Saxon method of a growing and entirely non-committal intimacy +followed by a period of betrothal scarcely exists in France. Having +little knowledge or experience of men, the girl accepts the suitor +proposed by her parents because, as a rule, she has not much choice +and the time is short before she has reached the old-maidish age of +twenty-five. Then beyond this there is all the thrill and romance of +some new and strange life in which she may succeed in falling +desperately in love with her husband. If not, the situation has +occurred before, and the average married woman seems to find some +solace in other interests; there will perhaps be a son or a daughter, +or possibly both, and on them it will be easy for her to expend her +pent-up feelings of love, and later on there will perchance come what +is an ideal with the average Frenchwoman--the satisfaction of being a +grandmother. + +During the short time between the formal acceptance of her proposed +husband and the wedding ceremony the affianced pair are not as a rule +allowed to be together alone. No doubt in many instances this harsh +ruling of long-established custom is broken through, but it would be +done surreptitiously unless the parties concerned were exceptionally +emancipated from the great body of French tradition. It is also quite +unusual for the mother to speak of love when discussing with her +daughter a man who has offered himself as a husband; it is merely +understood that he is pleased with the girl's general appearance and +not dissatisfied with her _dot_. + +Strict Roman Catholics do not recognise the civil contract beyond +going through the required legal ceremony. The banns, stating several +personal particulars regarding the parents as well as the contracting +parties, are put up at the _mairie_ ten days before the marriage can +be performed. If the betrothed pair have not reached the age of +thirty, they must have the consent of their parents, but over +twenty-one they are able to obtain that consent through a legal +process at the office of a certified notary. Even extreme action of +this character does not entail total loss of a certain portion of the +parental inheritance, for the Civil Code does not permit parents to +leave more than a proportion to strangers. One-half must fall to the +children's share. Quite recently an example of the small satisfaction +this may cause to the recipients came to light. An aged grandparent's +estate produced a sum of 100 francs, to be divided equally between +four legatees. The legal expenses entailed in certifying the status of +each party and other matters ran up to such a large sum that the +surplus divisible was barely 20 francs. + +On the appointed day the wedding party assembles at the _mairie_, +where the mayor, after reading to the couple that portion of the Civil +Code relating to the duties of the married state, hears their +declaration and the permission of the parents, after which both +parties exchange wedding rings and are pronounced man and wife. The +register having been signed, first by the wife and then by the +husband, the civil ceremony is complete, and in Republican society the +wedded pair as a rule trouble themselves not at all about the attitude +of the Church to the contract they have made. Many, however, as +already stated, do not regard this as the real wedding, and the bride +and bridegroom remain apart until the next day, or perhaps two or +three days later, when the religious ceremony is performed in a +church. There the wedding rings are blessed before being put on, and +the completion of the religious ceremony is marked by the presentation +of a tray for offerings. One cannot be very long in a French church +without this opportunity presenting itself. The writer has vivid +recollections of his almost precipitate retreat from the Madeleine +after he had been present for a short time at a service in that +classic church on the occasion of his first visit to Paris. His memory +recalls how cheerfully he paid for his seat for the first time, how he +produced another coin when, with a charming smile, a young woman +applied for a second alms, and how, when a third bag was placed before +him with the words _pour les pauvres_, he found a sou, and in a few +moments had, with a sigh of relief, exchanged the Gregorian +solemnities of the great church for the rattle and stir of the +_Boulevard des Capucines_. + +But to return to the wedding ceremony. The young couple having been +now made man and wife in the sight of Church as well as the State, +they start on their voyage together into the unknown, to discover one +another and, if possible, after what answers to a time of courting, to +fall in love with each other. Should this time of exploration into +each other's characters and temperaments, likes and dislikes, prove +entirely unsatisfactory, it becomes a matter of acute interest to +enquire how the knot may be loosened or untied. Until 1883 divorce was +not legal, but since that year of emancipation the Civil Code permits +it for several reasons. These are divided under three headings: +first, unfaithfulness or desertion on either side; second, acts of +violence and _injures graves_, which covers the great area of +incompatibility of temperament; and third, penal sentences passed on +the man or woman. It is fairly obvious that this wide doorway will +permit the entrance of a great majority of those who wish for freedom +from an ill-chosen partner, and the result has been a steady increase +in the number of divorces in recent years. The figures were 10,573 in +1906 and 13,049 in 1910. Even the Church of Rome will allow the +marriage tie to be severed under certain conditions not perhaps open +to a poor couple. + +There can be little doubt that divorce in France is facilitated by the +fact that the wife has in most cases an independent source of income, +and is therefore economically on her feet in the event of a +termination of her wedded state. She is, generally speaking, looked +upon with less favour as a divorced woman than is a man. No doubt this +is due to slow-dying prejudice in favour of the man in these +circumstances. Changes are, however, coming with such accelerating +speed in these matters that anything written to-day is more or less +out of date by the time it is printed. + +To come back to the normal condition of married persons in France, +there is no doubt that, surprising as it may seem, the _jeune fille_ +does in a very large majority of cases settle down contentedly with +the husband chosen by her parents. She blossoms with the speed of an +Indian juggler's magic plant into a woman of affairs, and in a very +short time is taken into the fullest confidence in monetary matters by +her husband. Many develop such a capacity for business that they +rapidly out-distance their men folk in such matters, and if, as is +very often the case in middle-class life, they are obliged to +contribute towards the family budget, their earnings will frequently +exceed those of the easy-going husband. Any one at all intimate with +France knows the keenness and capacity of the woman in business, +whether as a shopkeeper, a manageress, or a hotel proprietor. They can +drive a hard bargain and are less easy to deal with than men, although +the writer is inclined to think that he has met quite as many men as +women who are difficult or unpleasant in a financial matter. + +In spite of this frequently existing superior ability in dealing with +money matters, a wife must obtain her husband's written consent before +she touches her capital! And further than this, the Civil Code +requires that the husband must make good any deficiency from his +wife's original _dot_ should he wish to obtain a divorce, +notwithstanding the fact that the diminution had taken place with her +consent; and it is a curious and interesting fact that in the case of +disagreement the husband finds the Code ignores the perchance superior +wisdom of the wife. + +As a rule it is _madame_ who rules the household, while "_mon mari_" +is a worshipper who obeys willingly, both being the slaves of their +child or children, to whom within the strict boundaries of _comme il +faut_ nothing must be denied. How, with such spoiling as children, the +French man and woman grow up to do their share in the world's work it +is hard to understand. Possibly the dislike evinced by the race as a +whole to undertake an adventurous career entailing risk, the lack of +some of the luxuries which have been long enjoyed, and an element of +uncertainty may be in part ascribed to the lack of discipline in the +nursery. An explanation for this characteristic might be given by +merely pointing to the figures of population, which, as just +mentioned, remain almost stationary, and do not provide that driving +force which sends other peoples out into new lands in great numbers; +but this condition of a static population has been brought about +voluntarily by the people themselves, through their desire to be sure +of a safe and prearranged career for their offspring. And so it is the +family life of the French, the predominance of the weaker partner, and +the craving after those conditions of existence generally regarded as +feminine, which result in a weakening of France as a colonising +nation, and often cause misgivings in the minds of those who are her +well-wishers. + + [Illustration: THE MARKET PLACE AND CATHEDRAL AT ABBEVILLE.] + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +HOW THE FRENCH GOVERN THEMSELVES + + +It may be broadly stated that the French people are content to be +governed and to feel a controlling authority in operation in all +departments of their lives. This results in a silent acquiescence +under long-endured grievances which could easily be redressed by a +little ventilation of public opinion. Where the Anglo-Saxon uses his +newspapers to make known his attitude towards various matters +requiring new legislation, where he takes advantage of an election, +parliamentary or municipal, to obtain undertakings from candidates, +the average Frenchman will neither write nor speak, so that editors +and deputies, and the great public as well, remain generally ignorant +of a widespread area of smouldering resentment. Like the burning +coal-beds not unfrequently discovered in Central Europe, the +underground combustion, which has perhaps been continuing for many +years, is only brought to light by accident. + +When legislation takes place on some important economic issue it will +be framed, as a rule, on abstract lines disregarding the past, and in +many ways ignoring general convenience. There is in this way little +evolution in the growth of the French constitution, and an old law may +exist unmodified so long that when change comes it is so out of date +that it must be swept away. The Revolution cut down to the roots the +rotten tree of unregenerate feudalism, and planted in its place a +sapling which has to conform to the essential requirements of +progress; it must be trimmed and lopped, and must put forth new growth +in order that it too, in the effluxion of time, may not become as +unsuited to modern needs as its predecessor. + +In August 1789 the first Republican Parliament wrote down certain +cardinal matters relating to the welfare and freedom of the individual +and called it the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. +Thirteen years before this the United States of North America had +drawn up their Declaration of Independence, and no doubt this +inspired those who framed the more compactly worded document. In their +seventeen brief articles French Republicans, in an age when ideas of +freedom had fertilised both sides of the Atlantic, boldly and simply +stated their new-born beliefs, commencing with the assertion that "All +men are born and remain free and have equal rights." In _Article 2_ +they stated that "the object of all political groupings is the +preservation of the natural, inalienable, and sacred rights of man," +those rights being "liberty, property, security, and the right to +resist oppression." Although possessing the last-mentioned power, it +has already been pointed out that the people are slow to make use of +it. The nation likewise fails to carry out the spirit of _Article 9_, +which says, "As a man is deemed innocent until he shall have been +declared guilty should it be necessary to arrest him no rigour that is +not essential for the securing of his person shall be tolerated by the +law." In the final--the 17th--Article there is food for thought for +the Socialist, for it is there stated that property is "an inviolable +and sacred right," followed by the qualifying sentence, "No man may be +deprived of it, unless public interest demand it evidently and +according to the Law, provided, moreover, that a fair indemnity be +first paid to him." Even the most civilised of peoples are still a +good deal short of that high degree of wisdom and goodness which will +make every man competent and willing to be his brother's keeper, and +it is therefore probable that for some time to come _Article 17_ will +stand as a living part of the French Constitution. It is interesting +to remember that in the Declaration of 1789 the right of Habeas Corpus +was first established in France, while it had been on the statute book +of England for over a century, and would have been there some time +before but for repeated rejections by the House of Lords. + +Upon the splendid substructure of the Declaration of the Rights of Man +the first French Constitution was reared. It was framed with care, +took two years in the making, and was finally accepted by Louis in +1791. Since then there have been many constitutions, but, omitting the +Napoleonic interlude, the principles of the Declaration show +themselves with triumphant ascendency as the foundation of each +reconstruction. Like all written constitutions, modifications are +frequently found necessary. There is none of the elasticity of the +unwritten constitution which exists only in the land of the people who +are said to have a genius for governing themselves, and perhaps it is +that endowment with the capacity for self-government which makes the +nebulous character of the British Constitution so valuable. It is true +that a very great majority of well-educated British people could not +give any clear idea of the nature of the constitution of their +country, and when any constitutional point arises only a handful of +experts can state how far the precedents of the past, by which the +constitution is modified, affect the immediate issue; and yet there +would be a considerable feeling of alarm if it were seriously proposed +to make the whole situation plain by producing a modern written +constitution, however much based on all that has gone before. + +Britons, as a rule, do not even trouble to acquaint themselves with +the survival of many ancient royal prerogatives. Walter Bagehot[1] +puts into one pregnant paragraph what Queen Victoria could do without +consulting Parliament. "Not to mention other things," he writes, "she +could disband the army (by law she cannot engage more than a certain +number of men, but she is not obliged to engage any men); she could +dismiss all the officers, from the General Commanding-in-Chief +downwards; she could dismiss all the sailors too; she could sell off +all our ships of war and all our naval stores; she could make a peace +by the sacrifice of Cornwall, and begin a war for the conquest of +Brittany. She could make every citizen in the United Kingdom, male or +female, a peer; she could make every parish in the United Kingdom a +'university'; she could dismiss most of the civil servants; she could +pardon all offenders." The present sovereign could do the same, but +safeguards in the form of impeachment of Ministers and change of a +Ministry preserve the country from proceedings of this nature; but in +a country with a written constitution such legacies from the days when +the head of the State was a military dictator exist no longer. + + [1] _The English Constitution_, Introduction to 1872 Edition. + +While the British law-makers and administrators bear on their backs +the whole weight of centuries of laborious constitution-building, the +French work with the light equipment of a constitution framed in 1875, +everything prior to that date being null and void.[2] No French +politician is therefore required at any time to be aware of a usage of +the reign of Louis XI., or any curtailment of the royal authority +which may have taken place when Philippe Auguste occupied the throne. +The throne itself has ceased to exist since the fall of Napoleon III. +in 1870, and France since that year has remained under its third +Republic. + + [2] The Constitution was slightly revised in 1879 and 1884. + +The laws passed in 1875 provide that the legislative power shall be in +the hands of two assemblies--the Chamber of Deputies and the +Senate--and the executive in those of an elected President and the +Ministry. The Upper House or Senate is composed of 300 members, now +entirely elected by the Departments or Senate. They must be over forty +years of age. In England, if the Prime Minister is a commoner he can +only go into the Upper House as a listener, and all the Cabinet are +under the same restriction, but in France Ministers can sit in both +Chambers and can speak in either place as occasion requires or the +spirit moves. Voting, however, is restricted to the Chamber to which +the Minister belongs. One is inclined to wonder whether eloquence +that stirs the hearts and sways the voting in the British House of +Commons would be as productive if addressed to the hereditary body. +There is no separate Minister for the Post Office, that office being +included in the Ministry of Commerce, and there are only twelve +Ministers against the twenty or twenty-one of the British Cabinet. The +Ministry of Labour and Public Thrift appears almost quaint to the much +less thrifty people of England. + +The Lower Chamber consists of 584 deputies, and is elected every four +years by universal suffrage. On coming of age, every citizen not in +military service and having a residential qualification of six months +may exercise the franchise. Women have not yet achieved the right to +vote. Perhaps the majority of French married women exercise already as +much power as they care to possess, for even peasant women are quite +familiar with the method of voting through their docile husbands. Only +in 1897 were women entitled by law to act as witnesses in civil +transactions; prior to that date a woman came under the same category +as a minor or the insane! + +That the Frenchwoman is beginning to wake up to the possibilities of +her twentieth-century emancipation is shown in a hundred directions. +In January 1913 a woman came forward as a candidate for the French +presidential chair, the first in the history of the Republic. When +questioned as to the seriousness of her purpose she asked, "And why +not a woman head of the State? People may regard it as a joke; but +what about Catherine the Great and Queen Victoria?" When one +remembers, too, the astonishing business capacity of the average +Frenchwoman, one is inclined to echo the question, "Why not?" There +are already more than a dozen women barristers in Paris, besides +seventy doctors, eighteen dentists, ten oculists, and six chemists! +Women, too, have for many years occupied on the railways of France +positions which are exclusively in the hands of the stronger sex in +England. Who is not familiar with the hard-faced woman who with a horn +at her lips controls the level crossings? + +The only restriction among French citizens to becoming President is +that which rules out any member of a royal family which has reigned in +France. He is elected for seven years and the salary is £48,000 a +year, one half of which is received as salary, the other being for +travelling and official expenses connected with office. This sum +appears generous when contrasted with the £5000 paid to the British +First Lord of the Treasury and his unpaid services as Prime Minister +of the Crown. The President appoints all the Ministers and heads of +the civil and military departments. He declares war with the consent +of both Houses, and a Minister counter-signs every act. + +The national desire for security prompts the men folk of a large +proportion of the upper middle classes to aim towards the pleasantly +safe pigeon-holes in the State dovecot. In order to attain these +places of refuge from commercial or professional struggle, every +public official who has reached the desired haven of his ambition, or +at least one of the assured steps that will surely lead him thither, +is the subject of endless demands for aid in the same direction from +his remotest relatives and acquaintances. Upon this system of +_pistonnage_ the aspirant to an official position must lean, for if he +does not the crowd ready to fill each vacancy will all have superior +chances on account of the word here and there spoken on their behalf +in the right quarter. _Pistonnage_ does not, however, apply to those +who aspire to a seat in either the Senate or the Chamber of Deputies, +where a salary of 15,000 fr. a year and free travelling relieves the +representative of financial anxiety, so long as he is devoting his +time to his country's service. + +By direct and semi-direct taxation about £25,000,000 was produced in +1912. These taxes include a levy on windows and doors, varying +according to the density of the population, the more closely inhabited +areas paying more than the less populous. There is a tax on land not +built upon, assessed in accordance with its net yearly revenue based +on the register of property drawn up in the earlier half of last +century and kept up to date. The Building tax is 3.2 per cent on the +rental value, and is paid by the owner. The Personal tax places a +fixed capitation on every citizen, varying from 1s. 3d. to 3s. 9d. +according to the department. The Habitation tax is paid by every one +occupying a house or apartments in proportion to the rent. The Trade +License tax embraces all trades, and consists of a fixed duty levied +on the extent of business as revealed by the number of employés, and +population, and the locality, and so on, and also an assessment on +the letting value of the premises. + +By indirect taxation a little over £100,000,000 was raised in 1912. +The sum was realised by stamps of all sorts (excluding postage), by +registration duties on the transfer of property in business ways and +general changes of ownership, and by customs, including a tax on Stock +Exchange transactions, a tax of 4 per cent on dividends from stocks +and shares, taxes on alcohol, wine, beer, cider, and alcoholic liquors +generally, on home-produced salt and sugar, and on railway passenger +and goods traffic. The State monopolies of tobacco, matches, and +gunpowder produced the large sum of £38,000,000, but even this did not +meet the charges for interest on the National Debt, which were about +51½ millions, the accumulated sum for which this is required being +(1912) £1,301,718,302. This is almost double as great as the British +national indebtedness. + +Over each of the 86 Departments is a prefect chosen by the Minister of +the Interior, and through him the minor officials are kept in touch +with the Government. The arrondissement and the canton are +administrative divisions into which each Department is divided, each +canton including about a dozen communes. The commune is controlled by +the mayor, who is chief magistrate and, as in England, is the head of +the municipal body. According to the size of the commune deputy mayors +are elected. The great city of Lyons requires 17 of these officials, +and when one remembers that the presence of the mayor or a deputy +mayor is required at every marriage in order that it may become legal, +the number does not seem excessive. + +Every canton has its _juge de paix_, who is in a general sense a +police court judge. He tries small cases, but his responsibilities are +carefully limited, and he may not inflict a fine exceeding 200 francs. +Any offence requiring a heavier hand must go up to the _Tribunal +correctionnel de l'arrondissement_ or the court of _Première +Instance_. The _juge de paix_ wears a tall hat encircled with a broad +silver band, and although, as a rule, a man who has received a fairly +good education, his salary averages between £120 and £160 per annum. +On such an income there is no opportunity for pretentious living! The +wife of a _juge de paix_ cannot, as a rule, afford to keep a +nursemaid, and one maid-of-all-work is as much as the _ménage_ can +afford to maintain. Nevertheless the position is an honourable one, +there is a pension at sixty years, and the hours of labour are, to the +man with a sense of humour, often brightened by the absurdity of the +cases that are brought into court. There is generally much fun for the +court in the frequent cases of _diffamation_, in which citizens drag +one another into the presence of the _juge de paix_ for calling each +other names. The court allows noisy altercation in a fashion unknown +in England, and the task of the magistrate is, to the Anglo-Saxon +mind, almost beyond belief. The breezy outpourings of plaintiff and +defendant are ended with the _juge de paix's_ words, "You can retire," +and, as a rule, some sound and friendly advice has been offered to the +unneighbourly neighbours. A very considerable amount of litigation +arises through the possession of land or houses, for the thriftiness +of the French has always inclined the people towards the ownership of +their farms or the land they till. In the old days before the +Revolution, all such disputes came before courts in which the +unprivileged and poor might be fairly sure of losing the day. The +scandal of those venal courts was so great that nothing short of a +clean sweep could effectually rid the land of the curse they +inflicted, and the overthrow of the monarchy was followed by the +establishment of administrators of justice who were servants of the +State and none other. + +The correctional courts mentioned deal with the graver offences which +are outside the ambit of the _juge de paix_. As a rule there are three +judges and no jury. These courts are empowered to inflict punishment +up to imprisonment for five years. The Courts of Assize are held every +three months in each Department. They are presided over by a +councillor of the Court of Appeal with two assistants and a jury of +twelve, but a unanimous verdict is not required, the fate of the +accused hanging on a majority only. Another feature of these courts is +the _juge d'instruction's_ secret preliminary investigation into each +case. + +Superior to the Courts of Assize are those of Appeal and the _Cour de +Cassation_, which became so well known to the English public during +the famous trial of Dreyfus. This court, as its name implies, can +abrogate the ruling of any other tribunal, with the exception of the +administrative courts. This high authority decides on matters of +legal principle or whether the court from which appeal has been made +was competent to make the decision in question. It does not concern +itself primarily with the facts of the case, and if it should annul +any finding the case is sent to a fresh hearing of a court of the same +authority. + +The administrative police, or _gardiens de la paix_, are approximately +equivalent to British police constables, and must not be confused with +the _gendarmerie_, which is a military body carrying out civil duties +in times of peace. The _gendarmerie_ are recruited from the army, +there being one legion in each army corps district. Their strength is +roughly 22,000 men, equally divided between cavalry and infantry. In +Paris there is a separate force known as the _Garde républicaine_, +which carries out police duties very much the same as the +_gendarmerie_ in the Departments. They number about 3000, of whom 800 +are mounted. The French prison system was in a very antiquated state +in 1874, when a commission on prison discipline issued its report in +favour of cellular confinements. Prisons were therefore reconstructed, +and after many years had elapsed some of the older ones were +demolished, the prisoners thereafter being removed from the +disadvantages they encountered in association. The system of +isolation required the construction of a huge new prison at +Fresnes-les-Rungis. It contains 1500 cells, and when it was completed +in 1898 the historic Paris prisons of Grande-Roquette, St. Pélagie, +and Mazas were swept away. + + [Illustration: FIVE O'CLOCK TEA IN PARIS.] + +Taken as a whole, one can scarcely endorse Taine's utterance that +modern France is the work of Napoleon. The present organisation of the +nation is undoubtedly due to the masterly brain and tireless energy of +Napoleon, but the national characteristics of the French people have +shown little change. The existence of a constitution, the even-handed +administration of justice, and the opening of the highest offices in +the State to the citizen of the humblest origin, do not yet seem to +have affected the nature of the people. Laughter, tears, and anger are +still near the surface; love of adventure in thought, word, and deed +does not yet lead the French into the acquisition of the solid +advantages their enterprise would bring did they only persevere on the +lines of their initial enterprise. In spite of the almost frantic +desire for liberty there is no doubt that the French tamely submit to +a régime which Englishmen would find in some matters quite +intolerable. If suspicion of smuggling falls upon a house the police +can make domiciliary visits of a quite arbitrary character. The Civil +Code, too, must be regarded as oppressive so long as it retains its +attitude of looking upon the untried person as guilty until such time +as his trial establishes his innocence, and the Anglo-Saxon mind is +revolted at the practice of endeavouring to extort a confession from a +prisoner. The Napoleonic mould did not alter these qualities, and even +in the matter of religious tolerance the French have still much to +learn. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +ON EDUCATION AND RELIGION + + +The annual sum of 4250 francs (£170) was considered by Napoleon--in so +far as he had opportunity for considering the subject--a sufficient +amount of money to devote directly to the education of the people! But +the rulers of States a brief century ago were, as a whole, inclined to +leave educational matters in clerical hands, and the nineteenth +century will stand out in the world's history as the dawn of State +responsibility in regard to the education of the people. + +At the Restoration in 1814 more than twelve times as great a sum as +that expended by Napoleon was being devoted to education, and the +amount rose to 3,000,000 francs in 1830, to 12,000,000 during the +Second Empire, and to 160,000,000 under the Third Republic. To the +last sum must be added another 100,000,000 francs (excluding the +money devoted to the erection of schools) spent by the municipalities +and communes, making a total of about £11,400,000. In 1912 the State +alone was spending about £12,000,000 on national education. + +At the head of this great spending department of the State is the +Minister of Public Instruction. He controls not only the whole of the +primary schools, but to some extent the entire educational machinery +of the country, private schools being subjected to State inspection +and supervision. Between 1901 and 1907 some 3000 public clerical +schools, and more than 13,000 private clerical schools, were +suppressed by law. The law passed in 1904 required that all schools +controlled by religious bodies should be closed within the next ten +years, which period is just about to elapse. Since the State awoke to +its responsibilities in educational matters, it has taken roughly a +century finally to extinguish clerical control. The schools are +divided into the three grades of Primary, Secondary, and Higher, and +the State admits into any of these pupils of any grade of society. In +the rooms of _lycée_ or college the classes meet in a truly democratic +fashion. The college, which is controlled by the commune under the +State, is considered inferior to the _lycée_, which is entirely in the +hands of the central authority. While the primary schools are +compulsory and gratuitous between the ages of six and thirteen, the +secondary schools charge small fees ranging from £2 a year up to £16. +But parents with bright children can often avoid this expenditure +through the lavish system of scholarships offered by the State. + +_Lycées_ were first established for girls in 1880, and there are now +several in existence, one of them having 700 students. The hours of +the classes are from 8.30 to 11.30, and from 1.30 to 3.30, and the aim +has been to run them on the same lines as those of the boys. Since +clericalism was removed from the education of girls, there has no +doubt been a very considerable change in the scholastic environment of +the _jeune fille_, but until a long period has elapsed it will be +difficult for any but those in the closest touch with educational life +in France to point out how far the advantages outweigh the +disadvantages or _vice versa_. The lay schoolmistress may be in +essentials as religiously-minded as any convent-trained type of woman. +Her influence on her pupils may produce as moral and as religious +types of women in the coming generation as those of the immediate +past, but in such a change in the training of the girls of a race not +fond of moral discipline who can foresee the results? + +The general tendency of the training given in the _lycée_ has been +towards the suppression of originality. There seems to have grown up +in the mind of the authorities an impression that the only means of +keeping the youth of France under proper control is by holding them +down with an iron grip, not merely during the hours of work but during +recreation also. This may have been necessitated by a certain lack of +discipline in the earliest years of life, young children being allowed +to have their own way to an altogether undesirable extent. As soon as +they are old enough the boys, having, as a rule, begun to be a source +of much trouble in the home, are sent to school. If their parents are +able to afford the fees, the gates of the _lycée_ soon close upon +their days of wilfulness and disobedience. In place of the home life +and the feminine influence with which they have been familiar, they +are confronted with a discipline of semi-military severity. Games are +not allowed, and in the hours of recreation in walled playgrounds of a +generally forbidding order, walking and talking alone are permitted. +Here, as in the class-room, the boys are perpetually under the eyes of +the _pion_, whose duties are restricted entirely to the maintenance of +order. Owing to suppression in natural directions, it is not +surprising if the minds of the boys should turn into the unhealthy +directions of intrigue and pernicious literature. + +M. Demolins, who a few years ago tried the experiment of running his +school on English lines, has found the results excellent. So greatly +appreciated are his efforts to abolish the bad features of the _lycée_ +that he is unable to meet the demand on the capacity of his buildings. +He is of opinion that the Anglo-Saxon is superior to the French +because of the better training given at school, discouragement of +initiative and suppression of independence being the chief features of +the schools of his own country, while the Anglo-Saxon allows boys a +freedom which develops self-reliance and individuality. + +"Every one knows our dreadful college," writes M. Demolins, "with its +much too long classes and studies, its recreations far too short and +without exercise, its prison walks a monotonous going and coming +between high heart-breaking walls, and then every Sunday and Thursday +the military promenade in rank, the exercise of old men, not of +youth." + +The boarder at the _lycée_, of course, feels the harshness of the +régime to a degree that the day-boy never experiences, home hours +mitigating the severity of the long working day. + +As a whole, it may be said that the ideal of the educational system +has been intellectuality rather than that of character building, and +in the former France is superior to England, the system producing a +higher average of intellectual capacity. If both countries could take +to themselves the strong features that each possesses it would be very +materially to their advantage. Changes in the right direction are +already taking place in France. It is quite probable that the _pion_ +will be suppressed before long, and cricket, football, and other manly +and health-giving games are beginning to take the place of the old +man's stroll under supervision. The fact that the Boy Scout is +appearing all over France seems to herald the dawn of a growing +sturdiness and manliness in the youth of the nation. At the present +day the average boy has an undoubtedly girlish softness in his dress +and general appearance. He wears sailor suits at an age which would +produce laughter amongst Anglo-Saxon boys. He appears in white socks +for several years longer than the English boy would tolerate, and his +thinly-soled boots suggest the promenade rather than any form of +strenuous game. His clothes do not appear to have been made for any +hard wear, and as a rule the knickerbockers of soft thin grey material +so generally to be seen are unfit for any rough use whatever. Even the +large black leather portfolios in which books and papers are carried +to and from school seem to receive as careful handling as though they +belonged to a Government official rather than that most destructive of +creatures--the schoolboy. In England one is familiar with the sight of +four or five books dangling at the end of the strap which secures +them, enabling the owner to convert his home-work into a handy weapon +of offence, but the soft leather case of French boys and girls, which +must be carefully carried under one arm, offers no such fascinating +by-purpose. + + [Illustration: CHILDREN OF PARIS IN THE LUXEMBOURG GARDENS.] + +If parents keep their boys in socks for a longer period than seems +rational to the Anglo-Saxon, they frequently go farther with their +girls, who often enough may be seen with bare legs until they are +nearly as tall as their mothers. + +Very much stress is laid on the examinations, which commence at the +age of fifteen or sixteen, when the _lycée_ and college training +terminates. The system since 1902 has consisted of a period of seven +years divided into two parts. At the expiry of the first, which +consists of four years, the pupil can choose one of four courses. The +first is Latin and Greek, the second Latin and sciences, the third +Latin and modern languages, and the fourth sciences and modern +languages. Having passed three years on one of these courses, he +should be ready for the two examinations by which he can obtain the +degree known as the _Baccalauréat de l'enseignement_. This is the +outer gateway to be passed through before the scholar can enter the +citadels of any of the great professions, such as law, letters, +medicine, or Protestant theology. + +The State provides the higher education in its universities and in its +specialised higher schools, and since 1875 private individuals and +bodies, so long as they are not clerical, have been permitted to take +part in the advanced educational work of the country, but the State +faculties alone have the power to confer degrees. The five classes of +faculties associated with the various universities confer degrees in +law, science, medicine, letters, and Protestant theology. + + [Illustration: LE PUY-EN-VELAY IN THE AUVERGNE COUNTRY.] + +The keystone of the arch of learning in France is the _Institut de +France_. It embodies the five great academies of science and +literature, but omits that of medicine, which stands apart. + +In England some social importance attaches to a man on account of his +having been educated at Eton or Harrow and having afterwards taken a +degree at one of the two mother universities, irrespective of his +having shown himself an indifferent scholar, but south of the Channel +the scene of a man's education counts for naught in later life. The +moral and social sides of the English system would seem to have +crowded out to a great extent the intellectual side, which, with the +essentially practical people of France, forms the whole structure. +From the teacher in the primary school to the heads of the +universities no effort is made to influence character: "As soon as the +student leaves the lecture hall he is free to return to the niche he +has constituted for himself, to its probable triviality and its +possible grossness, or to the vulgar pleasures of the town.... We lose +the advantage of that peculiar monastic, thoughtful life which is +offered to the young Englishman."[3] + + [3] W. L. George. + +An almost childlike simplicity seems to be the keynote of the religion +of that portion of the French people which still adheres to the +observances of the Roman Church. The nation, until recent years, +professed the Catholic faith and worshipped the Virgin as the mother +of the Saviour of the world. In her honour, and to keep her presence +ever in mind, to envisage her to mortal eyes, they erected statues and +placed little figures at street-corners, by the road-side, and upon +the altars of churches, and these are still objects of veneration +among the people. One of the largest and most imposing representations +of the Virgin is Notre Dame de France, a colossal figure cast from +guns captured in the Crimean War, which is erected on the summit of +the basaltic cliff which towers above the ancient town of Le +Puy-en-Velay (Haute Loire). The figure is so gigantic--it stands forth +gilded by the rising or the setting sun high above one's head, even +when standing on the top of the rock upon which it has been +erected--that one can scarce forbear to look upon it without some +admiration, irrespective of its merits as a work of art. The features +are of a sweet and simple beauty, although of a stereotyped order, and +even to those whose religious ideas do not lean in the direction of +the veneration of representations of deities it is easy to see how a +simple peasant, trained in the religious system which erects such +images, can fall into the attitude of prayer by merely looking on such +an achievement.... Gazing at the figure standing high in the midst of +an amphitheatre of picturesque mountains, one feels some explanation +for the attitude of the religious towards the immense figure; ... and +then one turns away to descend from the rock, and passing behind the +pedestal of the effigy one observes a door, and above it a notice to +the effect that on payment of ten centimes one may ascend within the +_Vierge_, and when the maximum fee has been paid one may actually +place oneself within the head and gaze out upon an immense panorama +from a position of wonderful novelty.... Where is the vision, where +the sense of fitness, where any atmosphere of sanctity? Does the +incongruity of such an arrangement strike no one among the +religiously-minded people who visit Le Puy? + +It would appear that the French prefer to have all that is outward in +their religion as much a part of their daily lives as any other +objects of common use. Thus the coverings of the inner doors of a +French church are almost invariably worn into holes or discoloured +with the frequent handling of those who every day spend a few minutes +in the incense-laden atmosphere of their parish church. The floors are +dirty with the constant coming and going from the streets, and the +need for doormats does not appear to be observed. On week-days, apart +from the clergy, it is exceptional to see a man in a church unless he +is there in some official capacity. One will find men carrying out +repairs, and it does not seem to occur to them to remove their hats; +one will see them as tourists with guide-books in their hands, or, as +at St. Denis in the suburbs of Paris, a man in uniform will conduct +visitors through the choir and crypt, and he too finds it unnecessary +to uncover his head; but one goes far to find any other than women and +children kneeling in prayer before the altars or stations of the cross +on any other day than Sunday. It is the women whose religious needs +bring them into places of worship in the midst of the working hours of +the weekday, men rarely coming unless their steps are directed thither +for a wedding or a funeral. And on Sundays few churches would be +required if the women ceased to attend. + + [Illustration: LA ROCHE, A VILLAGE OF HAUTE SAVOIE.] + +Funerals have not yet lost their impressive trappings as is the case +in England, where even the poor are beginning to find it less a +necessity to have the hearse drawn by horses adorned with immense +black plumes and long black cloths coming down almost to the ground. +In France these things are still much in evidence, and imposing black +and purple hangings studded with immense silver tear-drops are put up +in the church if the estate or the relatives of the deceased can +afford such melancholy splendour. Before leaving the church after the +funeral service, friends and relatives pass one by one to the bier, +and there each takes a crucifix and makes the sign of the cross. + +The interior of a French church is, as a rule, so dark and shadowy +that the clusters of candles burning before the shrines sparkle +brilliantly in the cavernous gloom of its apsidal chapels, casting an +uncertain and mystic light on pictures and effigies of saints and +apostles, on shining objects of silver and gold, and on gaudy ornament +and tinsel. Looming out of the obscurity, the ghostly representation +of the crucified Christ is faintly illuminated; a few inky figures are +grouped before the altars, their blackness relieved only by the white +caps of the peasants--for it is the custom for women to wear black +when they go to church; the air is heavy with incense, and one feels +that superficial glamour which makes its strong appeal to those who +find satisfaction in the mainly sensuous emotions caused by these +surroundings. When an organ pours forth its sonorous and mellow notes +and men's voices chant Gregorian music before the brilliantly lighted +altar sparkling with golden ornament, when the solemn Latin liturgy is +recited and the consecrated elements are raised by the priest, the +average religious requirements of the French would seem to be +satisfied. Those who do not find any satisfaction in watching and +listening to these offices of the Roman Church as a rule drop into a +state of agnosticism, if not of complete irreligion. To be logical one +must do so, and a growing majority of Frenchmen seem to find no other +course unless they belong to the comparatively small body of +Protestants or the Jewish communities.[4] There can be no doubt at all +that the Roman Church has lost its hold on a vast proportion of its +adherents, and those who are still numbered among the "faithful" are +every year shrinking in numbers. + + [4] The Protestants number about 600,000, the Jews 70,000, and the + nominal Catholics 39,000,000. + +"French Protestants," writes Mr. W. L. George,[5] "and French Jews are +as devout, as clean-living, as spiritually minded as our most +enlightened Churchmen and Nonconformists; a visit to any Parisian +synagogue or to the Oratory will demonstrate in a moment that the +French have not forgotten how to pray. The congregations are as large +as ever they were, and they contain as great a proportion of men as in +England." And he adds: "This distinction of sex must everywhere be +made, and particularly in France, where Roman Catholicism flaunts a +sumptuous aestheticism, voluptuous and worldly, capable of appealing +both to the refined and to the sensuous." Mr. George believes that +French Catholics have not turned against Christ, but against the +ministers of the Christian religion in his land because they have +been discovered to be unfaithful servants. It is his belief that the +Church is dying--"dying hard but surely"; and who can quarrel with his +statement that the people have turned their backs on its ministers, +that they are on the threshold of agnosticism, and that the Church is +putting forth no hand to stay them? The next two or three generations +can scarcely fail to witness the death by atrophy of the Roman faith +in France; but the French are not an irreligious people, and perhaps a +wider faith may spring up from the ashes of the creed which is so fast +growing cold. + + [5] _France in the Twentieth Century_--an admirable work. + +One might compare religious systems to the unresponsive edifices in +which public worship is conducted, for they seem equally incapable of +spontaneous adaptability to the needs of the people, and only the +stress and labour of the laity ever produces any adaptation to the +changing needs of those for whom the structure exists. + +Because the accumulated resentment of the French people as a whole +against the shortcomings of their national Church has resulted in a +complete divorce from the State, and because the clergy have rebelled +against the laws which have recently been passed, and have therefore +become in a certain sense outlaws--servants, as it were, of a +discredited section of the community--it has been easy for superficial +observers to come to the conclusion that the French nation has +virtually assumed the garb of atheism. This is always the arrow which +strikes the legislative body determined to dissociate itself with any +form of religion, but as in England, where devoted Churchmen are +ranged on the side of disestablishment, so in France the national +voice that spoke for a severance between Church and State was not that +of a people without religion, but rather that of a people unwilling to +maintain a system which had fallen away from its duty and its ideals. +Atheism and agnosticism would appear to be phases in the religious +development of the human race, the positions into which various types +of mind are driven when dissatisfied with the explanation of the +purpose, duty, and future of the individual as set forth by a +particular Church. That some new development of the truth will +supersede that which has been cast aside seems inevitable. + +In this period of upheaval what is the attitude of the people, of the +peasant, to _M. le Curé_? Social intimacy between priest and +parishioners is very great, and the _curé_ is often a very good +fellow whose practical religion is much broader than the +ecclesiasticism he represents. He is, roughly speaking, of the peasant +class and is regarded as socially inferior by the equivalent to the +"county" circle of his neighbourhood. Unlike the English clergy, who +are often distinguishable from the laity by little besides a +distinctive collar and hat, he is always to be seen in his _soutane_ +and with white-bordered black lappets beneath his chin. He is, as a +rule, anti-Republican, and is therefore out of sympathy with the +people and the whole apparatus of the government of to-day. To a huge +mass of the people he is nicknamed the _calotin_. + +Paul Sabatier explains how the association of the Church with politics +affects the relations of priest and parishioner:-- + + At election times, especially, how great an impression is made on + the mind of the simple by the defeat of one who has been put + forward as the candidate of _le bon Dieu_, and the triumph of the + candidate of "the satanic sect"! When such coincidences recur + over forty years with increasing frequency, the most pious + countryman begins to ask if Satan be not stronger than the + Almighty. The artisan, meeting his parish priest, speaks in a + tone at once commiserating and mocking of God's business, which + is not going well. Blasphemy! thinks our good priest. But no; + they have only blasphemed who taught him to identify a political + party with religion. His rudeness is not very different from that + of Elijah, chiding on Carmel's summit the priests of Baal.... But + this rudeness, like that of the prophet, disguises an outburst of + religious feeling, still awkward in its manifestation, and even, + perhaps, expressing itself by deplorable means----....[6] + + [6] _France To-day: its Religious Orientation._ M. Sabatier + proclaims himself a Protestant who has sought to love both + Catholicism and Free Thought. + +Since 1882, when the undenominational schools were established, there +has been a fierce battle between Church and State, which has scarcely +come to a close at the present hour; but emerging from the din and +dust of the prolonged warfare there is one salient fact, namely, a +growing desire among the great mass of teachers for increasing the +undenominational moral teaching in the schools. A compelling force is +obliging the school to build up a strong moral training for the young, +entirely independent of clerical influence. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +SOME ASPECTS OF PARIS AND OF TOWN LIFE IN GENERAL + + +The reckless driving and the wonderful lack of regulation in the +streets of the capital and the majority of the cities of France do not +prevent the streets from possessing a character encouraging sociality +and relaxation. This is due to a great extent to the ever-inviting +café, which contrives to keep clean table-cloths and the opportunity +of a comfortable meal in the open air within six feet of a rushing and +tempestuous stream of wheeled traffic. In addition there is much +marketing in France, which adds colour and human interest to what +might otherwise be a featureless street or square. In walking as a +mere visitor through the streets of a French town, one seems to +witness more of the intimate life of the place in a few hours than one +would do in England in a week. From the baking of bread to +haircutting and shaving and the eating of food, there is much more of +work and play visible from the curb-stone. In England the staff of +life seems to reach the dining-room table by invisible means, so +seldom does one see bread carried through the streets, but among the +French--a nation of bread-eaters--long loaves as well as circular ones +are to be seen tucked under the arm of almost every tenth person one +meets. The working classes seem to be continually buying bread freshly +baked, and one loaf at a time! And those who may be seen carrying +bread or vegetables, or whatever they have just purchased at the +market, are more at home in the street than are Anglo-Saxons, who are +apt to regard the common highways of their towns as channels for +coming and going to and from business or pleasure whereon lingering or +conversation is undesirable, indiscreet, and not without danger, for +it is generally recognised that those who pass hours of rest or +idleness in the streets are persons without homes or of undesirable +reputation. But in a French city one is invited at every turn to buy a +newspaper or periodical at a kiosk and to take a seat at a table close +by, where, having ordered a bock or a cup of coffee, one is free to +read undisturbed for hours. + +In Paris the gossip of the _boulevards_ is part of the life of a big +section of the people, and yet to the casual and superficial observer +it might be thought that there was less opportunity for chatting in +the streets than is offered in London. The French _boulevard_ is in +reality no more free from danger than the English street, but the +people have accustomed themselves to the conditions. Among Latin +peoples there is a time-honoured weakness for throwing out of the +window all sorts and conditions of rubbish, and those who are chatting +in a patch of shade in some quiet corner of a street may be rudely +disturbed by the fall of a basinful of old cabbage leaves or other +kitchen ejecta. Worse than this are the strange and often offensive +odours that assail one in the streets. Imperfect sanitation is +commonly the cause of the noxious atmosphere of so many streets in +French towns. The artist sometimes pays a heavy price for the picture +he obtains of some picturesque quarter on account of the contaminated +air he is obliged to breathe. In Caen, where splendid Norman and +Gothic churches thrill those who appreciate mediaeval architecture, +the malodorous streets often frighten one away. + +Sanitation has improved enormously in recent years, and is still +making great strides forward, but the people have a great deal to +learn in the use of the new appliances that are provided. This leeway +is less easy to make up than that of mechanical contrivance, and much +time will no doubt elapse before every one is educated up to the +proper appreciation and use of sanitary arrangements. Municipal +authorities have also much to learn. There should not exist the +smallest loophole for an architect to erect a modern building without +providing a direct outlet to the open air to all the sanitary +quarters, and yet in a recently erected hotel in the Étoile district +of Paris, such a cardinal requirement of health is ignored, the only +ventilation being a window that lights a cupboard for hot-water cans, +and that in turn is the sole ventilation of a bathroom, outside air +reaching neither the first nor the last! London, which before the +Great Fire was a city whose smells had become proverbial, is now the +cleanest and healthiest city in the world, its sanitary by-laws +leaving no loopholes for slipshod work; but Paris, the world centre +for the choicest and most exquisite of perfumery, has still much +progress to make before complete enjoyment of its cheerful, busy, +richly coloured street life can be experienced. + +Every one knows the difficulties of looking at and observing with +seeing eyes the everyday objects with which one is surrounded. A +little girl paying a visit to London from the country once pointed out +to the writer what a number of blind horses there were to be seen in +the streets, and he was obliged to confess that he had never noticed +any. Such limitations seem to debar one from making comparisons +between one's own form of urban civilisation and another, but allowing +for a certain lack of observation in the land of one's upbringing, +there are some features of French town life to which one may draw +attention. + + [Illustration: A TYPICAL COCHER OF PARIS.] + +Very early in his first experiences of Paris the visitor discovers +that the rule of the road is to keep to the right, and that there is +little certainty of what may happen where the great streams of traffic +meet. The policeman of Paris may hold up his baton, but it is not in +the least likely that a complete check to the traffic behind him will +result. After an exhaustive study of London methods the Parisian +authorities have come to the conclusion that it is the French +character which prevents their officers from carrying out the same +methods in Paris. Notwithstanding the quiet way in which the French +submit to certain laws which would not be tolerated in England, they +appear to resent control in this department of life. The police of +Britain are a bigger, more solid and imperturbable type than those of +their neighbours across the Channel, but an east-ender might make +impertinent comments if the policeman who held up his donkey-cart had +patent leather toe-caps to his boots--a by-no-means unusual sight in +Paris! + +The quaint, noisy omnibuses pulled by three horses abreast have been +replaced by heavy motor-propelled vehicles which still, however, +preserve the old features of first-and second-class sections, and the +standing accommodation for eight or ten persons. One mounts and +alights from the middle of the rear of the vehicle, the opening being +guarded by a chain controlled by the conductor--a method offering less +opportunity for dropping off before the 'bus has come to a standstill. +Although the motor-cab is present in considerable numbers, the +horse-drawn taxi still holds its own. It is cheap, and although, +through the close coupling of the front pair of wheels, it can be +overturned quite easily, it is a decidedly pleasant means of +conveyance, with less anxiety for the fare than the auto-taxi, but the +drivers seem to desire to out-do the chauffeurs in giving as much +thrill and sensation as skilful and often reckless driving will +provide. + + His hatred of the _bourgeois_--the "man in the street"--in spite + of, and indeed because of, his being a potential client, is + expressed at every yard. He constantly tries to run them down, + which makes strangers to Paris accuse the Paris cabman of driving + badly, while in point of fact he is not driving at all, but + playing with miraculous skill a game of his own.... The cabman's + wild career through the streets, the constant waving and slashing + of his pitiless whip, his madcap _hurtlements_ and collisions, + the frenzied gesticulations which he exchanges with his "fare," + the panic-stricken flight of the agonized women whose lives he + has endangered; the ugly rushes which the public occasionally + make at him with a view to lynching him, the sprawlings and + fallings of his maddened, hysterical, starving horse, contribute + as much as anything to the spasmodic intensity, the electric + blue-fire diablerie, which are characteristic of the general + movement of Paris.[7] + + [7] Rowland Strong, _The Sensations of Paris_. + +No doubt the hansom-cab--the gondola of London as some one termed +it--would have survived if it had accepted the limitations of the +taximeter, but refusing to adjust itself to circumstance its numbers +steadily diminished. + +Among the omnibuses and taxis of both types and the numerous private +motor-cars there passes at all times of the day a wonderful stream of +country vehicles. Vegetables are conspicuous, but these might be +overlooked, whereas the hay and straw carts assail the eye by their +immense proportions. They might almost be dubbed lazy men's loads, for +they have the appearance of moving hay-stacks and require the most +skilful manoeuvring in the midst of so much impetuously driven +traffic. These country carts almost give the streets of Paris a +provincial flavour, their horses and drivers being more essentially +rural than anything one sees in London, even in the neighbourhood of +Covent Garden. Riding quietly through the wheeled traffic the sight of +half a dozen members of the semi-military _Garde républicaine_ is a +very familiar one. Their uniforms are so military in character that +visitors to Paris generally mistake them for soldiers. + +On the pavements of the streets a striking feature is the number of +women who go about their business without wearing hats. In the dinner +hour of the _midinette_, between twelve and one (from which she +derives her name), this is particularly noticeable, the streets and +public gardens overflowing with this hard-worked and underpaid class +of _Parisienne_. These girls and women are the "labour" of the +dressmaking establishments wherein is produced all that is most +admired by the well-dressed women of the world. The majority are very +underpaid, the young and inexperienced earning about 1 fr. 50 a day, +the _petites couturières_, as a rule, having a wage between 1 and 3 +francs a day, which does not go far in Paris, where the cost of living +is roughly double that of London. In the leading establishments the +_midinette_ may earn from £35 to over £50 a year, but these are the +highly skilled _ouvrières_ and do not represent a very large +proportion of the whole, whose incomes have been roughly estimated in +three divisions, each representing one-third of the whole number. The +most poorly paid third receives less than 5 francs a day, the +intermediate section attains the 5-franc level, and the most +prosperous third exceeds it to the amount already mentioned. A small +number of women become what is known as _premières_ in famous +houses in the Rue de la Paix, the classic street from which the +fashions in woman's attire for the whole of the civilised world are +believed to emanate. These clever French women are endowed with a very +high degree of taste and skill, and their gifts reach a comparatively +high market value, bringing in an annual income of about £150. + + [Illustration: AUTUMN IN THE CHAMPS ELYSÉES, PARIS.] + +The work-girls who take sewing to their homes can earn from 75 +centimes to 2 francs a day. In her interesting book on Paris life +Mlle. de Pratz gives the following two budgets of _midinettes_ +receiving £34 and £48 per annum:-- + + 850 fr. per annum 1200 fr. per annum + (£34). (£48). + Lodging 100 £4 150 £6 + Food 550 £22 750 £30 + Clothes 100 £4 150 £6 + Heat, light, washing, and 100 £4 150 £6 + recreation ____ ____ + 850 1200 + +The struggle to make ends meet on the smaller incomes is no doubt +great, for Paris, it must always be remembered, does not provide cheap +living for any one, not even in its poorest quarters. As a whole the +_midinette_ class is badly fed and therefore delicate and too often a +prey to consumption. It does not produce a high average of +good-looking girls, for, being fond of amusement, late hours are +indulged in very generally, with the result that when the hour for +work arrives insufficient rest has been obtained. No doubt in so large +a class--they are computed to number about 110,000--there is a wide +range of character and morals, but there seems little doubt that, as a +class, the chastity of the most poorly paid does not rank high. In a +moral atmosphere such as that breathed by Parisians as a whole, it +would be almost impossible for girls subjected to so much temptation +on account of poverty to resist. And there is commonly no loss of +self-respect when the downward step has been taken, for even when a +girl convicted of such moral laxity is blamed, she merely replies with +calmness that it is quite natural. + +The Apache class lives in its own particular quarter of the city, and +its members are not easily recognisable by the general public. The +fraternity tattoo a certain arrangement of dots on the forearm by +which recognition is instantly obtained. These dots indicate the motto +of the Apache, _Mort aux vaches!_ by which is intended their perpetual +warfare with the police. This strange class of anti-social beings is +recruited from many grades of Parisian life, all suffering from some +abnormal mental condition unless drawn into the grip of the strange +brotherhood by mischance when very young, as will sometimes happen +with girls at an immature age. In spite of the national training in +arms of the young men of France, this incredible class continues to +exist and to perpetrate outrage, murder, and robbery. How many of +these outlaws of society have experienced military service, and to +what extent it has modified or accentuated their abnormality, are +questions to which one would like to have answers. + +Probably the average Parisian of the middle classes is more aware of +the enormities of the _concierge_ than of the Apache. The one is an +ever-present annoyance, and the other a thing read about in the +evening newspapers, but not encountered personally. Not so _La +Concierge_. This individual is employed by a landlord to act as his +watchdog in a block of flats. His duties are connected with showing +the flats to prospective tenants, collecting rent, keeping the +staircases clean, and delivering letters, the last being required +because the Paris postman does not climb the stairs in flat +buildings--all the letters for the building being delivered into the +hands of the _concierge_. It is this matter of one's letters which +gives the caretaker his power. He uses it to extort liberal gratuities +for every small service, as well as a handsome _étrenne_ on New Year's +Day. It is the landlord who is at the fountain-head of the trouble. +How seldom is it otherwise! He pays the _concierge_ an entirely +inadequate sum for his services, and as he has to supplement his +income in some other way he, as a rule, leaves his wife in charge for +a large part of the day and earns a supplemental sum elsewhere. The +Frenchwoman is too often inclined to avarice, and it seems to be the +exception to find in Paris a _concierge's_ wife who will not levy a +form of blackmail on the tenants whose letters come into her hands. +She will make herself familiar with the character of the +correspondence that each tenant receives, and if insufficiently tipped +will not hesitate to hold up any letters that she believes are of +importance. The opening of letters with steam is not beneath the moral +plane of _Madame la Concierge_, and by various means she obtains such +an intimate knowledge of the concerns of each tenant that peace and +freedom from endless petty annoyances can only be bought at the price +which she deems satisfactory. Mlle. de Pratz gives a vigorous picture +of this bugbear of flat life in Paris, telling of the scandals that +are circulated concerning entirely innocent people who have failed in +the liberality of their _étrennes_, and how the residents of +ill-reputation buy immunity from these baneful attentions by their +liberal tips. How long, it may reasonably be asked, will Paris consent +to this iniquity, which could be remedied by the delivery of letters +direct to the door of each flat? + +It is often a matter of discussion how far the proverbial politeness +of the French goes beneath the surface. Generalising on such a topic +is hedged about with pitfalls, and the wary are disinclined to +enter such debatable ground. Compared to the British, whose +self-consciousness or shyness too often leads to awkwardness in those +moments of social intercourse when dexterity is needful, the French +are undoubtedly ages ahead. The right phrase exactly fitting the +requirements of the moment comes easily to their lips, and with it, as +a rule, the right expression and attitude; and yet one must travel +often in the underground railways of Paris to see a man give up his +seat to a woman who is standing. It is understood that a young man +cannot offer his place to a young woman, because it would suggest +_arrière-pensées_; but if this regrettable state of affairs does +exist, the restriction to such action does not apply when an old woman +carrying a bundle is standing beside a youth, who could not be accused +of anything but courtesy if he rose to save her the discomfort of +standing. But no one seems to think such action a requirement of +common politeness. While one finds great charm and civility among the +assistants in shops, which often add very much to the pleasure of +shopping, a disagreement on a business matter may be handled with much +less courtesy than in a British shop. A hard, almost angry expression +will come upon _madame_ or _mademoiselle's_ face, where over the +Channel one would meet a look of mere anxiety. But Paris shopkeepers +no doubt have a very cosmopolitan world to attend to, and they perhaps +encounter many rogues. There is unevenness in manners everywhere, and +while one class of workers may be soured by adverse conditions and +lose their natural charm in the economic struggle, another will expand +in the sun of easy and pleasant conditions. The Parisian horse +taxi-cab driver with his picturesque shiny tall hat and crimson +waistcoat is not conspicuous for his politeness unless his +_pour-boire_ is very liberal, and the railway porter can easily be +insulting if he is dissatisfied with a tip. In London there is much +unmannerly pushing on to trams and omnibuses during the morning and +evening hours, restricted here and there by the method of the queue, +but in Paris all the chief stopping-places of the omnibuses are +provided with publicly exposed bunches of numbered tickets. On a wet +day a little girl or a cripple has merely to tear off one of these +slips of paper, and when the 'bus arrives the conductor takes up his +passengers in the numerical order of their tickets--all unfair +hustling being thus eliminated. + +The Parisian _bonne à tout faire_ has been diminishing in numbers for +many years. In the thirty years between 1866 and 1896 the total was +nearly halved, leaving about 700,000 of this overworked and underpaid +class. The day of frilled caps has gone, and even a bib to the apron +is considered an out-of-date demand. It is no doubt the need for +stringent economy in the flats constituting the greatest part of home +life in Paris, which is responsible for the dislike to domestic +service on the part of the young women of the capital. + +An undesirable arrangement in flat buildings is the housing of all the +maids of the building in very small bedrooms on the top floor. In the +hours in which the girls are free from duty they are able to do more +or less as they please on their floor, and the result is that the +natural protection of the home is missing in the hours of rest and +leisure, when their need is most pressing. The average _bonne à tout +faire_ is not disinclined to hard work, and she is clever and willing +to put herself to any trouble in an emergency or when there are guests +to be entertained. Boredom however, seems to settle upon her during +the normal routine of life, and her buoyant nature makes her inclined +to sing and talk loudly about her work. She is in a great proportion +of cases more intimate with the family than the servants in London +flats, and on this account her manner assumes a familiarity that in +the circumstances is fairly inevitable. A man visitor will commonly +raise his hat to the maid and call her "Mademoiselle." + +Probably the Paris maid-of-all-work is not worked any harder than the +single servant in London--the only real difference being the morning +marketing, which she regularly undertakes. There is attractiveness in +the life she sees in the streets and markets, and in addition there is +the tradesman's _sou_ which finds its way into her pocket for every +_franc's_ worth of goods purchased. If honest the girl's commission +begins and ends with the _sou du franc_, but if she is otherwise she +will make little alterations to the amounts in the household books, +and thus add by these petty but perpetual thefts a considerable sum to +her annual wages. How far such dishonesty is practised it is +impossible to say, and in the absence of any figures one may hope that +a few cases are the cause of much talk. + +Rents in Paris are high, and the tendency is to mount still higher. +Blocks of flats that have been let at a quite reasonable rent are +frequently "modernised" with a few superficial improvements and +renovations and relet at vastly increased prices. This is much the +case with those formerly let at from £60 to £100 a year, and the +restriction in the number of cheaper homes available for the poor has +been going on so steadily that the problem has become one which it +will be necessary for the State to tackle. The increase in rents has, +in some instances, been only 10 per cent, but in many instances it is +more than that, and here and there the upward bound has reached three +or four times that amount. + +One is sometimes puzzled to know how the Parisian struggles along, for +besides his ascending rent he has to pay much more for all household +stuff, whether it is curtains for his windows (which are taxed), a +cake of soap, or an enamelled iron can. No wonder that the best +sitting-room is kept shut up on certain days of the week, and that +polished wooden floors are so frequently seen in place of carpeted +ones. + +Tenants having large families are in a most awkward predicament, for +landlords on all hands discourage them, and if the Government wish to +go to one of the root causes of the diminishing birth-rate, they must +see to it that the housing of the middle and lower middle classes is a +less difficult and precarious feature of their struggle for existence. +Perhaps, now that the United States has set the example of lowering +and in some instances sweeping away the protective tariffs on certain +articles, France may follow suit. If the heavy duties on cotton goods +were removed there is no doubt whatever that the burden of +housekeeping in France would be instantly relieved. But the relief in +this respect would be trifling compared to that which would be felt in +the food bill. Tea costs from 4s. to 6s. per pound. Sugar averages +5d., rice 6d., and jam 10d. per pound. A remarkable instance of the +working of the tariff is given by Mlle. de Pratz in her interesting +work already quoted. "In a small village I know near Paris," she +writes, "thousands of pounds worth of fresh fruit and beet-sugar are +exported each year to England. But this village uses English-made jam +made from their own fruit and sugar, which, after being exported and +reimported, costs half the price of home-made French jam." + +As recently as March 1910 the protective system of 1892 was +strengthened, duties being raised all round. In support of the changes +it was argued that foreign countries were adopting similar measures, +and that fiscal and social legislation were laying new burdens upon +home industries. With Great Britain still maintaining its system of +free imports and the United States moving in the direction of Free +Trade, the first argument begins to lose its force. + +These questions of rent and the cost of food do not, of course, press +upon the very considerable numbers of wealthy residents in Paris, but +they are not on this account less vital to the well-being of the +mighty cosmopolitan city. And if these features of urban existence +were overlooked in any book, however slight, which aims at putting +before the reader some salient aspects of French life, the blank would +leave much unexplained. Bearing in mind the expense of living in the +large towns a thousand little things are at once interpreted. + +It has been said of Paris that the population belongs less to France +than that of any other city in the country, for the proportion of +residents of other nationalities has gone up prodigiously in the last +half century. There is a glamour about the city which seems to act as +a magnet among all the civilised nations of the world. "The +aristocratic class," says Mr. E. H. Barker,[8] "nominally so much +associated with Paris life, is becoming less and less French. The old +Legitimist families, so intimately connected with the Faubourg St. +Germain under the Second Empire and a good while afterwards, who at +one time held so aloof even from the Bonapartist nobility, have +greatly changed their habits and views of social intercourse. The two +nobilities now intermarry without apparent hindrance on the score of +prejudices, and mingle without any suspicion of class divisions. But +all this society helps to form what is called _Le Tout Paris_, which +is almost as cosmopolitan as French." + + [8] _France of the French._ + +When one stands before the great Byzantine Church of the _Sacré +Coeur_, that holds aloft its white domes against the sky up above +Paris on the hill of Montmartre, and looks down on the multiplicity of +roofs, there is always a film of smoke obscuring detail and softening +the outlines of some portions of the city. Yet when one walks through +the streets the clean creamy whiteness of the buildings would almost +give the stranger the impression that he had reached a city that had +no use for coal. Even in the older streets where renovation and +repairs are very infrequent there is never a suspicion of that uniform +greyness that the big cities of Britain produce. In all the great +boulevards in the whole of the Étoile district and wherever the houses +are well built and of modern construction, the bright clean stone-work +is so free from the effects of smoke that a Dutch housewife would +fail to see the need for external cleaning. The façades of nearly all +the houses in the newly reconstructed streets have a certain monotony +about them which has been inherited from the days of Hausmann's great +rebuilding. There is seldom any colour except in the windows of shops, +for the universal shutters, which in Italy are brilliantly painted +bright green, brown, blue, or even pink, are here uniformly white or +the palest of greys. So many of the new streets are, however, planted +with trees that the colour scheme resolves itself into green and pale +cream, except in winter, when the blackish stems of the trees add +nothing to the gaiety of the streets. + +Contrasting the streets in the neighbourhood of the Parc Monceaux with +those of Mayfair, London has the advantage for variety of +architectural styles and for complete changes of atmosphere; but for +spacious splendour, for what can properly be termed elegance, Paris +stands on a vastly higher plane. The dreary stucco pomposity of +Kensington and Belgravia fortunately cannot be discovered in Paris, +and it is well for the world that few cities indulged in this +architectural make-believe. While Belgravia can only keep her +self-respect by continually covering herself with fresh coats of +paint, the honest stone-work of Paris lets the years pass without +showing any appreciable signs of deterioration. Unlike London, where +there are seemingly endless streets of two and three storeys, Paris +has developed the tall building of five or six floors. The girdle of +fortification has no doubt directed this tendency. Where the streets +are not wide the lofty houses increase the effect of narrowness, and +many of the side streets in the St. Antoine district have, with their +innumerable shutters, a very close resemblance to some Italian cities. + +It is a mistake to suppose that the whole of Paris has been rebuilt; +for, apart from Notre Dame and such well-known Romanesque and Gothic +churches as St. Étienne-du-Mont, St. Germain, the tower of St. +Jacques, and the Sainte Chapelle, there are gabled houses of +considerable age in many of the by-ways. These are almost invariably +covered with a mask of stucco that does its best to hide up their +seventeenth-century or earlier characteristics. The beautiful and +dignified quadrangular building that is now called the Musée +Carnavalet, was the residence of the Marquise de Sévigné and was +built in the sixteenth century, although altered and added to in 1660. +Earlier than this is the fascinating Hôtel Cluny, a late Gothic house +built as the town residence of the abbots of Cluny. This building even +links up modern Paris with the Roman _Lutetia Parisiorum_. Another +interesting architectural survival is the Hôtel de Lauzan, a typical +residence of a great aristocrat of the days of _Le Roi soleil_. The +Palais du Louvre, dating in part from the days of François I., the +Tuileries, begun in 1564 and finished by Louis XIV., and the +Conciergerie wherein Marie Antoinette and Robespierre were confined, +are buildings of such world-renown that it is scarcely necessary to +mention them. + +In many ways Paris is similar in arrangement to London. It is divided +in two by its river, which cuts it from east to west, and the more +important half is on the northern bank. The wealthy quarters are on +the west and the poorer to the east. The great park, the Bois de +Boulogne, is also on the west side of the city. In Paris, the ancient +nucleus of the city was an island in the river, but London, although +it originated on a patch of land raised high above the surrounding +marshes, was never truly insulated. The Bastille, which may be +compared with the Tower of London, occupied a very similar position +not far from the north bank of the river and at the eastern side of +the mediaeval city. All the chief theatres and places of amusement are +on the north side of the river, and, as in London, so are all the +Royal Palaces; but here the parallels between the cities appear to +end, and one observes endless notable differences. + +The Seine divides the city much more fairly than does the Thames. +London has no opulent quarter south of its river, but Paris has the +Faubourg St. Germain, where her oldest and most distinguished +residents have their residences--houses possessing solemnly majestic +courtyards guarded by stupendous gateways. In the same quarter are +some of the more important foreign embassies. And the river of Paris +being scarcely half the width of that of London has made bridging +comparatively cheap and resulted in more than double the number of +such links. There is no marine flavour in Paris. No vessels of any +size reach it, and its banks are not therefore made ugly by tall and +hideous wharf buildings. It is a walled city, being encompassed by a +circle of very formidable fortifications, still capable of resisting +attack by modern military methods. Its broad avenues and boulevards, +tree-planted and perfectly straight, give the whole city an atmosphere +of spaciousness and of dignity that is lacking in London, if one +excepts the vicinity of Regent Street and Piccadilly, and a few other +west-end thoroughfares. + +Wherever one goes in France among the cities and larger towns the +ideas of big and eye-filling perspectives are aimed at by the +municipal authorities and architects. Lyons, Nice, Orleans, Tours, +Havre, Montpellier, Nîmes, Marseilles, to mention places that come +readily into the mind, have all achieved something of the Parisian +ideal, and even the more mediaeval towns, whenever an opportunity +presents itself, expand into tree-shaded boulevards of widths that +would make an English municipal councillor rub his eyes and gasp. It +is curious to witness how, in many of the older towns, the narrow and +cramped quarters, necessitated in the days when city walls existed, +are continuing their existence in wonderful contrast to spacious +suburbs. The glamour of these narrow ways is so entrancing to the +visitor and the lover of history that he trembles to think that a day +may come when all these romantic nuclei of French cities have been +rebuilt on the ideals of Hausmann. + +Wherever one wanders in France, even in mere villages, one can +scarcely find a place that has not at least one café with inviting +little tables on the pavement, giving that subtle Latin atmosphere so +refreshing to the Anglo-Saxon (who, however, would never dream of +wishing to imitate the custom in his own country), and so full of that +curiously fascinating Bohemianism which Mr. Locke has caught in the +pages of _The Beloved Vagabond_. Could Britain exchange the +public-house for the café half the temperance reformer's task would be +done, but one can scarcely contemplate without a shiver the prospect +of eating and drinking in the open air anywhere north of the Thames +for more than a few weeks of summer. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +OF RURAL LIFE IN FRANCE + + +Peasant ownership of land does not always imply prosperity, and +because such a vast majority of French peasants possess their own few +acres, one must not jump to the conclusion that all these little +farmers live comfortable and prosperous lives. In very large tracts of +what has so often been called "the most fertile country in Europe,"[9] +the peasant is only able to tear from the soil he owns the barest +existence. By unremitting toil he makes his land produce enough to +give him and his family a diet mainly composed of bread and +vegetables. Meat, coffee, and wine come under the heading of luxuries, +and so much that is nutritious is missing from the normal dietary that +it would seem as though the minimum requirements of health were not +met. Long hours of steady toil, and food which the Parisian would +consider insufficient to make life tolerable, is the lot of the +peasant proprietors of France wherever the soil is ungenerous or +distance from railways and markets keeps prices low. + + [9] The same claim is frequently made for England. + +In the unprofitable soils of the Cevennes, and in certain parts of the +province of Corrèze, the peasants can cultivate little besides +buckwheat and potatoes. The latter, with chestnuts which are also +produced in these mountainous districts, form the staple food of the +agricultural population, and their drink is water, which they +sometimes enliven with the berries of the juniper. This is the simple +and hard-working life of those whose lot is cast in what may be called +the stony places. Quite different are the conditions of life in +Normandy or the wonderfully fertile plain of La Beauce, where is grown +the greatest part of the wheat produced in France. Here the generous +return for the labour expended on the soil brings such prosperity to +the peasant owner that he often turns his eyes to higher rungs in the +social ladder than that of husbandry, offering his land for sale, and +so giving opportunities for the capitalist to invest in a profitable +industry. + +Success may be said to bring with it dangers to which the peasant of +the poorer soils is not subjected. Writing of the farmers of La Beauce +and of parts of Normandy, Mr. Barker says: "Too often are they found +to be high feeders, copious drinkers, keenly, if not sordidly, +acquisitive, unimaginative, and coarse in their ideas and tastes. +Material prosperity, when its effects are not corrected by mental, and +especially by moral, culture, has an almost fatal tendency to develop +habits that are degrading and qualities that repel.... It is to be +noted as a social symptom that among the class of prosperous +agriculturalists in France, the birth-rate is exceptionally low." + +Of the 17,000,000 of the population who are more or less dependent +upon agriculture for their livelihood, only about 6,500,000 actually +work on the soil. Those who own holdings of less than twenty-five +acres number nearly 3,000,000, and the total area of land held in this +way is something between 15 and 20 per cent of the whole cultivated +area. About three-quarters of a million persons possess the balance. +The sizes of the holdings, of course, vary enormously. Besides those +who own their land, there is the large class of _métayers_, who are +part of a complicated system which persists in spite of its +theoretical impossibility of smooth working. Where a landowner is a +_gentilhomme campagnard_, he will in most cases have a few farms +attached to his residence, which is always _le château_ to the +peasant, however difficult to discover its old-time manorial +splendours may have become. The farmers who work for the landowner are +not rent-payers: they merely share with him in the results of their +labour, a system of co-operation which results in very close relations +between landlord and farmer. No hard and fast rules are followed as to +the proportion of the crops which falls to the landlord, or what share +he has of the cattle. It is common for him to furnish draught animals +as well as seed and implements. This system is limited very much to +those districts where agriculture has stood still for a very long +period, such as the Limousin, and the total of the land worked on the +_métayage_ system is only 7 per cent of the whole of the cultivated +land. + +To this day the methods of husbandry maintained in the less accessible +departments are scarcely ahead of the Romans, and on the slopes of +the Pyrenees one may still see the flail in use for threshing +purposes, while the plough with a wooden share, which seems likely to +hold its own for a long time to come in certain of the mountainous +districts, is the same as those depicted by prehistoric sculptors high +on the rock-faces of Monte Bego on the Franco-Italian frontier. + +In the greatest part of France oxen are used for draught purposes, and +these picturesque, cream-coloured beasts, yoked to curious big-wheeled +country carts, are always an added charm to the country road. Whether +they are seen patiently plodding along a white and dusty perspective +of tree-bordered road, or are standing quietly in a farmyard with +lowered heads while the queer tumbril behind them is being loaded, +they have picture-making qualities which the horse lacks. + +The carts are wonderfully primitive, two wheels being favoured for +purposes which in England are always considered to require four. In +fact the four-wheeled cart is difficult to discover anywhere in rural +France. Even the giant tuns containing the cider they brew in +Normandy, or those that are filled with wine in the Midi and other +grape-producing districts of the land, are borne on two great wheels, +and a pair of clumsy poles that, when horses are used, are tapered +down to form shafts. + +Farms differ in character and attractiveness according to local +conditions in every country, but France shows an astonishing range of +styles. In the north one finds the timber-framed barn and outhouse +delightfully prevalent, and in Normandy the farm often possesses the +character of those to be seen in Kent and Sussex, although south of +the Channel the compact, rectangular arrangement of barns is perhaps +more noticeable than to the north. Between the Seine and the Loire, +the timber-framed structures are very extensively replaced by those of +stone; but although lacking in the interest of detail, their colour is +exceedingly rich, for the thatched roofs are very frequently thick +with velvety moss, and the cream-coloured walls are adorned by patches +of orange and silvery-grey lichen. Wooden windmills are conspicuous on +the shallow undulations of the plain of La Beauce. Where roofs are +tiled, they too have become green with moss, giving a wonderful +mellowness to the groups of buildings. Farther south the farms are +still of stone, and some of them have an atmosphere of romance about +them in their circular towers with high conical roofs, and with even +the added picturesqueness of a turret or two. + +South of Poitiers the roofs of nearly all the houses take on the low +pitch and the curved tile which belong to the whole of the southern +zone of the country, and prevent one from noticing any marked +architectural change in crossing the frontiers into Spain or Italy. + +Taken as a whole, the villages are without any of the tidy charm to be +found in nearly every part of England. A hamlet gives the road that +passes through it the appearance of a farmyard. Hay, straw, and manure +are allowed to accumulate to such an extent that in the twilight a +stranger might think he had inadvertently left the road and strayed +into a farm. And whereas in England the rural hamlet does not usually +crowd up to the thoroughfare, it is often very much the reverse in +France. The writer has traversed thousands of miles of French roads, +has wandered with a bicycle in the byways, but has not yet seen a +village green with a pond and ducks, or even a churchyard with a +suspicion of that garden-like finish which makes England unique. The +velvety turf that grows on Britain's sheep-cropped commons does not +exist outside that land, and one never even expects to find the French +wayside relieved by such features. + +Economy in using every inch of soil, in avoiding the waste of sunshine +on arable lands, and in preventing the waste of timber caused by +letting trees grow untrimmed, has given the French landscape its most +characteristic features. Hedges which the Englishman has learnt to +love from his childhood, first because of the wild life they shelter +and the blackberries and nuts they provide, and later on account of +the beauty they add to every cultivated landscape, are an exceptional +feature in France. In immense areas such a dividing line is never to +be seen, and saving perhaps for a small tree that is scarcely more +than an overgrown bush, there is little to break the horizon line +except the tall poplars, birches, and other trees that line the main +roads. These are not allowed to live idle, ornamental lives: they, +like the toiling peasant, must work for their living by providing as +many branches as possible for the periodical lopping. In this way wood +for the oven and for the kitchen fire is supplied in nearly every +department of the country. + +In the fat and prosperous districts of Normandy, where rich grazing +lands produce the butter for which the province is famed, hedges are +as common as in England, and where mop-headed trees are not in sight, +it is not easy to notice any marked difference between the two +countries. + +Brittany is the province where the wayside cross is most in evidence, +but in every part of the country these symbols of the Christian faith +are to be found. Outside Brittany it is rare to-day to see any one +taking any notice of them, and no doubt the spread of education and +the consequent shrinking of the superstitions of the peasantry, make +the crucifix less and less a need on dark and misty nights. Offerings +of wild flowers are still tied to the shaft of the wayside cross, +where they rapidly turn brown, and resemble a handful of hay. The +well-head is a feature of the farm and cottage which varies in every +part of the land. It is frequently a picturesque object, having in +many localities a wrought-iron framework for supporting the +pulley-wheel. + + [Illustration: A BRETON CALVAIRE. THE ORATORY OF JACQUES CARTIER.] + +Horses and mules are seldom to be seen without some touch of colour or +curious detail in their harness. It may be a piece of sheep-skin dyed +blue and fixed to the top of the collar, or that part of the harness +will be of wood, quaintly devised, and studded with brass nails and +other ornament. Red woollen tassels are much in favour in some +districts. + +The breeding of horses in great numbers takes place in the north coast +regions of Brittany, Normandy, and between the mouth of the Seine and +the Belgian frontier. Using cattle for draught purposes so very +extensively no doubt keeps down the number of the horses in the +country, but in 1905 the total had risen to considerably over three +millions. Tarbes, a town near the Pyrenees, gives its name to the +Tarbais breed of light cavalry and saddle-horses, and the chief +northern classes are the Percheron, the Boulonnais for heavy draught +work, and the Anglo-Norman for heavy cavalry and light draught +purposes. Cattle, pigs, and asses have been increasing in numbers in +recent years, but sheep and lambs have shown a very decided falling +off, 22½ millions in 1885 having dropped to 17¾ in 1905. Sheep +are raised on all the poorer grazing lands of the Alps, the Jura, the +Vosges, the Cevennes, and the Pyrenees, and also on the sandy district +of Les Landes on the Bay of Biscay. South-western France in general, +and the plain of Toulouse in particular, produce a fine class of +draught oxen. In the northern districts they are stall-fed on the +waste material of the beet-sugar and oil-works, and of the +distilleries. + +It is a popular error to imagine that the State owns all the forests +of France and even the wayside trees. This is due no doubt to the fact +that certain governmental restrictions do apply to the owners of +growing timber. The total of forest land amounts to only 36,700 square +miles, or about 18 per cent of the whole country, and of this about a +third belongs to the State or the communes. Fontainebleau has 66 +square miles of forest, but although the best known, it is not by any +means the largest, the Forêt d'Orleans having an area of 145 square +miles. Much planting of pines has taken place in Les Landes, and that +marshy district, famed for its shepherds who use stilts for crossing +the wet places and water-courses, has by this means altered its +character very considerably. Reafforestation is taking place on the +slopes of the Pyrenees and the Alps which have been laid bare by the +woodman's axe. + +Standing quite apart from the rest of the agriculture of the country +is the wine-grower. His industry requires very specialised knowledge, +and his dangers and difficulties are in some ways greater than those +of the farmer. It may be the terrible insect called the phylloxera +that destroys the growth of the vine, it may be mildew, or it may be +over-production, but any of these troubles bear hardly upon the +vine-grower, who is, broadly speaking, a humble type of peasant with +very little capital. Before the war with Germany these people were a +fairly prosperous and contented class, but since that time formidable +troubles have smitten them very heavily. The awful visitation of the +phylloxera is said to have cost as much as the war indemnity paid to +Germany, _i.e._ £200,000,000, and when it was discovered that certain +American vines were not subjected to the ravages of the pest, and +feverish planting had established the new varieties in the land, a new +trouble, in the form of over-production, presented itself to the +unfortunate growers. More land had been converted into vineyards than +had ever produced such crops in the past, and a large production of +wine in Algeria so lowered prices that in 1907 affairs in the Midi +reached a critical state. Riots occurred at Béziers and Narbonne, +incendiarism and pillage took place at Épernay and Ay, and for a time +the Government found itself confronted with an infuriated mass of +peasants, who blamed it for the disastrously low prices then +prevailing. They also attributed the stagnation in the trade to the +fraudulent methods of sale that had become common. They were not very +far from the truth in stating that they did not reap so much advantage +as those who grew cereals and beetroot, while paying for the +protective policy in the high prices of food and all other +commodities. + +The peasant might almost be said to wear a uniform, so universal in +France is the soft black felt hat and the dark-blue cotton smock in +which he appears in the market-place. In this garb one sees a wide +variety of national types, from the English-looking men of Normandy to +the dark-complexioned, black-haired, and lithe race of the south. +Often the latter have an almost wild appearance, terrifying to the +British or American girl who strays any distance from the modern types +of palatial hotel which can now be found in regions of medicinal +springs in the Pyrenees. He is, however, a much less formidable +person when he enters into conversation, and, taken as a whole, the +agriculturalist is a very pleasant-mannered, hospitable, and dignified +person. He possesses in a marked degree the domestic virtues, the +level-headed shrewdness, the patience, thrift, and foresight which +give steadiness to his nation. In small towns in the south he can be a +person of immense sociality. The _place_ during the warmer months of +the year, after the work of the day is done, buzzes with conversation, +the steady hum of which would puzzle a stranger until he saw its +cause. In the strange little walled town of Aigues-Mortes, the entire +male population seems to congregate in the central square, and there +passes the evening at the tables of the three or four cafés. So much +conversation as that indulged in by these peasants of the Rhone delta +would seem sufficient to produce solutions for all the problems of the +wine industry, as well as those of rural populations in general. + + [Illustration: A PEASANT CHILD OF NORMANDY.] + +Care for the future makes the peasant toil and save for his children. +Husband and wife will keep their children's future in view in a most +self-effacing fashion, and if their shrewdness in business may go +rather beyond the mark, it is in the interests of their family that +they are working. The reward is too often that which comes to the +old--the sense of being a burden to their offspring when rheumatism +and kindred ills have robbed them of further capability for toil. + +In the country districts that are out of touch with modern influence, +the peasant keeps his womenkind in a state of subservience that is +almost mediaeval, and the custom of keeping the wife and daughters +standing while the father and sons are at meals is still said to be +maintained in some parts of the country.[10] The peasant is often a +tyrant in his family. In some districts he is in the habit of calling +his sons and daughters "my sons and the creatures." He is sometimes +quite without any interest in politics. The various types are, +however, so marked that the impossibility of labelling the peasantry +of such a large slice of Europe with any one set of characteristics is +obvious. By reading Zola or George Sand, one gets an insight into the +peasant life which little else can give. + + [10] Hannah Lynch, _French Life in Town and Country_. + +One of George Sand's descriptions of the peasantry of the Cevennes is +vigorous and vivid. She writes of it as a race "meagre, gloomy, +rough, and angular in its forms and in its instincts. At the tavern +every one has his knife in his belt, and he drives the point into the +lower face of the table, between his legs; after that they talk, they +drink, they contradict one another, they become excited, and they +fight. The houses are of an incredible dirtiness. The ceiling, made up +of a number of strips of wood, serves as a receptacle for all their +food and for all their rags. Alongside with their faults I cannot but +recognise some great qualities. They are honest and proud. There is +nothing servile in the manner in which they receive you, with an air +of frankness and genuine hospitality. In their innermost soul they +partake of the beauties and the asperities of their climate and their +soil. The women have all an air of cordiality and daring. I hold them +to be good at heart, but violent in character. They do not lack beauty +so much as charm. Their heads, capped with a little hat of black felt, +decked out with jet and feathers, give to them, when young, a certain +fascination, and in old age a look of dignified austerity. But it is +all too masculine, and the lack of cleanliness makes their toilette +disagreeable. It is an exhibition of discoloured rags above legs long +and stained with mud, that makes one totally disregard their +jewellery of gold, and even the rock crystals about their necks." This +description is growing out of date in regard to the hats and knives, +but the picturesque white cap, with its broad band of brightly +coloured ribbon, worn by nearly all the women over a certain age, +which George Sand does not mention, seems likely to persist. + +The peasant women of France are too often extremely plain and built on +clumsy lines. Exceptional districts, such as Arles and other parts of +Provence, may produce beautiful types, but the average is not +pleasing. This, at least, is the consensus of opinion of those who +profess to know France well. The writer would not venture on such a +statement on his own authority, although his knowledge of a very +considerable number of the departments entirely endorses their +opinion. But the more one knows of provincial France the more prepared +does one become for surprises, and the less ready to generalise. + +Between the educated and uneducated there is less of a gulf than in +other countries, on account of the very high average of good manners +to be found throughout the whole country, and because of the quick +intelligence that is common to the whole people. The almost pathetic +awkwardness of the old-fashioned English hodge scarcely exists in +France. + +Superstitions among the peasantry are steadily dying out, even in +Brittany. The rising tide of knowledge is finding its way into every +creek and inlet, and is steadily submerging beliefs in supernatural +influences. At one time the rustics lived in the greatest fear of a +rain-producing demon who was called the _Aversier_, but the science of +meteorology has reduced his personality to a condition as nebulous as +the clouds that heralded his approach. + +Until quite recent times a very large proportion of the medical work +in rural districts was carried out by the nuns of the numerous +convents, and the preference for the free services of the kindly +Sisters, however limited their knowledge, to those of the fully +qualified doctor of the locality is easily explained. The rural +practitioner's usual fee has only lately been raised from two francs +to three, but on driving any distance an additional charge of one +franc for every _kilomètre_ is made. The fee of the town doctor, if he +is a general practitioner with a good practice, is from five to ten +francs a visit. If he belongs to the type of second-class specialist +not common in England but numerous in the cities of France, his fee is +from ten to twenty francs a visit. The first-class specialist charges +fifty francs, and sometimes seventy-five francs, for a visit. In the +country the medical man is often content with a bicycle as the means +of reaching his patients, for his income is not very often above £500 +a year. No doubt the suppression of the monastic orders in France has +improved the position of the doctors, who found few patients in +certain parts of the country, especially the north-west, where the +fervour of religious belief inclined the rustic to put the most +complete faith in the prescriptions of the nuns. No doubt their ample +experience in the treatment of small ailments (which the average +practitioner so often finds tiresome) gave the Sisters considerable +success in their medical work. Women doctors in every country could +enormously supplement the work of the men, and perhaps the day will +come when the general practitioner has a lady assistant to look after +the minor ailments which so often become serious through lack of +sufficient attention. How relieved would numbers of men doctors be if +they could turn over to a lady assistant the visiting of all cases of +chronic colds, dyspepsia, and the like! + +Whole books have been devoted to the _château_ life of France, and it +would be easy to overstep the limits of this chapter in writing on +this interesting subject. The wayfarer in France who knows nothing, or +next to nothing, of the interiors of the large houses he sees +scattered over the country would probably say that they all looked as +though shut up and for sale. He sees in his mind the weed-grown main +avenue and the ill-kept pathways. Visions come to him of lawns that +have grown into hay-fields, of formal gardens converted into vegetable +gardens, of terrace balustrades falling into decay, of walls whose +plaster has fallen away in patches like those of a Venetian _palazzo_, +of closed shutters, and a look of splendours that have passed. Those +who have seen a little more than the mere outsides of the great houses +will tell of occupants whose incomes have shrunk to such small sums +that they are reduced to living in a few rooms of their ancestral +homes, with insufficient servants to do more than keep the place +habitable, and to maintain the output of the kitchen garden and a few +flowers for the house. That there are many such _châteaux_ is +perfectly true. The occupants are mainly anti-Republican in their +views. They belong to other days, and are too proud to enter any +profession which would bring them into jarring contact with the big +majority who are without Royalist leanings. This obliges them to live +in threadbare simplicity on the small income their shrunken fortunes +provide. Two or three old servants, a few dogs, a horse or two, and a +few other luxuries surround them. Formal visits at long intervals are +paid to neighbours, who often live at some distance. The _curé_ and +perchance the doctor are intimate visitors; there may be a few +relations who come for visits, but this is often the whole of the +social intercourse of M. and Mme. X., who reside in a portion of a +_château_ of the time of Louis XV. which stands surrounded by a large +tract of woodland. But ample incomes, and here and there great wealth, +maintain many of the great houses of the countryside with modern +luxury in every department. Changes have come in the _châteaux_ in +recent years which have made breaches in the wall of old-fashioned +formality that was so universal until quite lately. Instead of sweet +wine and little hard sponge fingers, tea and _brioches_ appear at _le +five o'clock_, as it is often called. Where the old-fashioned ideas of +faithful servants will allow it, and the masters and mistresses have +felt the influences that flow from Paris, changes in furnishing appear +in the abandonment of the bareness and austerity of the +reception-rooms. Where such influences have not penetrated, one may be +quite sure to find all the furniture in the rooms ranged against the +walls, and a complete absence of flowers, books, or the smaller odds +and ends of convenience or ornament common to most Anglo-Saxon homes. +There may be fine tapestries, numerous family portraits and other +pictures, elaborate pieces of Boule and ormolu furniture, ornate +clocks, and many other beautiful objects, but restraint and constraint +are the prevalent notes. Bare polished floors and staircases with only +small mats or rugs here and there remain characteristic of the +_château_ interior. Too often there is no more individuality in a +house than would exist were it thrown open to the public as a +show-place or museum. + +In many of the _châteaux_ of the wealthy the charm of what is +essentially French is linked with modifications in the directions of +Anglo-Saxon convenience and comfort, producing much the same result +as is found in those English homes wherein an affection for a Louis +XV. atmosphere has introduced the tall silken or tapestried panels and +the stilted and elaborate furniture of the eighteenth century. + +Surrounded by extensive forests containing wonderful green +perspectives, the _château_ is often quite cut off from the sights and +sounds of the outer world. When the time of the _chasse_ comes round, +the woods may perhaps be enlivened by visions of the _chasseurs_ in +pink or green coats, three-cornered hats, and tall boots, and the +sound of their big circular horns may be heard. The silence is more +effectually broken when shooting parties meet and the _battue_ takes +place. + + [Illustration: THE CATHEDRAL AND PART OF THE OLD CITY OF CHARTRES.] + +Motor-cars have made neighbours more accessible, and changes are +taking place on this account. In pre-motor days the mistress of a +_château_ was often quite unprepared for visitors. Madame Waddington, +the American wife of a senator, who has put some of her experiences of +social intercourse in the country into a charming volume,[11] +describes a visit paid to a _château_ that was half manor, half farm. + + [11] _Château and Country Life in France_, Mary K. Waddington, 1908. + + We drove into a large courtyard, or rather farmyard, quite + deserted; no one visible anywhere; the door of the house was + open, but there was no bell nor apparently any means of + communicating with any one. Hubert cracked his whip noisily + several times without any result, and we were just wondering what + we should do (perhaps put our cards under a stone on the steps) + when a man appeared, said Mme. B. was at home, but she was in the + stable looking after a sick cow--he would go and tell her we were + there. In a few minutes she appeared, attired in a short, + rusty-black skirt, sabots on her feet, and a black woollen shawl + over her head and shoulders. She seemed quite pleased to see us, + was not at all put out at being caught in such very simple + attire, begged us to come in, and ushered us through a long, + narrow hall and several cold, comfortless rooms, the shutters not + open, and no fires anywhere, into her bedroom. All the + furniture--chairs, tables, and bed--was covered with linen. She + explained that it was her _lessive_ (general wash) she had just + made, that all the linen was _dry_, but she had not had time to + put it away, and she called a maid, and they cleared off two + chairs--she sat on the bed. It was frightfully cold. We were + thankful we had kept our wraps on. She said she supposed we would + like a fire after our long cold drive, and rang for a man to + bring some wood. He (in his shirt-sleeves) appeared with two or + three logs of wood, and was preparing to make a fire with them + _all_, but she stopped him, said one log was enough, the ladies + were not going to stay long; so, naturally, we had no fire and + clouds of smoke. She was very talkative, never stopped, told us + all about her servants, her husband's political campaigns.... She + asked a great many questions, answering them all herself; then + said, 'I don't offer you any tea, as I know you always go back + to have your tea at home, and I am quite sure you don't want any + wine.' + +Washing days only occur in large French households once a quarter, or +at the most monthly, so when the moment arrives the whole +establishment is in a ferment. An orgy of soap-suds takes place, and +coaling ship in the Navy is scarcely more disturbing to the even flow +of daily affairs. + +Conversation, where people seldom paid a visit to Paris, ran always in +a groove in the _châteaux_ and lesser houses described by the young +American. The subjects were the woods, the hunting, the schoolmaster, +the _curé_, local gossip, and much about the iniquities of the +Republic. + +_Château_ life is too frequently dull. It as often as not is as out of +touch with the realities of modern life as many English country houses +where there are no young folk, and where there is no active connection +with London and the busy world. The hunting season and shooting +parties bring life and activity for a time, but "twice-told tales of +foxes killed" do not carry any fertilising intellectual ideas into the +byways of upper-class life. An excess of formality pervades every +portion of the day, from the conversation on a new novel to the +afternoon drive or the solemn game of _bézique_ after dinner. There is +a tendency for politics to bulk largely in conversation, even among +women, while among men heat is easily generated on this topic, the +French being naturally bellicose. Subjects outside France, and matters +that do not directly concern the French, rarely come up for +discussion, unless the occupants of the _château_ are _intellectuels_. +It is mainly due to political controversy that duels arise, nearly all +the recent encounters having been between journalists and politicians. +At the present day, honour is commonly satisfied when the first blood +has been drawn, and when pistols are used, hits are infrequent. To +show how lightly he took the matter, Ste. Beuve fought under an +umbrella. Thiers fought a duel, and so also did the elder Dumas, +Lamartine, Veuillot, Rochefort, and Boulanger. Even to-day (1913) +septuagenarian generals are not too old to challenge one another, +General Bosc (seventy-two) having sent his second to demand +satisfaction of General Florentin (seventy-seven) for an unfounded +charge of encouraging the use of illegal badges in societies formed +for the training of boys in military duties! It is astonishing that +the French should maintain duelling when it is well known how opposed +was Napoleon to the absurd practice. "Bon duelliste mauvais soldat," +he used to say, and when challenged by the King of Sweden, his reply +was that he would order a fencing-master to attend him as +plenipotentiary. But the French have a keen sense of personal honour, +and one remembers that Montaigne said, "Put three Frenchmen together +on the plains of Libya, and they will not be a month in company +without scratching each other's eyes out." + +A poor man can hardly afford the luxury of a duel, for in Paris it +costs about 300 francs, and if one has no friend who is a doctor +willing to attend without a fee, the disbursements will even exceed +this amount! The first expenses are the taxis for your seconds when +they go to meet the other fellow's supporters. These meetings take +place at cafés, and their bills have to be met by the duellists. +Pistols, if they are used, are hired from Gastine Renette, who +inflicts a scorching charge of about 100 francs for the loan. If +swords are used they are bought, and the outlay is less, but not every +one who is challenged is sufficiently expert to run the chances of +using white weapons. Further expenses are incurred in the hiring of a +vehicle in which to drive to the spot selected for the honourable +encounter. The drive is punctuated by halts for refreshment for the +doctor and the seconds, as well as the coachman. When the conflict has +taken place there is often much more than "coffee for one" to be paid +for by the duellist. Not only does custom require him to invite doctor +and seconds to lunch at an expensive restaurant, but if the duel has +re-established amicable relations, there is a double party to be +entertained. To find a quiet and suitable spot for the meeting is +often exceedingly difficult, the _gendarmerie_ in such convenient +places as the Meudon Woods being perpetually on the alert, and having +offered rewards to any who warned them of the arrival of "a double set +of four serious-looking gentlemen in black frock-coats arriving in +landaus, with one gentleman in each set with his _gueule de travers_." + +Mr. Robert Sherard has described the preliminaries to a duel forced +upon him a few years ago. + + "... My fencing had grown very rusty," he wrote, "so ... I went + to a fencing school to be coached. The master ... had the + reputation of being able to teach a man in two lessons how not to + get killed in a sword duel. I was not anxious to get killed, so I + availed myself of his instructions. These mainly consisted in + showing one how to hold one's point always towards one's + adversary with extended arm. When a man so holds his weapon it + is, it appears, impossible for the other man to wound him. At the + same time it is said to be advisable to develop great suppleness + of leg and ankle so as to be able to leap back, still holding + one's point extended, in the event of the other man's rushing + forward with such impetuosity as possibly to break down one's + guard. It was further explained to me, that if whilst leaping + back I could also dig forward with my sword, most satisfactory + results might be hoped for (for me, _not_ for the other man)." + +It was disappointing to Mr. Sherard, after gaining much proficiency in +leaping backwards while digging forward with his point, to find that +his antagonist would only fight with pistols. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE RIVERS OF FRANCE + + +Broadly speaking, one half of France is mountainous, and the other +flat or undulating. All the mountains are on the eastern half, the +high grounds of Normandy and Brittany being scarcely more than hills. +The whole country might, for some purposes, be considered as an +inclined plane, for in travelling from the Alps on the eastern +frontiers to the Atlantic coast the altitudes (omitting the valley of +the Rhone) are constantly decreasing. Thus, with the exception of the +Rhone, which carries the snow-waters of the Bernese and Pennine Alps, +the Vosges and the Jura chains, into the Mediterranean, the waters of +nearly the whole of the more habitable three-quarters of the country +drain westwards to the Bay of Biscay and the English Channel. Most of +this immense reticulation of river and stream is included in the +three great systems of the Seine, the Loire, and the Garonne. The +Adour drains the triangle between the Pyrenees and the Garonne; the +Charente waters the Plain of Poitou between the Garonne and the Loire, +but both are of small account in comparison to the vast areas included +in the basins of the great rivers. + +Both the Rhone and the Garonne are of foreign birth, the first +beginning life at the foot of the great Rhone Glacier in Switzerland, +feeding on her snows and glaciers all the year round, and the second +rising in a Spanish valley of the Pyrenees. + + [Illustration: THE CHÂTEAU OF AMBOISE ON THE LOIRE.] + +The Loire, the longest of her rivers, is, however, entirely a +possession of France. It is, like the Seine, a cause of very much +anxiety on account of its inconstancy. At one season of the year it +inundates large areas with its superabundance, and at another it is +capable of running so low that only mere streams flow between the +sand-banks. So unfortunately situated is the city of Tours in times of +flood that it has found it necessary to surround itself with a +protective dyke. The chief cause of sudden inundations is when the +flood-waters of two or three tributaries conspire to pour in their +contributions to the main channel simultaneously, and only when these +headstrong young things are held in check will there be any hope of a +fairly regular level of water in the main course. Two centuries ago +(1711) the need for curbing the flood-waters was recognised so clearly +that a dam was constructed at Pinay, a village 18 miles above Roanne. +It held up 350 to 450 million cubic feet of water, and has been very +successful in maintaining the supply of water in the river-bed during +seasons of drought, as well as checking the violence of the floods. In +recent times three other dams have been built, two of them near the +busy industrial centre of St. Étienne, but until several others have +been constructed the flood-waters cannot be held in check. + +Its immense length of 625 miles takes the Loire through ten +departments, but the changes of scenery are not so remarkable as those +of the Rhone. The source is in the Cevennes, about 4500 feet above +sea-level, on the east side of the Gerbier de Jonc, and almost in +sight of the Rhone. Through Haute Loire in the marvellously +picturesque region of dead volcanoes near Le Puy-en-Velay it takes its +course northwards, flowing at the foot of basaltic cliffs and +chestnut-clad slopes. On commanding spurs ruined castles are perched +in most romantic fashion, and if it were not for their painful +inaccessibility, the demand among the wealthy for these little +strongholds of the Middle Ages would run up their value to astonishing +figures. + +The action of water in the past has been vastly more energetic in the +Auvergnes and the Cevennes in the ages since their masses of plutonic +rock were produced than at the present day, for the scoria and the +general debris of seismic disturbance has been so much eroded that the +throats of volcanoes filled with the last product of the immense heat +below here and there stand out stripped of their cones. One of the +most remarkable of these phenomena is to be seen at Le Puy. This +strange _aiguille_ has been crowned with a beautiful Romanesque chapel +for some nine centuries, and it is just possible that a Roman temple +stood there at an earlier date. + +In the neighbourhood of St. Étienne the Loire is considered to be +navigable. It traverses the alluvial plain of Forez, the mountains of +that name to the west separating it from the basin of its great +tributary the Allier, which takes a roughly parallel course and joins +it just below Nevers. If rivers could express their feeling by other +means than overproduction and strikes, the Allier would no doubt say +something forcible as to the ascendency of its neighbour, whose claims +to be the parent stream are open to question. + +Nearly all the way through this plain of Forez the Loire, in fine +weather, resembles a ribbon of fairest blue threaded through lace of +exquisite delicacy, for it is bordered by trees growing close to the +water-side, and only now and then does the band of blue show an +uninterrupted surface. Lower down bare red hills are encountered, +through which the river has forced its way to the plain in which +stands the town of Roanne, after which its course is less picturesque +for a time. This is perhaps a scarcely accurate statement, for +picture-making qualities with trees, cattle, and distant hills are +scarcely ever absent, but there is a certain monotony in the scenery +such as one can hardly find on the Thames or the Wye. From Nevers to +Orleans there are no towns on the river, which gradually turns its +course to the west, flowing exactly in that direction at Orleans, +where its ample width adds much interest and charm to a very much +modernised city. Its habit of flooding, and so causing immense damage +over large areas, has made it necessary to construct very formidable +dykes, which now protect the country it traverses between La +Martinière and Nantes. Between Orleans and Tours, where embankments do +not exist, the writer has seen the cream-coloured flood-waters foaming +and swirling past trees, fences, and hay-stacks over large areas of +the Sologne. Here and there it has been almost impossible to see any +indications of the usual river-bed, and so level is the country to the +south in the neighbourhood of Beaugency that there seems nothing to +check the floods for several kilomètres from the river. On these +occasions one trembles on account of the danger to which the +thirteenth-century bridge at Beaugency, patched, and in part rebuilt, +is hourly exposed. It is the oldest bridge on the Loire. + +Below Blois embankments contain the river, and the roadway on that +which defends the north side provides the charming riverside drive to +Amboise and Tours familiar to all who have visited the romantic +_châteaux_ of Touraine. The average rise of the river in flood is 14 +feet, and these dykes are quite equal to this task, but when, as in +1846 and 1856, the Loire raised its surface to over 22 feet, even +these banks were useless. With dredging, embanking, and dam +construction the river is being gradually harnessed, but there is +still much to be done before riverside towns can contemplate the rapid +melting of snow in the mountains without the gravest anxiety. + +An upper course in a country of impervious rock means that the volume +of water is not reduced by absorption, and the difficulties of the +river are increased when it encounters the tertiary beds of the +formation to which Paris gives its name. In this soft soil the Loire +gathers up great quantities of detritus, which it deposits farther +down, producing the sand-banks which cost the communities large sums +to remove. + +If the middle part of its course is not very interesting, the Loire +removes that reproach between Orleans and its mouth. Its waters, and +those of some of its shorter tributaries, reflect the towers and +crenellated walls of some of the most remarkable and interesting of +all the _châteaux_ of France. Blois, the scene of the murders of the +Duc de Guise (who had instigated the Massacre of St. Bartholomew) and +of his brother the Cardinal of Lorraine; Amboise, with its great +tower, containing a spiral roadway for carriages and the courtyard in +which Mary Stuart had, in 1560, been the swooning witness of a most +appalling massacre of 1200 Huguenot prisoners, the Duc de Guise +refusing to listen to her entreaties that they should be spared; +Chenonceaux, the scene of many a royal hunting party, and the +possession for a time of Diane de Poitiers, and Chaumont, which +Catherine de Medici obliged Diane to take in exchange; Langeais, where +rich furnishings of the Middle Ages and the early Renaissance bring +one into the very atmosphere of the poignard and of deadly intrigue; +and Angers, with its seventeen round towers, begun by Philippe +Auguste, are all eloquent of the romantic age of French history, of +human passion, of love, hate, and despair. + + [Illustration: CHÂTEAU GAILLARD AND A LOOP OF THE SEINE.] + +It would not be easy to think offhand of any river of similar length +and importance whose course shows such amazing dilatoriness as that of +the Seine. The statue of a nymph placed at its source by the city of +Paris is only 250 miles from the sea in a direct line, but the river +seems to have an unconquerable desire to postpone the hour when it is +swallowed up by the English Channel, and by turning out of its normal +direction, northwards or southwards, every few miles it has dug for +itself a channel 482 miles in length. Such sinuosities on the course +of a great river might be called undignified, if one could not point +to that part of the course of the Moselle that lies between Trèves and +Coblentz, and to the Ebro in the middle part of its journey between +Saragossa and the sea. The increased friction at the numerous sharp +curves prevents the flood-waters from getting away with the rapidity +the Parisians sometimes desire, and this is partly responsible for the +serious damage done in the capital when circumstances combine to send +down an abnormal quantity of water from the higher tributaries. In +January 1910 the height of the river above the normal was 24 feet, and +the racing waters swirled against the keystones of the bridges. But if +the Seine misbehaves itself at intervals,[12] its average flow is so +steady that its navigability is greater than the other important +rivers. This excellent quality is due to the fact that about +three-quarters of the basin (an area of some 30,000 square miles) is +formed of permeable deposits, and consequently a vast absorption is +constantly taking place. The waters subtracted in this way are given +back by the perennial springs supplied by the saturation of different +strata. In rainless summer weather the first two or three dozen miles +of the river frequently dry up, and only from Châtillon is it a +permanent river. Tributaries of importance then begin to flow in. The +Aube and the Yonne are followed by the Loing and the Essonne, and just +before Paris the confluence with the Marne takes place. At the door of +the last-mentioned river, longer than the Seine by 31 miles, is laid +much of the blame for the volume of the floods. Its source is in the +Plateau de Langres not many miles to the north-east of the Seine. Rich +pasture-lands broken with long lines of tall-stemmed trees and +brown-roofed villages are typical of the scenery of the main river and +its tributaries above Paris. The painter who loves to be in the midst +of opulent nature is happy here. Quaint groups of tall trees, whose +foliage in the fall of the year turns to those delicate yellow greens +and subtle browns that are a never-failing joy to those with seeing +eyes, are everywhere arranged in some delightful scheme in which +reflections in smooth oily waters add a double charm to the scene. + + [12] Great risings of the Seine occurred in 1658, 1740, 1799, 1802, + 1876, and 1883. + +It is not until Paris has been left behind that the river begins to +wash the bold white ramparts of the cretaceous beds. In and out of the +deeply indented front the meandering river takes its way, on the right +bank a wall of gleaming white cliffs and on the left green savannahs +stretching to a far and level horizon. In many places the escarpments +of chalk have the characteristics of ruined drum towers, of barbicans, +and of broken curtains, so that when Richard Coeur-de-Lion's +"_fillette d'un an_," the Château Gaillard which he caused to be built +with such incredible speed, comes into view, it is at first difficult +to believe that it is anything more than a still more realistic +natural effect. From the high ground that commands the _château_ one +looks over one of the giant loops of the river, hemmed in by +green-topped cliffs of the same marine deposits that form Gris Nez and +the curious caves of Étretat, as well as the white cliffs of Albion. +At one's feet are the still very perfect ruins of a castle that stood +on the frontier of England's possessions in France seven centuries +ago, and lower still is the little town of Le Petit Andely huddled +for protection at the base of the castle cliff. + +Farther west, where the cliffs fall away, stands that historic city of +France--Rouen, the ancient capital of Normandy. It is a port, for the +Seine at this point becomes navigable for fair-sized sea-going +steamers, and one may watch the unloading of china clay from Cornwall +among the various imports carried directly to the quays. + +Possibly the waterway to the sea was looked upon with little joy by +the inhabitants of the city during the ninth and tenth centuries, when +at any time, and without much warning, the shallow-draught vessels of +the Vikings might appear on the river. How these bloodthirsty pirates +came and came again in spite of strenuous resistance, heavy losses, +and much Dane-geld, is a terrible chapter in the story of the Seine. +How the night sky became copper-coloured under the furnace glow of +burning houses, churches, and monasteries, is a picture which no +historian of the river can fail to put into vivid words. Long ago, +however, Rouen recovered from the disasters inflicted by the Northmen, +and those who wander through her picturesque streets can find traces +of buildings that came into existence not very long after this +period. + + [Illustration: MONT BLANC REFLECTING THE SUNSET GLOW.] + +A rare type of steel bridge spans the Seine at Rouen. It consists of a +travelling platform, large enough to take horses and carts, and all +the usual load of a ferry-boat, which is slung from a light framework +connecting two tall lattice steel towers. This curious achievement of +modern engineering and the very tall iron flèche of the cathedral form +the salient features of all distant views of the city. + +Some of the peninsulas carved by the vagaries of the river are +entirely given up to forest, and for many miles dark masses of trees +extend to the southern horizon. Dykes hold the river to its course +below Rouen. Before they were built it was impossible for vessels of +20-feet draught to navigate the river except under exceptional +conditions. A notable feature of the lower reaches is the bore which +occurs at every tide and reaches its maximum height of about 8 feet in +the neighbourhood of Caudebec, where enterprising watermen entice the +visitor into their boats to enjoy a natural water-show that quite +eclipses the artificial thrills of the "Earl's Court" order. + +Beautiful and historic buildings are thickly strewn along the lowest +reaches of the Seine. The ruined abbey of Jumièges, where Edward the +Confessor was educated, raises its lofty Norman towers high above the +trees at the southern end of a big loop; the monastery of St. +Wandrille, which is now converted into a private house and became the +home of Maeterlinck a few years ago, is in a pretty valley leading +from the river; Caudebec, with its glorious Gothic church and romantic +old streets, stands on the right bank and has a sunny quay, and an +open view across the sparkling waters, the opulent level pastures, and +the belts of forest beyond; Lillebonne is the _Julia Bona_ of Roman +times, and has important remains of a Roman theatre, besides the +castle, in whose great hall--alas! no longer existing--William the +Norman announced to a great gathering of leading men his project of +invading England; Tancarville Castle, with its prominent circular +tower, is reflected in the broadening waters nearer the estuary, where +Harfleur looks across to Honfleur, and both seem to dream of the days +when their great neighbour Le Havre was not. + +Being an entirely French river, the Loire has been described first in +this chapter; the Seine followed, being a smaller river, although of +more commercial importance. Its basin, it should be mentioned, is not +entirely French, some of its water being taken from Belgium. Of the +two great rivers of foreign birth the Rhone is of the greater +importance. It has a drainage area of close upon 38,000 square miles, +and is the greatest river of all those that pour their waters directly +into the Mediterranean. Besides this the Rhone is numbered in that +distinguished group composed of the greatest of the rivers of Europe. +More than any of the rivers of France it stands out as a big factor in +history. One thinks of Hannibal with his host and his elephants faced +by the swiftness and breadth of its flow; of the terrible struggle of +the Romans with the Cimbri and Teutones on its banks; of St. Bénézet +in the twelfth century copying the methods of the Roman architect of +the Pont du Gard, and accomplishing what had never been done before, +_i.e._ the construction of a stone bridge that could resist the +onslaught of the flood-waters for centuries. Four of the big +elliptical arches still stand, seemingly as strong as the day they +were erected, and above one of the piers rises the little Romanesque +bridge chapel where the body of the good builder was buried. + +The source of the Rhone is fitting for such a mighty waterway. It +begins life as a torrent that pours from the foot of the great Rhone +Glacier, 5909 feet above sea-level. It is now ascertained that it is +the glacier itself from under which it emerges which gives birth to +the river, and not the warm springs which issue from the ground at the +point formerly reached by the glacier. Very early on its course +another glacier-fed torrent adds its waters to the Rhone, which foams +and rages through a gorge of typical Alpine grandeur. The exuberance +of its youth is maintained by the torrents that feed its adolescent +stages. It falls more than 3600 feet in less than thirty miles from +its source, joined at frequent intervals by companions born of ice and +snow, such as the Eginen, the Binna, and the Massa, a child of the +Aletsch Glaciers. Below Brieg comes the Saltine, and then follows a +quiet stretch, when the growing river passes through a stretch of +alluvium--a dull period, a first governess, as it were, to a +high-spirited youth--where floods are frequent. Below the old town of +St. Maurice the river is confined within the narrow gorge that +forms the western entrance of the Vallais, and it emerges from this +gateway to Switzerland to flow across the marshy plain that was +formerly the south-eastern end of the Lake of Geneva. Year by year the +debris of the Bernese and the Pennine Alps is washed down by the +tireless waters, and the date is approximately ascertainable when the +lake will have ceased to exist. That will be a sad day for the Rhone, +for it is through the filter-like action of the lake that the river +flows forth freed from its burden of detritus, and Byron's "blue +rushing of the arrowy Rhone" will describe a river whose character has +changed for ever, unless the hand of man erects barriers in its +course, and so introduces periods of artificial repose. But France +to-day does not receive from Switzerland the gift of a river in its +unsullied youth, for not long after it has passed from the lake it is +contaminated by an untutored glacier-bred youth fresh from the Mont +Blanc range, whence it has carried down much solid matter. For a +certain distance the two rivers do not recognise one another, the +waters refusing to mix, but propinquity brings its familiar result and +justifies the copy-book maxim concerning evil companionship. + + [Illustration: EVIAN LES BAINS. ON LAKE GENEVA.] + +All through the long journey to Lyons the Rhone preserves the +character of an uncivilised mountain-bred river, of small service to +commerce or communication, although it is termed "navigable" from a +point between Le Parc and Pyrimont. It must be said in defence of the +river that the circumstances of its path in life do not tend towards +the restful stability beloved of commerce. No sooner does it enter +France than it is obliged to fight its way through a constricted +channel between the Crédo and the Vuache, and gorge succeeds gorge for +the greatest part of the distance between Geneva and Lyons. And who is +there possessing any love for untrammelled nature who does not love +the river's wild moods, its impetuosity, its generosity, and its +reckless enthusiasm. By the time it has reached the great city of +Lyons it has, however, subdued its wild ways, for having come within +sight of the beautiful Saône it passes through the city on a sedately +parallel course, and very soon they are wedded. For the rest of its +life--a distance of 230 miles--the Rhone is a hard-working member of +society, carrying day by day the manufactures of Central France down +to the ancient "middle sea." It was the little time of engagement, +the brief interval before the marriage with the Saône was +consummated, that produced the peninsula whereon the second city of +France was founded, and gave it a situation of the greatest security +in unsettled times. No doubt the Segusiani, who are generally +mentioned as the earliest people to occupy the tongue of land, had had +predecessors on the same spot, but the fogs of prehistoric times +prevent one from knowing much of the settlement before the Roman had +reached the confluence of the rivers. Then the mists roll away, and +one has a vision of Agrippa making it the centre of four great roads; +Augustus is seen giving the city a senate and making it the place of +annual assembly of representatives from the sixty cities of Gallia +Comata. Besides conferring these distinctions, the reign of Augustus +saw the building of temples, aqueducts, and a theatre. In A.D. 59, +during the reign of the half-demented Nero, the city was burnt and +afterwards rebuilt on grander lines. Great buildings succeeded one +another until the two rivers must have reflected as fine a city as +could be found within the Roman Empire. But the unsettled centuries of +the Dark Age of Europe brought successive waves of destructive +invasion to _Lugdunum_, and for evidences of the Roman period of the +city it is necessary to go to the museum, where, however, the +Gallo-Roman objects are numerous and of the greatest importance. + + [Illustration: THE CHAPEL ON THE BRIDGE OF ST. BÉNÉZET, AVIGNON.] + +Farther down its course the great river's swift-flowing flood has on +its banks the towns of Vienne, Valence, Avignon, Tarascon, and Arles, +all by a curious chance on the left bank, although at Avignon and +Tarascon there are sister towns on the opposite side, and Arles has a +suburb across the water. Vienne and Arles still boast notable Roman +structures, and Orange and Nîmes, as well as the Gard, the last +tributary the river receives before entering the period of its dotage +in the Carmargue, preserve vast Roman buildings at no great distance +from the Rhone. It is just possible that the great part this river has +played in the making of France might have received a far less adequate +recognition had these visual tokens of the days of imperial Rome +vanished as did so many others. + +In its journey southwards from Lyons the character of the country +traversed by the Rhone undergoes remarkable changes, and after Valence +there is a decidedly southern aspect in the landscapes. The olive +begins to appear, the vine is cultivated on all sides, and dark lines +of cypresses become conspicuous. From Avignon the dusty limestone +country extends across Provence to the sea, and the arid sun-baked +hills terraced here and there for vineyards, the lines of sentinel +cypresses, and the constant presence of the olive are the chief +features of scenery that might be in Turkey, in Asia, or the Holy +Land. And yet this river began life in an Alpine glacier and passed +its middle age in the fertile lands of west-central France. The delta +of the Rhone is a huge triangular area enclosed between the Grand +Rhone and the smaller branch it throws off near Arles. It is called +the Carmargue, and is a flat waste only cultivated at the river sides, +and in certain patches helped by irrigation. Almost treeless in great +portions, and exposed to the fierce mistral that blows its cold Alpine +breath upon the delta whenever the mood arises, it is surprising to +find any towns or villages in the whole district. Yet Aigues Mortes +and St. Gilles, and a few villages, keep alive under the most adverse +conditions. Below Arles, to the east of the river, and extending to +the Étang de Berre, is the stony plain of La Crau, and there too, in +spite of the climatic discomforts and lack of soil, two or three +villages have come into existence along the main road between Arles +and Aix-en-Provence. The Crau is probably more the work of the Durance +than of the Rhone, which has deposited its burden of ice-carried +boulders in the Lake of Geneva for ages, while the Durance in its +comparatively short course from the Maritime Alps has no filtering +vat, and in its periods of flood has forced millions of large stones +down to the Rhone delta, gradually building up a barrier between +itself and the sea, and necessitating a junction with the Rhone just +below Avignon. When the sun beats down on the level waste of stones, +whose depth averages from 30 to 45 feet, such heat is produced that a +mirage is a not uncommon result. Any explanation for such a remarkable +number of stones accumulated in one place was so hard to be found in +early days that it was necessary to resort to the supernatural, and +Strabo records the legend that it was Zeus who bombarded with these +projectiles the Ligurian tribesmen who attacked the early Phoenician +traders and colonisers of the mouth of the Rhone. + + [Illustration: CAP MARTIN, NEAR MENTONE.] + +The Garonne, the last of the four great rivers of France, is the least +interesting. As already mentioned it is of foreign birth, its +head-waters being in the Maladetta chain of peaks in a Spanish portion +of the Pyrenees, and the river has traversed about 30 miles before it +enters France through the _cluse_ of the Pont du Roi. One of the two +torrents in which the river begins its life plunges into a cavity in +the rock, known as the Trou du Taureau, and does not appear again for +two and a half miles. The Rhone also had formerly a small subterranean +experience in its upper course, but the roof of rock has been +destroyed. + +The course of the river is roughly north-westward until it reaches the +formidable plateau of Lannemezan, where it is turned sharply to the +east, carrying with it the waters of the Neste, a considerable stream +fed by the snows of Mont Perdu and its big neighbours. In this part of +its course the scenery is exceedingly fine. Before the snows have +melted off the mountains there are always the pale blue-grey peaks +flecked with sunny patches, and slopes forming a magnificent +background to dark wooded hills full of purples and ambers, and in +spring the more subtle browns turning to yellow and the palest +suspicion of green. Immense views are obtained from the Lannemezan +plateau, the frontier mountain-range stretching away east and west in +a most imposing perspective of white peaks. + +On its eastward course the Garonne passes the little town of St. +Gaudens, whose name is derived from a Christian boy who was martyred +in 475 by Euric, king of the Visigoths. St. Martory, the next +town, spans the river with a bridge guarded by a formidable +eighteenth-century gateway which Arthur Young thought could have been +built for no other purpose than to please the eye of travellers. After +this the westward tilt of France begins to assert itself, and the +river works northwards to the city of Toulouse, where it gradually +turns towards the west. Toulouse, while owing much to its river, does +not forget the ill-turns it has received from its mountain-born +waterway, which carried away the suspension bridge of St. Pierre in +1855, and twenty years later, in a disastrous flood, demolished the +bridge of St. Michel and 7000 houses in the Faubourg St. Cyprien, +while about 300 people were drowned. This suburb is on the left bank, +and its situation on the inner side of the curve made by the river as +it passes through the city makes it peculiarly liable to suffer from +floods. The Pont Neuf, occupying a central position, was built about +the middle of the sixteenth century by the sculptor Nicholas +Bachelier, whose arches have proved capable of resisting the angry +moods of the Garonne until the present day. He adorned with his work +many of the churches and mansions of Toulouse. + +For the remainder of its course the river keeps to a north-westerly +direction, and passing along the northern edge of the plateau which +diverted its course, it absorbs all the rivers that flow from it. +There is no other town of any consequence until the great port of +Bordeaux is reached. This is not many miles from the mouth of the +Garonne, for when the Dordogne adds its flood to the longer river the +wide tidal estuary called the Gironde has been entered. It is scarcely +fair on the Dordogne to call it a tributary of the Garonne when it +does not join that river until it has entered the broad waterway +common to both, but it is undoubtedly a part of the Garonne system. +With the exception of the town of Bergerac--a place of no importance +and of less interest--the Dordogne has only one other town on its +banks, the little port of Libourne at its mouth where the wines of the +locality are shipped. + +The Adour and its important tributary the Gave de Pau figured +conspicuously in Wellington's successful operations against Marshal +Soult in the concluding period of the Peninsular War, and it was +during the siege of Bayonne by Sir John Hope, while the Duke was +following Soult towards Orthez, that the famous bridge of boats was +built across the river below the town. The construction of this bridge +entailed enormous risks in getting the boats across the bar at the +river's mouth, and its successful accomplishment was considered one of +the greatest engineering feats achieved by the British army during +this period. + + [Illustration: THE CHÂTEAU OF CHENONCEAUX. + _From a watercolour by Mr. A. H. Hallam Murray._] + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +OF THE WATERING-PLACES + + +French sea-coast watering-places fall easily into two groups--those of +the English Channel and those of the Mediterranean. The first may be +subdivided into the fashionable places between Deauville and the +Belgian frontier and the go-as-you-please resorts of Brittany. There +are long intervals between the different resorts, and few would dream +of wandering along the coast from one to another; but on the +Mediterranean the Riviera is almost one continuous chain of +watering-places from St. Raphaël to Mentone. + +In the early days, when English doctors were beginning to recommend +their more wealthy patients to winter on the French Riviera, there was +little beyond the sunshine, the equable climate, the colour and the +loveliness of the scenery to attract the visitor, and what more, one +asks, could any rational being who has gone away with congenial +companions require? A visit to the Riviera amply answers such a +frivolous question. In the early days, visitors and tired politicians, +perhaps of the type of Lord Brougham, or less strenuous people to whom +the fogs of the northern winter were a periodic menace, found no +hotels much above the average of the country inn, and villas were not. +Obviously these things had to be provided, and now from Cannes to +Garavan, which is within a shout of the Italian frontier, there is a +very nearly continuous chain of villas and hotels. And where villas +are too close together to permit the erection of a newly projected +_Hôtel Splendide_, a terrace is constructed a little higher up the +face of the sea-front, and the new building offers to its guests finer +views and less noise than those who stay lower down. Villas are +pleasant enough, but they can become dull to those with a passion for +amusement, a desire to escape from themselves or whatever one cares to +call the disease, and a hotel to such offers very little more. +Besides, one is practically driven to bed at a quarter to ten, so a +casino is a sheer necessity. Then no one who wishes to be healthy can +be so for long without exercise, and a golf-course must be +provided. This is a difficulty on the French Riviera only overcome at +Cannes, where the alluvial Plaine de Laval near La Napoule offers +suitable ground. Everywhere else the mountainous nature of the coast +vetoes the game. Lawn-tennis, however, is quite possible even where +steep slopes reach down to the sea. The race-course, too, has been +found a necessity for existence, and it has been provided. The casino +offers gambling and music and theatrical performances. But this is not +enough, there must be a theatre too. A Battle of Flowers is a relief +to the monotony of the days, and at Nice such an extravagance is +indulged during the Carnival, the climax of the season's manufactured +gaiety. Besides all this there are regattas, motor weeks, +pigeon-shootings, exhibitions of hydroplaning.... The list of +distractions is now so enormous that the visitor almost needs a visit +to one of the quiet spots beyond Genoa to rest before returning to the +gaieties of the season in Paris or London. + + [Illustration: ST. MALO FROM ST. SERVAN.] + +The English were the discoverers of the French Riviera from the +health-resort standpoint. They wrote books describing fine air and the +attractions of this wonderful coast, and the social distinction of +some of the writers assured an attentive audience. Lady Blessington +penned an account of her journey along the Riviera in 1823, which +reveals a condition of things as far removed from the luxury of to-day +as are the shores of Patagonia. To journey from Nice to Florence was +then more or less an adventure. "The usual route by land," she writes, +"is over the Col di Tenda, and via Turin, but this being impracticable +owing to the snow, and as we had a strong objection to a voyage in a +_felucca_, we determined to proceed to Genoa by the route of the +Cornice, which admits of but two modes of conveyance, a _chaise à +porteurs_, or on horseback, or rather on muleback." The Lady +Blessingtons of to-day travel on an excellently engineered and, for +the most part, a dust-free road, in the luxurious ease provided by the +builders of the modern motor-car _de luxe_. The six-cylindered engine +purrs so softly that the sound of the waves on the rocks beneath the +road is not lost, and even the faint smell of petrol is overcome by +the exquisite productions of Roget et Cie. + +Hyères stands quite apart from the long chain of fashionable resorts. +It is a picturesque old town separated from the sea by two or three +miles of salt marshes, and only ranks as a watering-place on account +of the proximity of Costebelle, where modern hotels perched +picturesquely on the wooded hills known as the Montagnes des Oiseaux +look across the Iles d'Or to the beautiful Maure Mountains. The +villages perched on the face of the cliffs, and those standing on the +intervals of alluvial shore along the coast of Les Maures, are typical +of the whole Riviera before the leisured and wealthy classes of the +western nations began to make their annual incursions. East of the +valley at whose mouth stands Fréjus, dozing in the midst of its +eye-filling evidences of importance in Roman times, is St. Raphaël, +with its hotel quarter known as Valescure, high among the pines on the +first slopes of the densely wooded Estérel Mountains. Healthfulness is +still the main attraction here; but those who do not thirst for +distracting gaiety love the sweet-smelling solitudes and the bays +where the porphyry rocks, purple-red as the name implies, are overhung +by masses of dark pines, and bathed by waters that reflect sky, trees, +and rocks in a wonderful confusion of strong colour, reminiscent of +bays on the south Cornish coast. Hotels have appeared near the larger +villages on the littoral of the Estérels, but Nature is still free +down to the splashing waves, and it is only when Cannes is reached +that one is in the real Riviera atmosphere. + +The first view of the sweeping coast-line between Cannes and the +confines of Italy that suddenly unfolds itself as one goes eastwards +on the coast road is one of surpassing loveliness, provided that the +weather lives up to its honestly-earned reputation. A great sweep of +sea of an exquisite, a tender, a most lovely blue fills half the +scene. It is perhaps shaded here and there by clouds, and their +shadows turn the blue to amethyst. There is a fringe of white along +the low sandy shores of the Gulf of La Napoule. Farther off the coast +becomes steep and clothed with a mantle of dark green foliage, +speckled along its lower margin with creamy-white villas, while +higher, the horizon is serrated with snow-capped peaks. As the coast +recedes it becomes more lofty, the mountains coming to bathe their +feet in the blue sea. There are islands and promontories faintly +visible in the soft opalescent haze. Such is the first impression one +obtains of a fairyland coast-line, which owing to various +circumstances had to be discovered to the French people by foreigners. +With their inherited instinct towards roving the British have not +even been able to keep to their own land when merely taking a little +seaside holiday. + + [Illustration: MONTE CARLO AND MONACO FROM THE EAST.] + +It might be said of the French that, apart from their dozen or more +seaports, they were until recently in a state of comparative ignorance +as to the nature of the wonderful coast-line of their country. It was +only recently that any considerable proportion of the great French +middle-class population acquired the habit of taking an annual holiday +by the sea. The expense of such a migration is a big item in a small +budget, and when undertaken it is the need for economy which makes the +housekeeper prefer to take a house wherein she can provide for her own +_ménage_, and avoid giving a landlady a living at her expense. + +At first the seaside visits were of a very adventurous character, and +little wooden châlets of a very temporary character were run up. They +were placed in a most haphazard fashion where land was available. +Gardens were not cultivated; and even when quite a number of these +meretricious little seaside homes had gathered together at one spot, +there was no attempt to produce the features regarded by the English +as essentials. Instead of the pier with its concert-room raised above +the waves on barnacle-swollen iron pillars, the French build a casino. +In it all forms of evening amusement are concentrated, and all the +holiday life is to be found there after sunset. The esplanade, that +most tiresome feature of all English seaside resorts, is only built +when the place has become so matured that it begins to yearn for +smartness. Possibly foreigners are the main cause of the promenade. On +the Riviera, where it has been the aim of the municipalities and the +hotel proprietors to study the habits of _les Anglais_, the esplanade +is to be found at every resort, and it is probably only the +overwhelming expense due to the precipitous nature of a very +considerable proportion of the coast that has saved the Riviera from +becoming one continuous promenade from Cannes to Mentone. Even if this +were ever accomplished the irregularities of the coast are so +pronounced that there would be few opportunities for those who +abominate the sea-front of the Brighton type to complain. At Cannes +the isolated mass of rock crowned by the picturesque "old town" +effectually cuts the frontage to the sea in two, and at Nice the +tabular rock in whose shadow ancient Nice grew, forms an abrupt +termination to the eastward end of the parade, the central portion of +which is called the Promenade des Anglais, and there is situated a +jetty to satisfy the tastes of the same patrons of "Paris by the Sea." +Villefranche does not give any opportunity for producing sterile +perspectives on account of the deep and narrow bay formed by the Cap +du Mont Boron and the St. Jean peninsula. Beaulieu is little more than +a fortuitous concourse of villas and hotels, and the only level ground +is that occupied by the Corniche road. + + [Illustration: MONT ST. MICHEL AT HIGH TIDE.] + +The promontory of Monaco is entirely precipitous, but gardens on its +outward side give shady walks and charming peeps of the distant coast. +One side of the bay of Monaco is formed by the curving northern face +of the tabular projection, and facing it are the creamy-white terraces +of Monte Carlo, rising up to the blocks of equally brilliant +red-roofed buildings terminating in the world-famed Casino, which +stands at the apex of a small projection of the rocky shelf. The +architecture of the Casino is of the commonplace "exhibition" type, +and the gardens surrounding it support the parallel. Only the +determination of man could have made the precipitous slopes of the +mountainous sea-front produce lawns and flowers and shady trees, for +the heat of summer would destroy all but the hardiest forms of +vegetation, unless artificial aids were employed. The colour of Monte +Carlo is intensely brilliant on account of the immense reflecting +surface of pinkish limestone rock that towers up some 1300 feet from +the sea, and makes the place quite unique among watering-places. +Strictly speaking one hardly has any right to include it in a +description of French watering-places, for Monaco is an independent +principality, and its area includes Monte Carlo and the intervening +township of Condamine, which is packed in between the gaming +metropolis and the _col_ that separates Monaco's peninsula from the +mainland. + +Until 1856 the principality had no gambling halls, and it was not +until 1858 that the Prince of Monaco laid the foundation stone of the +existing Casino, the gaming-tables having been first set up within the +walls of the old town. In a few years the annual income from the +Casino ran up to £1,000,000, a sum of £50,000 being the Prince's +share. So by playing down to the widespread instinct for gambling, one +of the most unprofitable patches of coast has become in proportion to +its area the most revenue-producing in the whole world. It is a +melancholy reflection that one of the most perfect spots on the +Mediterranean for enjoying all the warmth of the winter sun should be +so fatally contaminated by a cosmopolitan crowd of ne'er-do-weels of +every grade of society. One sees all the world at Monte Carlo, for no +one who passes along the Riviera can quite resist the desire to have a +peep at a place of such notoriety. And so many come to Monte Carlo for +this selfsame purpose that the real habitués, the professionals and +the "last-hopers," are rather lost sight of in the crowd of quite +irreproachable people who half fill the concert-hall, and drift +through the gaming-rooms throwing a few five-franc pieces on to the +roulette tables "just to see what happens," or to experience the very +edge of the strange fascination which leads men and women to fling +away a competency in a fevered desire for wealth. + +The two superimposed roads between Nice and Mentone known as the Upper +and the Lower Corniche, are both laboriously engineered highways, +possessing almost unrivalled charms. On the lower road there used to +be a most serious disadvantage to the enjoyment of the scenery in the +choking clouds of dust raised by every passing vehicle. Motor-cars +used to throw up such a smother of dust that it did not settle for +some minutes, and in the interval fresh clouds would be produced. Tar +has at last been brought to rescue the charms of the Lower Corniche +from being completely destroyed. Trams grind and scream as they follow +the constant curves of the road, and their presence robs it of any +sense of repose. It is therefore more possible to enjoy the changing +panorama of bay, cliff, and promontory, of brilliantly coloured waves +in shadow and in sunshine from a seat in a car than on foot. An +automobile, unless driven very slowly, is tiresome and tantalizing in +such scenery. One can only compare the sensation of being flung +through beautiful surroundings of this character at 30 miles an hour +to being obliged to go through the galleries of the Louvre at a trot. + +On the Upper Corniche the traffic is light, there are no trams, and +dust is scarcely noticeable. The scenery is altogether on a greater +scale. At certain spots one commands nearly the whole of the French +Riviera at once. The sea is far below, and its nearer shores are +almost invariably hidden. Whoever passes one on this lofty highway is +fairly sure to have come there for pleasure, business taking few +along the high "cornice." Energetic folk from all the resorts within +reach are to be found climbing up the steep zig-zag pathways to this +splendid vantage-ground. Frenchmen in clothes suited for _le sport_ or +perhaps wearing the dark city type of jacket suit which so many adhere +to even when holiday-making, Germans thoughtfully carrying their red +Baedekers with them, and Englishmen of the retired military officer or +I.S.O. type are all to be found enjoying or "doing" the Upper Corniche +in the various manners of their widely differing temperaments. At La +Turbie, where the remains of the huge monument to Caesar Augustus, the +conquering emperor, still bulk prominently in the midst of the +village, there is a funicular railway connecting the upper and lower +roads, bringing the splendid air and scenery of the heights within +reach of the infirm or the merely slack types of visitors. + +The long winding descent from La Turbie to Mentone brings the two +roads together opposite Cap Martin, a promontory densely grown with +old and gnarled olives and masses of dark pines that come down to the +water's edge. From beneath their shade one can look across the blue +waves breaking into white along the curving shore to Mentone's villas +and hotels overtopped by its old town on a spur of the mountain slopes +that rise sharply just behind. Although built at the mouth of two +torrents, Mentone is sheltered by an imposing amphitheatre of lofty +mountains, which very effectually screen it from the treacherous +mistral, and it is this fact which has made it the most popular place +for invalids on the whole of _la Côte d'Azur_. It is fortunate in +having been spared the inflictions of overpowering perspectives of the +Nice or Brighton order, and one can sit close to the shore under the +shade of great eucalyptus trees free from the glare and the traffic of +a big sea-front roadway of the stereotyped British pattern. + +The eastern extension of Mentone, known as Garavan, is within a few +minutes' walk of the Italian frontier, where the sea-coast resorts +become more brightly coloured and have more architectural interest in +their old quarters, the Ligurian type of compactly built walled town +being scarcely recognisable in what remains of old Mentone. + +Not only is the Riviera a land of winter sunshine, it is also one of +the most sweetly-scented coasts in the world. The delicious fragrance +of the lemon and the orange, when those trees are in blossom, is +often Nature's final lavish filling up of the cup of enjoyment to +overflowing. And in the spring, when the northern sea-coast resorts +are shivering before the icy winds that sweep down the Channel, this +favoured coast has nasturtiums and other flowers that England does not +see until late in summer, in their fullest blossom. France is indeed +fortunate in its Mediterranean shore, of which Plato must have been +thinking when he wrote: + + There the whole earth is made up of colours brighter far and + clearer than ours; there is a purple of wonderful lustre, also + the radiance of gold, and the white which is in the earth is + whiter than any chalk or snow. + +Among the watering-places on the Channel the twin towns of Deauville +and Trouville, separated only by the river Toques, are pre-eminent +among the wealthiest and most fashionable of Parisians. Trouville has +a longer season, but it is altogether outshone by its neighbour during +the fortnight of the races in August, and during the quieter weeks of +its season Deauville probably boasts more leaders of fashionable +French society than any other coast resort. It is popularly believed +that during the season one cannot smell the salt air off the sea at +either of these places on account of the scent used by its expensive +visitors. This is more or less true of Étretat also, and possibly of +Biarritz too, and no one who dreams of careless attire should come +near these places during the season. + +Both places possess splendid stretches of sand, and therefore bathing +is safe, and one of the greatest attractions to visitors. The casinos +are well adapted to the demands made upon them, and the villas +include, among the various more temporary old-fashioned types, many +that are quite charming. + +Westward from Deauville is pretty little Cabourg, just beyond the +mouth of the River Dive, where William the Norman assembled his army +for the invasion of England. Here also the beach is of excellent sand, +extending for four miles. The casino is, of course, a prominent +feature, and there is a broad terrace, not far short of a mile in +length, raised above the beach. Between Cabourg and the mouth of the +Orne one finds one of those embryo seaside places that are typical of +the haphazard fashion in which French watering-places grow. It bears +the curious name of Le Home-sur-Mer, and in its present stage of +development is little more than a railway-station and a collection of +widely scattered and hurriedly-built villas, dumped anywhere along a +sandy ridge. + +After Deauville the seaside resort most patronised by the opulent is +Étretat. It has none of the advantages of a sandy shore, and bathing +from the steep shingly beach is often so dangerous that the +authorities insist on securing intrepid bathers by rope around the +waist. Good swimmers enjoy the depth of water to be found close to the +shore, and have no fear of a buffeting by big rollers; but to the weak +or timid the conditions are often forbidding, and on such days there +are more early arrivals than usual at the first tee on the +golf-course. + +From the point of view of scenery Étretat holds a high position, its +bold chalk cliffs adding enormously to the picturesqueness of the +coast. Erosion produces very curious effects in the chalk, boring vast +cavities with wonderfully domed roofs, and leaving natural arches and +projecting ribs that sometimes suggest the colossal legs of a white +elephant. The arch springing from the central projection of the +cliffs, known as the Porte d'Aval, is approachable from the east at +low tide, and a nearer view can be obtained of an isolated pillar +called the Aiguille d'Étretat. + +There are lofty cliffs at Fécamp and a curving bay, with a casino in +the centre and the mouth of the Fécamp River to the east; but it +cannot claim to be so much the resort of fashion as its western +neighbour. The town has a busy port and all the picturesqueness +contributed by the fishing-boats that go to the cod or herring +fisheries. There is, as well, the abbey church and the Benedictine +distillery with its interesting museum, but such features do not +attract many holiday-makers, who are looking for amusement of the +entirely social order. + +St. Valery-en-Caux has a beach made up of both sand and shingle, the +upper portion of the bathing-ground being exceedingly stony. On the +lower level children bathe in safety, and the joy of shrimping is +indulged in by visitors of all ages. + +A little to the east is Veules, where the cliffs are low and of rather +loose earth, and the beach is not ideal for bathing. It is popular +with the people of Rouen, being conveniently placed and inexpensive. +The shrimp here too offers a fund of excitement to the families who +are usually content with the most simple of amusements, provided +they can drop into the casino after dinner. + + [Illustration: THE VEGETABLE MARKET, NICE.] + +Dieppe, owing to its connection with England by the Newhaven steamers, +is popular among English visitors, who can run over for a day or two +with the minimum of trouble and expense. The broad sunny Plage, the +casino to which one is free all day on payment of three francs, and +the Établissement des Bains keep the place very full of life and +gaiety throughout the season; but one does not expect to find there +the people who may be seen at Étretat or Deauville. Possessing a busy +and not unpicturesque port, an historic fifteenth-century _château_, +and a beautiful Gothic church, it is surprising to find the sea-front +so entirely suggestive of one of the newly developed resorts. To the +north-east is Tréport, an interesting and picturesque little coast +town, with the usual requirements for bathing and summer visitors. +Along the top of the great bank of shingle are the dressing-sheds, +with wooden steps at intervals leading down to the beach. Those who +have any interest in history find the proximity of the famous old town +of Eu a great attraction, but golf acts with such magnetic force over +the average Anglo-Saxon that such considerations do not often weigh +in the choice of a holiday resort. The French have only lately begun +to know the joys and the profound dejections of golf; it is not yet a +necessary adjunct to a seaside resort. Where there are golf-courses it +is mainly British capital that brings them on to the sand-dunes. Le +Touquet is very cosmopolitan, but it could hardly exist a month +without its English patrons. It is one of those places which come into +existence with the wave of the capitalist's wand. He says, in effect, +"Let us make on this waste an ideal health resort, let us erect +hotels, casinos, theatres, and to these add golf-courses, croquet +lawns, lawn-tennis courts, and polo grounds; we will have rides +through the forest and bathing facilities on this shore, and we will +advertise until the whole world knows that we have made this place." +And, having spoken, everything desired straightway comes to pass, so +that one reads on a leaflet concerning this newly arrived resort such +items as these:-- + + 10 hotels. 2 golf-courses. + 2 casinos. 3 croquet lawns. + 2 theatres. 17 lawn-tennis courts. + 10 miles of forest rides. 3 miles of sandy beach. + A polo ground. Drag-hounds. + +Paris Plage is the newly-built town, brought into existence through +the needs and attractions of Le Touquet, Étaples being a little too +far away to answer this purpose. + +Farther north is Boulogne, with its own casino and promenade and its +village resorts, such as Hardelot, close at hand. So numerous, indeed, +are the bathing-places of this type that it would be tiresome to even +attempt a list of them all, but they all have their own +devotees--French, English, and American--and any little villa along +the coast of Normandy or Picardy may during the hot months be the +temporary home of men and women whose names are household words on +either side of the Channel. + +Brittany is farther away from Paris and from England, and its charms +are only beginning to be appreciated. With the exception of Dinard, +there is no place that is expensive or smart in any sense. Some of the +villages on the long and deeply indented coast-line have at least one +good hotel, and if one is content with what the sea will provide in +the way of amusement, the happiest of holidays may be spent there. +Bathing, sailing, fishing, sketching, walking, exploring quaint +villages, and seeing the curious social customs that still live in +this very Celtic corner of France, fill up endless days, and only +those to whom none of these things appeal can be dull, provided the +weather is tolerably fine. + +Biarritz, down at the southern extremity of the French Atlantic coast, +in the innermost corner of the Bay of Biscay, with its neighbour St. +Jean de Luz, are far away from the two great groups of coast resorts. +The first was popularised among both French and English on account of +the frequent visits paid to it by King Edward VII. It was understood +when _Le Roi Edouard_ came to Biarritz that no one was to take any +notice whatsoever of his presence. Cameras were promptly confiscated +if any one attempted to snapshot the King or any of his friends, and +it was in this way possible for the sovereign who loved to step down +into the crowd, to forget the tedious functions of his office. After +Sunday morning service he would stroll along the promenade with one or +two friends in the most informal fashion, so that a chance British +visitor who did not dream that he might at any moment rub shoulders +with his sovereign would almost gasp with astonishment when he +suddenly discovered that he had actually done so! + + [Illustration: THE PYRENEES FROM NEAR PAMIERS.] + +Only at intervals does the sea give up its onslaught upon the rocks +that form the coast at Biarritz, and one of the charms of the place is +to be found in the magnificent displays given by the Atlantic. +Thundering waves rear themselves in great walls of green, +marble-veined with foam, which fling themselves in a chaos of white +upon the smooth, sandy shore of the Plage or the deeply indented +promontory which contains the fishing port. The town is very modern, +but is well built and extremely clean and pleasant in every way, the +new streets being full of good houses in gardens that are something +more than a patch of unmown grass. + +Besides bathing, for which there are three _établissements_, there is +golf and lawn-tennis, while the proximity of the Pyrenees gives +opportunity for motor drives in the midst of deep valleys, whose vast +slopes clothed with pine or box fall precipitously to torrential +rivers. The whole country, too, is rich in memories of Wellington's +successful completion of the Peninsular War. St. Jean de Luz was for a +time his headquarters, the house he occupied being still in existence. +Nearly all who stay at Biarritz go on to Pau, the inland winter resort +close to, but not within the actual embrace of the Pyrenees. English +people visit both places mainly in the winter and spring. They make +the season at those times, while French and Spanish visitors flood +thither in the summer, putting up prices at that period of the year to +a height not reached during the zenith of the English season. Almost +every form of sport and open-air exercise can be enjoyed at Pau, and +foxhounds meet regularly throughout the winter. The town is +magnificently placed on the north side of the Gave de Pau, and the +view it commands of the snowy range of peaks, with the deep and +picturesque valleys leading up to them, is one of the finest +possessions of this character to be found in any town of France. + + [Illustration: THE GALERIE DES GLACES AT VERSAILLES.] + + + + +CHAPTER X + +ROMAN, ROMANESQUE, AND GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN FRANCE + + +In the wide range of its ancient and mediaeval architecture France +stands next to Italy. Its Roman buildings are almost as fine as +anything to be found in that country, its Gothic structures include +some of the world's masterpieces, while in examples of the Renaissance +only the country where the re-birth took place can rival her. England, +which competes closely in the Romanesque and Gothic periods, is out of +the running in the earlier epoch, and takes a very much lower position +in the works that succeeded the death of the pointed style. Italy, the +most formidable rival, is superior in its Roman remains, but inferior +in its Gothic work. In the Renaissance, Italy, its home, stands easily +first, and in works of the Byzantine period its possessions at Venice +and Ravenna leave the western nations far behind. + +Prehistoric architecture is well represented in Brittany, where the +vast scale of the Carnac lines--the Avenues of Kermario--dwarfs the +British survivals on Salisbury Plain and Dartmoor. There are numerous +dolmens and tumuli, containing chambers roughly constructed out of +unhewn stones of the New Grange (Ireland) type, but there is nothing +comparable to Stonehenge. + +When one comes to the Roman period the remains are so splendid that +many are satisfied with what they have seen in Provence, and do not +feel impelled to see Rome before they die. Nîmes stands first among +the towns of Provence for the splendour of the Roman structures it has +preserved. Not only has it an amphitheatre which is more perfect than +any other in existence, but its temple, dedicated to Caius and Lucius +Caesar, adopted sons of the Emperor Augustus, between the first and +the fourteenth year of the Christian era, is also the best preserved +in the world. Having been used successively as a church, a municipal +hall, and a stable, it is now a museum of Roman objects, and seems +capable of standing for an unlimited time. Besides these most famous +structures there are two gateways, one of them bearing an inscription +stating that it was built in the year 16 B.C. To the north of the town +are Roman baths of wonderful completeness, and in their restored +condition of very considerable beauty. Over them on the hill-top rises +the Tour Magne, a Roman watch-tower which formed part of the defences +of the city. Stretching across the deep and rocky bed of the river +Gard, about 14 miles to the north, is the vast aqueduct which carried +the water-supply of Nîmes across the obstruction caused by the river. +The three superimposed tiers of arches filling the wide space make one +of the most imposing of all the Roman works that have come down to the +present time. + + [Illustration: THE ROMAN TRIUMPHAL ARCH AT ORANGE.] + +Arles is a serious rival to Nîmes. It has preserved its amphitheatre, +built about the first century A.D. and large enough to hold an +audience of 25,000 persons. The remains of its theatre, with two +marble columns of its proscenium, which were utilised as a gallows in +the Middle Ages, standing out among the fallen and dislodged stones, +has preserved just enough of its form to be exceedingly impressive. In +the disused church of St. Anne have been gathered a most remarkable +collection of Roman sarcophagi, altars, and many other objects of +richly sculptured stone, while in the Avenue des Alyscamps one may see +the cemetery of Roman Arles just outside the city walls, dating from +the reign of the Emperor Constantine. On the two sides of the avenue +there are many stone sarcophagi, the larger ones, of which there are +two or three dozen, having retained their lids. There are remains of +the forum and a tower of Constantine's palace, built early in the +fourth century. + +Orange has a theatre which, now that the upper tiers of seats have +been restored, has very much its original appearance. The immense +stone wall, forming the back of the semicircular stage, is 118 feet in +height and 13 feet thick. Stone was close at hand, making its +construction easy, and the auditorium was hewn out of the limestone +hill against which the theatre was built. There appears to have been a +permanent roof of timber--a unique feature--for there are structural +indications leading to such a conclusion, as well as signs of fire, +which no doubt was the cause of its disappearance. In about A.D. 21 a +very fine triumphal arch was erected at Orange, then known as +_Arausio_, and this still stands complete, save for the detrition on +its surface caused by the weather and perhaps some rough handling in +the Dark Ages. Very judicious restoration has given one a convincing +idea of what is missing where the structure has not been overlaid with +new work. St. Rémy has contrived to preserve a considerable portion of +its triumphal arch, and close to it a remarkably perfect mausoleum, 50 +feet in height. It is adorned with much sculpture like the archway, +and both stand upon an exposed rocky plateau. There are, indeed, so +many survivals of this period which one would like to mention that +there would be no space to deal with any later age. Vienne, on the +extreme confines of Roman Provincia, has its temple, rebuilt in the +second century, converted into a Christian church in the fifth, and +made more famous during the Revolution by the celebrating within its +walls of the Festival of Reason. Remains of the city walls, of a +theatre, of the balustrade of a fine staircase, of a pantheon, an +amphitheatre, and a citadel are still to be seen. The Roman aqueduct, +which supplied the city, restored in 1822, is still to some extent in +use! + +Périgueux is full of indications of its Roman buildings. The Tour de +Vésone is in part a Gallo-Roman temple, dedicated to Vesuna; the +remains of the amphitheatre include much of the outer wall, in which +are staircases, vomitoria, and the lower vaulting now partially +exposed. At Lillebonne, mentioned in another chapter, are the +carefully excavated remains of a theatre; at Carcassonne, at Narbonne, +at Lyons, in Paris, and in other cities and towns, Roman foundations +and many sculptured stones are full of significance, and of absorbing +interest to the historian, the architect, and the archaeologist. + +Following the age of Roman domination came those strangely fascinating +centuries of disruption and destruction in which the outward +influences of Rome slowly gave way before the westward march of the +lower but healthier civilisation of the tribes of central and eastern +Europe. When these new peoples had settled down among the older +occupants of the country, they began to build permanent structures for +themselves, and although there may have been some craftsmanship among +them, they were unable to do more than make indifferent attempts to +copy the architecture of the Roman era. The dark shadow that the +irruptions caused to fall upon the face of Europe leaves the world in +ignorance as to the fate of the architects, and stone masons who +reared the noble works of Rome's supremacy in western Europe. It would +appear that in the two or three centuries of uncertainty, if not of +perpetual warfare and social chaos, no one had time or opportunity to +do more than erect hurried fortifications of the crude type one sees +in the Visigothic portions of town walls, such as those of +Carcassonne. No architect could flourish under such conditions, and +unless he migrated to the seat of the Eastern Empire opportunities for +applying his knowledge were no doubt impossible to find. And at +Constantinople a new development of architecture was taking place, in +which the exterior was disregarded to a very considerable extent while +internal decoration became extravagant, Byzantine art being +dissatisfied unless every portion of walls and roof was richly +ornamented and brilliant in colour. The profession of the architect +being useless, the dependent handicraftsmen would inevitably die out, +and thus from the sixth century, which is about the earliest date of +any Romanesque building in France, one sees the crude efforts of the +ill-trained sculptors to copy the ornament of the buildings that lay +around them ruined or gutted. In many of the capitals that were +carved in these early centuries of Christian times, the volutes are +half-hearted attempts to reproduce the Ionic order, with a tendency to +stray into Corinthian foliation. From such very early buildings as the +church of St. Pierre at Vienne, onwards to St. Trophîme at Arles, the +crypts of Notre Dame du Port at Clermont-Ferrand and of St. Denis, +Paris, until one reaches the great churches of the eleventh and +twelfth centuries, such as the cathedral of Angoulême and the church +of Notre Dame la Grande at Poitiers, one can see the steady +development of a curious mixture of bastard Roman with the Byzantine +style, upon which was growing a new individuality which burst into +flower with the introduction of the pointed arch. In France this +abandonment of the Roman semicircular arch came very gradually. +Belonging to the transition stage are many fine buildings, in which +group are the fine church at Poitiers just mentioned and the cathedral +at Le Puy-en-Velay. The sculpture of this period reveals the very +strong Byzantine influence prevailing, and if no other evidence +existed this alone would demonstrate the debt western Europe owes to +the rearguard of its civilisation. + + [Illustration: FRENCH DESTROYERS.] + +The architecture of Normandy had its own peculiarities during the +Romanesque period, but while these differences have entitled it to a +separate name and classification, it is Romanesque influenced by the +Northmen, and all through England the strong Byzantine influence was +felt until the great expansion of new ideas began to outgrow the forms +and ornament of the preceding centuries. + +Two of the finest Norman Romanesque buildings are the great abbey +churches built at Caen by William the Conqueror and his queen Matilda. +The Abbaye aux Hommes, William's work, is not quite as it was when +consecrated, but it is almost entirely a work of the Norman period. +That there was a simplicity in the style at this period almost +amounting to plainness is shown in the west front of William's church; +while the Abbaye aux Dames, built about a quarter of a century later, +shows a very great advance in the distribution and application of +ornament both within and without. Another abbey church, that of St. +Georges de Boscherville, built in the eleventh century by Raoul de +Tancarville, is a more perfect and complete work of that period than +any other in Normandy. With the exception of the upper portions of +the western turrets and the broach spire, the whole church stands +to-day as it was originally erected. In these large and not always +very beautiful buildings, it is their association with a romantic +period and the evidences they show of architectural evolution that +provides the chief satisfaction to the informed visitor and the +student. + +A considerable portion of the abbey buildings that engirdle the summit +of the rocky islet of Mont St. Michel belong to the Norman period, +although much of the work is Gothic. + +At St. Denis, outside Paris, one sees the beginnings of French Gothic. +Clearly the builders regarded the new style as empirical, for there +was obvious hesitation to plunge too far into a field of such +considerable possibilities when the west front was designed. A little +later than St. Denis is the cathedral of Noyon, another extremely +interesting example of this period. Almost simultaneously came +Chartres, but a disastrous fire in 1194 left little besides the towers +and the west front. The rebuilding, however, which proceeded almost at +once, was to a considerable extent completed by 1210, and this later +work shows the Gothic style grown to all the splendour which has +perpetually satisfied and enthralled the minds of succeeding +generations. + +At this time building was proceeding all over Europe with wonderful +vigour. The new style gripped the imaginations of all the western +nations, and wherever sufficient funds were obtainable the monkish +architects were enthusiastically producing designs which were steadily +carried out in stone. In Paris Notre Dame was building all through the +closing years of the twelfth century and the opening of the next; at +Rouen, the cathedral having been burnt in 1200, half a century of +building followed; the glories of Rheims and Amiens were materialising +during the same period, and almost coeval is the vast cathedral of +Beauvais, which was planned to eclipse that of Amiens in every +respect. The ambitious intent of the designers of Beauvais was never +consummated, and in the unfinished pile standing to-day one sees the +failure to build a Titan among cathedrals. + +All through the period known in England as Early English there is much +similarity in design, as well as in ornament, on both sides of the +Channel, but signs of divergence begin to appear with the development +of decorative skill during the English Decorated Period, and when the +French architect had reached his highest achievement in the subtly +beautiful lines of the Flamboyant style, the English craftsmen, after +a few brief moments in the same direction, turned about and produced +their unique development in the style known as Perpendicular. Here and +there in France there are suggestions of the restraint of the last +phase of English Gothic, but they are almost as rare as the Flamboyant +style in England. At Evreux and at Gisors one sees remarkable examples +of the work of the Renaissance in the reconstruction of the west ends +of these Gothic churches. The contrast of styles is, however, too +marked to allow even the hand of Time to remove the challenge which +the two styles fling at one another. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE NATIONAL DEFENCES + + +About the year 1909 the administration of the French navy had fallen +into a scandalous state of chaos. Battleships were so long in building +that the type was beginning to be superseded before the vessels were +commissioned. There was a story circulated not long ago to the effect +that some one who enquired of the widow of a workman at Cherbourg what +her son was going to do for a livelihood received the reply that he +would work on the _Henri IV._ as his father had done. The story may +not be quite true, but it indicates what people were thinking at the +time. British ships are not infrequently completed within a year of +their launch, but the _Dupetit Thouars_ which took the water in 1901 +was only completed in 1905. + +It was during the period of office of M. Pelletan that the various +departments of the navy lost cohesion and their productive capacity +was greatly diminished. This minister was responsible for a species of +socialistic propaganda which brought about the most deplorable results +in so far as the efficiency of the navy was concerned. _Le Journal_, +in its summary of the conclusions of the commission of enquiry into +the state of naval administration, admitted that money had been wasted +in petty errors and foolish blunders, in orders and counter-orders, on +untried guns, on worthless boilers, on white powder which turned +green, on shells which destroyed the gunners, on 16-centimetre turrets +in which 19-centimetre guns had been placed. "The money," said this +newspaper, "has passed through ignorant hands, and slipped through +fools' fingers." + +Drastic changes were necessary to stop the alarming deterioration that +was taking place, for the nation had not, for fully ten years, been +getting anything near the full measure of sea-power to which it was +entitled by the annual sums voted. Between 1900 and 1909 France +expended 129 millions sterling on her navy, and in the same period +Germany devoted 121 millions to that branch of national defence, and +at the end of the decade it was found that the country spending the +larger sum had dropped down to a fifth place in the scale of world +sea-power, while with her smaller outlay Germany had risen to the +second place. In other words, the French had paid for the second place +and only realised the fifth! + +In this crisis Admiral Boué de Lapeyrère was appointed Minister of +Marine, and was provided with a civilian Under-Secretary of State to +act as assistant and be responsible with him for civil administration. +Since this appointment much leeway has been made up, although the +nation has had to mourn the loss of the _Liberté_, which blew up in +the crowded naval harbour of Toulon, and has been alarmed more than +once on account of the unstable quality of the powder with which the +ships have been supplied. At last this danger appears to have been +rectified. + +The French naval officer receives his training at the naval schools at +Brest and Toulon and is generally very keen and capable. He does not +enjoy hard conditions from the sporting instinct after the fashion so +usual in the British navy, but his devotion to his work produces very +efficient gunnery and admirable handling of submarine craft. For the +lower deck the supply of the suitable class of bluejacket might be +sadly deficient were it not for the seafaring populations of Brittany +and Normandy. At Bologne there was living recently a wrinkled old +grandmother who had forty grandchildren, of whom all the males were +sailors or fishermen, while several of the girls had become fishwives +or had married fishermen or sailors. France owes much to her little +weather-beaten grandmothers of this type. + +The manning of the fleet is partially carried out by voluntary +enlistment, but the main supply is gained by means of the _inscription +maritime_, a system established in the latter part of the seventeenth +century by Colbert. This method requires all sailors between eighteen +and fifty to be enrolled in "the Army of the Sea." They begin their +term of seven years of obligatory service at about twenty, two years +of the period being furlough. Any man earning his livelihood on inland +waters, provided they are tidal or capable of carrying sea-going +vessels, is included in the term "sailor." A further supply of men +is obtained by transferring a certain number of the year's army +recruits to the sea service. + + [Illustration: SOLDIERS OF FRANCE IN PARIS.] + +Cherbourg, Brest, and Toulon are the chief naval ports, Lorient and +Rochefort being of lesser importance. Shipbuilding, however, takes +place at each of the five. + +The frequent changes make it impossible to discuss the strength of the +fleets in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, or those stationed in +colonial waters, but collectively the fighting force of the navy has +for the last few years numbered roughly 25 battleships, 15 large +armoured cruisers, 16 protected cruisers, 80 or 90 destroyers, 180 +torpedo-boats, and about 90 submarines and submersibles. Under the new +administration larger ships are being built, and the destroyer is +taking the place of the torpedo-boat. + +On account of its superiority as a fighting machine the army of France +ranks above the navy, and it should have been placed before the navy +in the short notes which constitute this chapter. The author has felt, +however, that the subject is too complex to deal with in such a book +as this. He confesses to blank ignorance as to the efficiency of the +French artillery material, although from English sources he gathers +that it is superior to that possessed by almost any other nation. It +would be extremely interesting if one could state how far the army is +prepared for "the real thing," how much it has learned in recent +years, to what extent its very efficient army of the air is a source +of strength, and whether the rifle at present in use is as perfect a +weapon as those of other countries. These are subjects much discussed +by the inexpert, and the author does not feel competent to deal with +them. + +In the present year (1913) the period of service for the conscripts +who form the army was raised from two to three years, and by this +means the numbers of the peace strength were enormously increased from +the former establishment of a little over half a million men. The new +law did not add, as might perhaps be imagined, another quarter of a +million to the total. France has not a sufficiently large population +to provide such a number of men of the required age and physical +fitness. The numbers are, however, considered sufficient to meet the +imaginary dangers which threaten her national existence, and the +country has now to divert much of its energy to meeting the cost of +this regrettable lengthening and thickening of her big stick. +Incidentally the world's prosperity must suffer, and social reforms +generations overdue must be postponed! With Ebenezer Elliott one asks +again: + + When wilt Thou save the people? + O God of mercy, when? + + [Illustration: SKETCH MAP OF FRANCE] + + + + +INDEX + + + Ablutions, personal, 34 + + Academies, the, 75 + + Adour, the, 144, 168 + + Agnosticism, 80, 83 + + Agriculture, 116 + + Agrippa, 161 + + Aigues-Mortes, 127, 163 + + Aix-en-Provence, 164 + + Algerian wine, 125 + + Allier, the, 147 + + Alms-giving in churches, 44 + + Alps, 123, 124 + + Amboise, 150 + + Amiens, 203 + + Andely, Le Petit, 154 + + Angers, Château d', 150 + + Anglo-Norman horses, 123 + + Angoulême, 200 + + Apache, the, 96, 97 + + Arles, 130, 162, 164, 195, 196, 200 + + Armoricans, the, 7 + + Army, the, 209 + + _Arrondissement_, the, 60 + + Asses, 123 + + Assize, Courts of, 63 + + Aube, the, 152 + + Augustus Caesar, 161, 181 + + Auvergnes, the, 146 + + _Aversier_, the, 131 + + Avignon, 162, 164 + + Ay, 126 + + + _Baccalauréat de l'enseignement_, 74 + + Bachelier, Nicholas, 167 + + Bacteriology, science of, 18 + + Bagehot, Walter, 53 + + Banns, announcement of, 42 + + Barker, Mr. E. H., 106, 116 + + Bastille, the, 111 + + Bath, the itinerant, 34 + + Battle of Flowers at Nice, 171 + + Bayonne, 168 + + Beauce, La, plain of, 115, 116, 119 + + Beaugency, 148 + + Beauvais, 203 + + Bedroom, the typical, 26, 28 + + Bergerac, 167 + + Bernese Alps, 143, 159 + + Betham-Edwards, Miss, 31 + + Béziers, 126 + + Biarritz, 184, 190, 191 + + Birth-rate, the, 36 + + Blessington, Lady, 172 + + Blois, 148 + + Blois, Château de, 149 + + _Bonne-à-tout-faire_, the, 13, 14, 101, 102 + commissions of the, 30 + + Bordeaux, 167 + + Bore on the Seine, 155 + + Boué de Lapeyrère, Admiral, 207 + + Boulanger, 139 + + Boulevards, the, 88 + + Boulogne, 189, 208 + + Boulogne, Bois de, Paris, 110 + + Bourseul, Charles, 18 + + Boy Scouts in France, 72 + + Bread, French, 87 + + Brest, 207, 209 + + Brieg, 158 + + Brittany, 11, 12, 122, 123, 131, 189, 208 + megalithic remains, 7 + + Brougham and Vaux, Lord Chancellor, 170 + + Brunel, Isambard, 18 + + Buckwheat, 115 + + Butcher, the French, 32 + + Byron, Lord, 159 + + Byzantine architecture, 193, 199, 200, 201 + + + Cabourg, 184 + + Caen, 88, 201 + + Caesar, Gaius Julius, 10 + + Cafés, the, 86, 87, 88, 113 + + Calvaries, roadside, 122 + + Cannes, 170, 174 + + _Canton_, the, 60 + + Carcassonne, 198 + + Carmargue, the, 163 + + Carnac, prehistoric remains at, 194 + + Carnavalet, Musée, Paris, 109 + + Carts, country, 118 + + Casino, the, 171, 176, 178 + + _Cassation, Cour de_, 63 + + Catherine de Medici, 150 + + Cattle, 123 + + Caudebec, 155, 156 + + Cevennes, the, 115, 123, 145, 146 + peasants of, 128-130 + + Charente, the, 144 + + Chartres, 202 + + Château Gaillard, 153 + + _Château_ life, 133-137 + + Châtillon, 152 + + Chaumont, Château de, 150 + + Chenonceaux, Château de, 150 + + Cherbourg, 205, 209 + + Chestnuts, 115 + + Children, training of, 38, 39 + + Churches, 78 + attendance at, 78 + decorations in, 79, 80 + irreverent behaviour in, 78 + + Church-going, women and, 79 + + Cimbri, 157 + + Civil Code, the, 14, 42, 47, 66 + + Cleanliness, 33 + + Clermont-Ferrand, 200 + + Cluny, Hôtel, Paris, 110 + + Coal consumption, 29 + + _Concierge_, the, 38, 97, 98, 99 + + _Conciergerie_, the, Paris, 110 + + Conscription, 210 + + Constantine, Emperor, 196 + + Constitution, the French, 50, 51, 52, 53 + + Conversation in the _château_, 139 + + Cooking, French, 2, 3 + + Corniche Roads, the, 179, 180, 181 + + Corrèze, 115 + + Costebelle, 173 + + Crau, La, 163, 164 + + Critical faculty of the French, 20 + + Curé, the, 83, 84, 85 + + + Deauville, 183 + + Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, the, 50, 51, 52 + + Demolins, M., 71 + + Deputies, Chamber of, 55 + salaries of, 59 + + Diane de Poitiers, 150 + + Dieppe, 187 + + Dinard, 189 + + Discipline, lack of, 47 + + Dive, the, 184 + + Divorce laws, 44, 45 + + Doctors, fees of, 131, 132 + + d'Or, Iles, 173 + + Dordogne, the, 167 + + _Dot_, the, 47 + + Dreyfus, Captain A., 63 + + Duelling, 139-142 + + Dumas, the elder, 139 + + Durance, the, 164 + + + Ebro, the, 151 + + Economies of the French, 21 + + Education, expenditure on, 67, 68 + + Education and social status, 75 + + Educational system, 72 + + Edward the Confessor, 156 + + Edward VII., King, 190 + + English Channel, the, 6 + + Épernay, 126 + + Esplanade, on the Riviera, the, 176, 177 + + Essonne, the, 152 + + Estérel Mountains, 173, 174 + + Étaples, 189 + + Étoile district of Paris, 89 + + Étretat, 153, 184, 185 + + Eu, 187 + + Euric, king of the Visigoths, 166 + + Evreux, 204 + + + Faculties, the State, 75 + + Family Council, the, 34, 35 + + Farms, 119, 120 + + Fécamp, 186 + + _Five o'clock, le_, 135 + + Flail, use of, 118 + + Flamboyant style, 204 + + Fontainebleau, forest of, 124 + + Food, high cost of, 105 + + Forests of France, 124 + + Forez, plain of, 146 + + France as a colonising nation, 48 + + Franchise, the, 56 + + Franks, the, 10 + + Fréjus, 173 + + French enterprise, 65 + + French people, origin of, 11, 12, 32 + + Frenchwomen, dress of, 2 + + Funerals, 79 + + Furnishing of the _château_, 135, 136 + + Furniture, household, 28 + + + Galatia, 10 + + Gallia Comata, 161 + + Games at _Lycées_, 72 + + Garavan, 170, 182 + + Gard, the, 162, 195 + + _Garde républicaine_, the, 64, 93 + + Garonne, the, 144, 164-167 + + Gascons, the, 11 + + Gaul, early tribes of, 7, 8 + + Gauls, the, 9 + + _Gendarmerie_, the, 64 + + Geneva, Lake of, 159, 164 + + George, Mr. W. L., 81 + + Gironde, the, 167 + + Gisors, 204 + + Golf-courses, 171, 188 + + Grievances, endurance of, 49, 50 + redress of, 19 + + Gris Nez, Cape, 6, 153 + + Guise, Duc de, 150 + + + Habeas Corpus, the right of, 52 + + Hannibal, 157 + + Hardelot, 189 + + Harfleur, 156 + + Hausmann, the architect, 113 + + Havre, Le, 156 + + Hedges, lack of, 121 + + Holdings, average size of, 116 + + Holmes, Mr. T. Rice, 33 + + Home life, 25 + + Home-sur-Mer, Le, 184 + + Honfleur, 156 + + Hope, Sir John, 168 + + Horses, breeding of, 122, 123 + + Hotels, 3 + + Hotels, French and English, contrasted, 32, 33 + + Household furnishing, 26 + repairs, 26 + + Housemaid's work done by men, 25 + + Housing, 37 + in Paris, 104 + + Huguenots, 150 + + Hunting parties, 136 + + Husbandry, primitive, 117 + + Hyères, 172 + + + Ideas, the great, of the French, 17, 18 + + _Inscription maritime_, 208 + + _Institut de France_, 75 + + Irreligion, 82, 83 + + + _Jeune fille_, the, 39, 40, 46, 69 + + Jewish communities, 81 + + _Juge d'instruction_, 63 + + _Juge de paix_, 35, 61, 62, 63 + + Jumièges, Abbey of, 156 + + Jura, the, 123, 143 + + + Lamartine, 139 + + Landais, the, 11 + + Landes, Les, 123, 124 + + Langeais, Château de, 150 + + Language, the French, 8, 11 + + Langres, Plateau de, 152 + + Lannemezan, plateau of, 165 + + Lauzan, Hôtel de, Paris, 110 + + Le Parc, 160 + + Le Puy-en-Velay, 76, 146, 200 + + _Liberté_, destruction of the, 207 + + Libourne, 167 + + Lillebonne, 156, 198 + + Locke, Mr. J. W., 113 + + Loing, the, 152 + + Loire, the, 144-150, 156 + + Lorient, 209 + + Louis XIV., 110 + + Louvre, Palais du, Paris, 110 + + Lugdunum, 161 + + Lutetia Parisiorum, 110 + + _Lycées_, the, 39, 68, 69, 70, 72, 74 + + _Lycées_ for girls, 69 + + Lyons, 61, 160, 161, 162, 198 + + + Madeleine, the, 44 + + Maeterlinck, 156 + + _Mairie_, the, 43 + + _Maison paternelle_, la, 35, 38 + + Maladetta Chain, 165 + + _Mariage d'inclination_, the, 40 + + Marie Antoinette, 110 + + Maritime Alps, 164 + + Marketing, 30, 103 + + Marne, the, 152 + + Marriage, enquiries before, 24 + parental control of, 40, 41, 42 + + Martin, Cap, 181 + + Martinière, La, 148 + + Mary Stuart, 150 + + Maure Mountains, 173 + + Meals, 31 + + Meat, the cutting of, 32 + + Medical services in the country, 31 + + Megalithic remains of Brittany, 7 + + Mentone, 181, 182 + + Merovingian architecture, 198, 199, 200 + + _Métayage_ system, the, 117 + + _Métayers_, 117 + + Meudon Woods, 141 + + Midi, the, 118 + + _Midinette_, the, 13, 33, 94, 95, 96 + + Ministry, the, 56 + + Misconceptions concerning France, 13 + + Mistral, the, 163 + + Monaco, 177 + Prince of, 178 + + Monopolies, State, 60 + + Montaigne, 140 + + Monte Bego, 118 + + Monte Carlo, 177, 178, 179 + + Montmartre, 107 + + Mont St. Michel, 202 + + Morals of the French, 16, 17 + + Moselle, the, 151 + + Mules, 122 + + + Nantes, 148 + + Napoleon, 67, 140 + modern France the work of, 65 + + Napoleon III., 55 + + Napoule, La, 171, 174 + + Narbonne, 10, 126, 198 + + National debt, 60 + + Navy, the, 205-209 + + Neste, the, 165 + + Nevers, 147 + + Nice, 171, 176, 177 + + Nîmes, 162, 194 + + Normandy, 115, 116, 118, 119, 122, 123, 126, 208 + architecture of, 201 + people of, 12 + + Notre Dame, Paris, 203 + + Noyon, 202 + + Nuns as medical practitioners, 132 + + + Odours of France, 5 + + Oiseaux, Montagnes des, 173 + + Olive, the, 162 + + Omnibuses of Paris, 91, 101 + + Orange, 162, 196 + + Orleans, Forêt d', 124 + + Orne, the, 184 + + Orthez, 168 + + Oxen, draught, 118, 124 + + + Parc Monceaux, Paris, 108 + + Paris, cab-drivers of, 1, 2 + compared with London, 110, 111, 112 + Étoile district, 107 + fortifications of, 112 + high prices in, 29 + high rents of, 29 + home life in, 25 + Plage, 189 + prisons, 65 + Roman, 110 + St. Antoine District, 109 + Sainte Chapelle, 109 + St. Étienne-du-Mont, 109 + St. Germain, 109 + St. Jacques, 109 + smoke of, 107 + streets of, 86, 87, 107, 108, 109 + + Pau, 191, 192 + + Pau, Gave de, 168, 192 + + Peasant, costume of, 126 + life, 114-131 + ownership of land, 114, 115 + women, 130 + + Pelletan, M., 206 + + Pennine Alps, 143, 159 + + Percheron horses, 123 + + Perdu, Mont, 165 + + Périgueux, 197, 198 + + Philippe Auguste, 150 + + Phoenician traders, 164 + + Phylloxera, the, 125 + + Pigs, 123 + + Pinay, 145 + + _Pistonnage_, 58 + + Plato, 183 + + Poitiers, 200 + + Poitou, plain of, 144 + + Police, 64 + + Policemen of Paris, 90, 91 + + Politeness of the French, 99 + + Pont du Gard, 157, 195 + + Pont du Roi, 165 + + Pratz, Mdlle. de, 95, 105 + + _Première Instance_, Court of, 61 + + President, the, 57, 58 + + Prison system, 64 + + Protective tariffs, 104 + + Protestants in France, 81 + + Provence, scenery of, 163 + + Public Instruction, Minister of, 68 + + Pyrenees, the, 123, 124, 165, 191, 192 + + Pyrimont, 160 + + + Rapidity of speech, 15 + + Reason, Festival of, 197 + + Religion of the French, 76, 77 + + Rents in Paris, 103, 104 + + Revolution, the, 50, 62, 197 + + Rheims, 203 + + Rhone, the, 127, 143, 157, 160, 161-165 + + Rhone Glacier, 144, 158 + + Richard Coeur-de-Lion, 153 + + Riviera, the, 169-183 + + Road, rule of the, 90 + + Roanne, 145, 147 + + Robespierre, 110 + + Rochefort, 139, 209 + + Roman architecture in France, 193-199 + + Roman Catholicism, 81 + + Rouen, 154, 155, 203 + + + Sabatier, Paul, 84 + + St. Bartholomew, Massacre of, 150 + + St. Bénézet, 157 + + Ste. Beuve, 139 + + St. Denis, Paris, 78, 200, 202 + + St. Étienne, 145, 146 + + St. Gaudens, 166 + + St. Georges de Boscherville, 201 + + St. Germain, Faubourg, Paris, 106, 111 + + St. Gilles, 163 + + St. Jean de Luz, 190, 191 + + St. Martory, 166 + + St. Maurice, 158 + + St. Michel, Mont, 202 + + St. Raphaël, 173 + + St. Rémy, 197 + + St. Valery-en-Caux, 186 + + St. Wandrille, 156 + + Sand, George, 128-130 + + Sanitation, imperfection of, 88, 89 + + Saône, the, 160, 161 + + Scholarships, State, 69 + + School-boy, the, 73 + + Schoolmistress, the lay, 69, 70 + + Schools, 85 + + Segusiani, the, 161 + + Seine, the, 11, 150-157 + + Senate, the, 55 + + Servants, female, 26 + + Sévigné, Marquise de, 110 + + Sheep, 123 + + Sherard, Mr. Robert, 141 + + Shooting parties, 136 + + Shop assistants, 100 + + Sologne, the, 148 + + Soult, Marshal, 168 + + Strabo, 164 + + Strong, Rowland, 92 + + Submarine, France and the, 18 + + Superstitions among the peasantry, 131 + + + Tancarville Castle, 156 + + Tancarville, Raoul de, 201 + + Taine, H. A., 65 + + Tarascon, 162 + + Tarbais horses, 123 + + Tarbes, 123 + + Taxation, 59 + indirect, 60 + + Taxis, horse-drawn, in Paris, 92 + + Telephone, inventor of, 18 + + Tenda, Col di, 172 + + Teutones, 157 + + Thiers, 139 + + Thrift, the need for, 24 + + Thriftiness of the French, 14, 21 + + Toques, the, 183 + + Toulon, 207, 209 + + Toulouse, 166 + plain of, 124 + + Touquet, Le, 188 + + Tours, 144 + + Town planning in France, 112 + + Traffic of Paris, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94 + + Trees, roadside, 121 + + Tréport, 187 + + _Tribunal correctionnel de l'arrondissement_, 61 + + Trou du Taureau, 165 + + Trouville, 183 + + Tuileries, the, Paris, 110 + + Turbie, La, 181 + + + Universities, the, 74 + + + Valence, 162 + + Valescure, 173 + + Vallais, the, 159 + + Veuillot, 139 + + Veules, 186 + + Vienne, 162, 197, 200 + + Vikings, the, 154 + + Villages, 120 + + Villefranche, 177 + + Vine, the, 163 + + Vines, American, 125 + + Virgin, representations of the, 76 + + Visigothic architecture, 199 + + Vosges, the, 123, 143 + + Vulgarity in illustrated papers, 15, 16 + + + Waddington, Mary K., 136 + + Washing days, 138 + + Wedding ceremonies, 43, 44 + + Wellington, Duke of, 168, 191 + + William the Conqueror, 156, 184, 201 + + Wine-grower, the, 125 + + Woman in business, the, 46 + + Women, position of, among the peasants, 128 + + + Yonne, the, 152 + + Young, Arthur, 166 + + + Zola, Émile, 128 + + + + +THE END + + + _Printed by_ R. & R. CLARK, LIMITED, _Edinburgh_. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of France, by Gordon Cochrane Home + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FRANCE *** + +***** This file should be named 35678-8.txt or 35678-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/6/7/35678/ + +Produced by Melissa McDaniel, Juliet Sutherland and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/35678-8.zip b/35678-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f108aab --- /dev/null +++ b/35678-8.zip diff --git a/35678-h.zip b/35678-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..394599b --- /dev/null +++ b/35678-h.zip diff --git a/35678-h/35678-h.htm b/35678-h/35678-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2494079 --- /dev/null +++ b/35678-h/35678-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,5626 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of France, by Gordon Home. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + +h1,h2,h3,h4 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; +} + +hr.l30 { + width: 30%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; +} + +.pagenum { + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + font-weight: normal; +} + +.blockquot { + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + +.center {text-align: center;} +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + +/* Images */ +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; +} + +/* Footnotes */ +.footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + +.footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + +.fnanchor { + vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: + none; +} + +/* added spacing */ +.p2 {margin-top: 2em;} +.p4 {margin-top: 4em;} +.p6 {margin-top: 6em;} + +.blockquot { + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 10%; + font-size: 95%; +} +table { + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + empty-cells: show; +} +.tdc {text-align: center; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em;} +.tdr {text-align: right;} +.tdl {text-align: left;} + +ul.loi { + list-style-type: decimal; + position: relative; + margin-right: 5%; + margin-left: 5%; + padding-right: 3em; + } + +.left25 {margin-left: 25%;} + +span.loiright { + position: absolute; right: 0; text-indent: 0;font-size: 90%; + } + +ul.none {list-style-type:none;} + +/* Transcriber's Notes */ +.tnbox {margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + margin-bottom: 8em; + margin-top: auto; + text-align: center; + border: 1px solid; + padding: 1em; + color: black; + background-color: #f6f2f2; + width: 25em;} + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of France, by Gordon Cochrane Home + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: France + +Author: Gordon Cochrane Home + +Release Date: March 25, 2011 [EBook #35678] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FRANCE *** + + + + +Produced by Melissa McDaniel, Juliet Sutherland and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="tnbox"> +<p class="center"><b>Transcriber's Note:</b></p> +<p>Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document have +been preserved. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.</p> +</div> + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/covera.jpg" width="387" height="550" alt="Cover" title="Cover" /> +</div> + +<h1 class="p4">FRANCE</h1> + +<h4 class="p4">BY</h4> +<h2>GORDON HOME</h2> + +<h4 class="p6">WITH 32 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR</h4> + +<h3 class="p6">LONDON</h3> +<h3>ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK</h3> +<h4>1914</h4> + +<hr class="l30" /> +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="illus001" id="illus001"></a> +<img src="images/illus001a.jpg" width="380" height="552" alt="Amiens" /></div> +<p class="center"><b>THE WESTERN FAÇADE OF AMIENS CATHEDRAL.</b></p> + +<hr class="l30" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_v" id="page_v">[Pg v]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="p2">CONTENTS</h2> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="2" summary="toc"> +<col width="260" /> +<col width="220" /> +<col width="260" /> +<tr> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdc"><b><a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I</a></b></td> + <td class="tdr">Page</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Introductory</span></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdr">1</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdc"><b><a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II</a></b></td> + <td> </td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td colspan="2"><span class="smcap">The Genesis and Characteristics of the French</span></td> + <td class="tdr">6</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdc"><b><a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III</a></b></td> + <td> </td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Family Life—Marriage and the Birth-rate</span></td> + <td class="tdr">23</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdc"><b><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV</a></b></td> + <td> </td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td colspan="2"><span class="smcap">How the French govern Themselves</span></td> + <td class="tdr">49</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdc"><b><a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V</a></b></td> + <td> </td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td><span class="smcap">On Education and Religion</span></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdr">67</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdc"><b><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI</a></b></td><td><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_vi" id="page_vi">[Pg vi]</a></span></td></tr> +<tr> + <td colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Some Aspects of Paris and of Town Life in General</span></td> + <td class="tdr">86</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdc"><b><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII</a></b></td> + <td> </td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td><span class="smcap">Of Rural Life in France</span></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdr">114</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdc"><b><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII</a></b></td> + <td> </td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td><span class="smcap">The Rivers of France</span></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdr">143</td></tr> +<tr> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdc"><b><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX</a></b></td> + <td> </td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td><span class="smcap">Of the Watering-Places</span></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdr">169</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdc"><b><a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X</a></b></td> + <td> </td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Architecture—Roman, Romanesque, and Gothic— in<br /> France</span></td> + <td class="tdr">193</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdc"><b><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI</a></b></td> + <td> </td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td><span class="smcap">The National Defences</span></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdr">205</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdc"><b><a href="#INDEX">INDEX</a></b></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td> </td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdr">213</td></tr> +</table> + +<hr class="l30" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_vii" id="page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span></p> + +<h2>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> +<ul class="loi"> + +<li><a href="#illus001">The Western Façade of Amiens Cathedral</a><span class="loiright"><i>Frontispiece</i></span></li> +<li><a href="#illus016">Combourg, a typical <i>Château</i> of the Mediaeval Type</a><span class="loiright">8</span></li> +<li><a href="#illus027">In the Café Armenonville in the Bois de Boulogne, Paris</a><span class="loiright">17</span></li> +<li><a href="#illus037">In the Place du Théâtre Français, Paris</a><span class="loiright">24</span></li> +<li><a href="#illus046">Evening in the Place d'Iéna, Paris</a><span class="loiright">31</span></li> +<li><a href="#illus057">In the Centre of Paris</a><span class="loiright">40</span></li> +<li><a href="#illus066">The Market-Place and Cathedral at Abbeville</a><span class="loiright">48</span></li> +<li><a href="#illus085">Five-o'clock Tea in Paris</a><span class="loiright">64</span></li> +<li><a href="#illus094">Children of Paris in the Luxembourg Gardens</a><span class="loiright">71</span></li> +<li><a href="#illus099">Le Puy-en-Velay in the Auvergne Country</a><span class="loiright">75</span></li> +<li><a href="#illus104">La Roche, a Village of Haute Savoie</a><span class="loiright">78</span></li> +<li><a href="#illus118">A typical <i>Cocher</i> of Paris</a><span class="loiright">90</span></li> +<li><a href="#illus125">Autumn in the Champs Elysées, Paris</a><span class="loiright">95</span></li> +<li><a href="#illus155">A Breton <i>Calvaire</i>: the oratory of Jacques Cartier</a><span class="loiright">122</span></li> +<li><a href="#illus160">A Peasant Child of Normandy</a><span class="loiright">126</span></li> +<li><a href="#illus173">The Cathedral and part of the Old City of Chartres</a><span class="loiright">136</span></li> +<li><a href="#illus182">The Château of Amboise on the Loire</a><span class="loiright">144</span></li> +<li><a href="#illus192">Château Gaillard and a loop of the Seine</a><span class="loiright">150</span></li> +<li><a href="#illus197">Mont Blanc reflecting the sunset glow</a><span class="loiright">155</span></li> +<li><a href="#illus202">Evian les Bains on Lake Geneva</a><span class="loiright">158</span></li> +<li><a href="#illus207">The Chapel on the Bridge of St. Bénézet, Avignon</a><span class="loiright">162</span></li> +<li><a href="#illus213">Cap Martin near Mentone</a><span class="loiright">164</span></li> +<li><a href="#illus218">The Château of Chenonceaux</a><span class="loiright">168</span></li> +<li><a href="#illus223">St. Malo from St. Servan</a><span class="loiright">171</span></li> +<li><a href="#illus228">Monte Carlo and Monaco from the East</a><span class="loiright">174</span></li> +<li><a href="#illus233">Mont St. Michel at High Tide</a><span class="loiright">177</span></li> +<li><a href="#illus245">The Vegetable Market, Nice</a><span class="loiright">187</span></li> +<li><a href="#illus250">The Pyrenees from near Pamiers</a><span class="loiright">190</span></li> +<li><a href="#illus254">The Galerie des Glaces at Versailles</a><span class="loiright">192</span></li> +<li><a href="#illus258">The Roman Triumphal Arch at Orange</a><span class="loiright">194</span></li> +<li><a href="#illus267">French Destroyers</a><span class="loiright">200</span></li> +<li><a href="#illus276">Soldiers of France in Paris</a><span class="loiright">208</span></li> +</ul> +<p class="center"><a href="#illus281"><i>Sketch Map of France on page 212.</i></a></p> +<hr class="l30" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_1" id="page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> + +<h2>FRANCE</h2> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h3> +<h4>INTRODUCTORY</h4> + +<p>The more one knows of France and the French at first hand, and the +more one reads the ideas and opinions of other people concerning this +great people, so does one feel less and less able to write down any +definite statements about the country or its inhabitants. Whatever +conviction one possesses on any aspect of their characteristics is +sure to be shaken by the latest writer, be he a native or a foreigner. +Every fresh sojourn in the country upsets all one's previous ideas in +the most baffling fashion. One used to think the Parisian <i>cocher</i> a +bad driver, and then discovers a writer who eulogises his skill. When +he knocks over pedestrians, says this writer, he does so because his +whole life is given up to a perpetual<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_2" id="page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> state of warfare with the +public, from whom he gains his livelihood. This point of view being +new to one, it takes a little time before it can be safely rejected or +accepted, and before this process is completed a man of most decided +views, and possessed of a wide knowledge of France and the French, +comes along with the statement that no Frenchman can drive. He +supports it with a dozen good reasons, and leaves one with a bias +towards earlier convictions.</p> + +<p>It used to be axiomatic, platitudinous, that Frenchwomen dressed +better than Englishwomen. People whose knowledge of France is, say, +ten, perhaps fewer, years out of date would accept this without a +thought, and yet one is inclined to think that the Frenchwoman's +pre-eminence has gone. No doubt all that is truly <i>chic</i>, all that is +essentially dainty in feminine attire, emanates from the brain of the +Parisian, but the women of the French capital no longer have any +monopoly in the wearing of clothes that give charm to the wearer.</p> + +<p>Then as to French cooking. The day has not long passed when to breathe +a syllable against the cooking of the French would be to proclaim +oneself a savage, but what does one hear to-day?<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_3" id="page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> Openly in London +drawing-rooms people are heard expressing their preference for the +food supplied in English homes and hotels. They dare to state that +many of the courses provided in French hotels and restaurants are +highly flavoured, but uneatable; that the meat provided is nearly +always unaccountably tough and full of strange sinews and muscles that +give one's teeth much inconvenience; that the clear soup is commonly +little more than greasy hot water containing floating scraps of bread +and vegetables; that the sweet course is incomparably inferior to that +of the English table.</p> + +<p>The difficulties confronting those who attempt to describe the Gallic +people are only realised when one grasps the fact that almost anything +one writes is true or untrue of a fragment of the nation. Who could +suppose that the inhabitants of soil facing the North Sea would have +similar virtues and faults to those who dwell on the shores of the +Mediterranean? They seem of a different race, and yet a curious unity +pervades the Norman, the Breton, and the Burgundian, the Provençal, +the dwellers on the great wheat plain, and the Iberians of Basses +Pyrenees. One is tempted to deal with each portion of the country<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_4" id="page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> +separately, but to do so would make it necessary to produce a library +of books, and in trying to pick out qualities common to the whole +nation one is checked at every turn by the contradictions that present +themselves continually. With the mind resting for a time on one part +of France, it would be easy to describe the people as very clean, but +mental visions of other parts arrest the pen, and a qualified +statement is alone possible. Then the mind hungers for an opportunity +of preparing a series of maps, showing by various colours where the +people live who possess this or that salient quality. If such maps +were presented to the reader, and supposing that districts in which +the inhabitants were inclined towards thriftiness were shown red, the +whole country would be of the same glowing colour, and therefore this +map need not be drawn, but the same does not apply to wages and +prosperity, nor to religious fervour, nor to the social manners of the +people, and on these and a very large number of subjects the +variations are so great that what the writer has ventured to condense +in the chapters which follow may be open to much limitation, and even +to contradiction. He has always felt a very deep appreciation<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_5" id="page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> of the +country and the people, and the joy of arriving in France is one of +the pleasantest things in his experience. The curious smells that are +wafted to the deck of the steamer as it is tied up by the quayside +bring to him in one breath the essence, as it were, of the life of +France, which has for him so great an attractive force. In that first +breath of France, the faint suggestion of coffee brings to mind the +pleasant associations of meals in picturesque inns or in the cafés of +Paris in sight of the amazing movement of the city; the suspicion of +vegetables recalls the colour and human interest of countless +market-places and chequered patches of cultivation on wide hedgeless +landscapes; and that indefinable suggestion of incense and a dozen +other impalpable things brings with it the whole pageant of French +life, its colour and gaiety, its movement, its pathos, and its grand +moments, all of which act as a magnet and irresistibly attract him to +the southern shores of the Channel.</p> + +<hr class="l30" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_6" id="page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span></p> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h3> +<h4>THE GENESIS AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE FRENCH</h4> + +<p>In fairly clear weather the strip of salt water cleaving England from +France seems so narrow, that to a Brazilian familiar with the Amazon +it might be taken for nothing more than a great river. To a geologist +the English Channel is a recent feature in the formation of Europe of +to-day, while the modern aeronaut regards it as a blue mark on the +landscape as he wings his way from London to Paris. Turbine steamers +plough from shore to shore in less than an hour, so that on a windless +day the crossing is a mere incident in the journey between the +capitals; yet the race which dwells on the chalk uplands terminating +precipitously at Cape Gris Nez is so entirely different from the +people who have for the last thousand years made their homes<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_7" id="page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> on the +Kentish Downs, that the twenty miles of sea seem scarcely adequate to +explain the complete severance. The intercourse between the +inhabitants of Gaul and Britain must have been both considerable and +constant for some time before the domination of Rome had swept up to +the Channel, for it is known from Caesar's records that the +Armoricans, who extended from Cape Finisterre to the Straits of Dover, +were able to send 220 large oak built vessels against his galleys. +From the same source one is aware of the large trade carried on across +the narrow sea, and there were Celtic tribes in the south of England +colonised from the Belgae of the Continent. Further than this, the +megalithic remains of Wiltshire and Brittany suggest a very real and +remarkable link between the peoples of Britain and Gaul. Caesar and +Strabo are both very definite in their statements that the people of +Kent were similar to the Gaulish tribes, not only in the way they +built their houses, but also in their appearance and their manners. +The coming of Roman civilisation tended to restrict racial +intermingling, and from the beginning of the Christian era the Channel +became more and more a real frontier. When Norsemen had<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_8" id="page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> settled both +in England and in the north of France, this frontier again weakened +and vanished with the Norman Conquest of England, but racially there +was practically no sympathy across the water beyond what might have +been felt for the Welsh and the Britons in Cornwall. Thus, from the +Romanising of Britain onwards, the similarity between the peoples who +faced one another across the Channel waned. It is quite probable that +in neither country was there any appreciable infusion of Italian-Roman +blood among the Celtic populations, for the conquering legions were +composed of troops raised from all parts of the Empire, but in Britain +the Romanised population was swept westwards by new invaders from +northern Europe, while the Romanised Gauls were never ousted from the +territory they had held east of the Rhone and the Rhine. The Latin +tongue had probably made very little headway in Britain, while in Gaul +the Romans had thrust their language upon the Gallic tribes. It was +not, however, the classical Latin of Livy and Virgil, but most +probably the colloquial Latin of the common soldier and camp-follower. +This debased Latin formed the solid foundation of the literary +language of France of to-day.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="illus016" id="illus016"></a> +<img src="images/illus016a.jpg" width="600" height="431" alt="Combourg" /></div> +<p class="center"><b>COMBOURG. A TYPICAL CHÂTEAU OF THE MEDIAEVAL TYPE.</b></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_9" id="page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p><p>The English Channel is therefore a very effective dividing line +between two peoples completely different in every characteristic. But +who were these people whom the Romans called Galli?</p> + +<p>Their coming was possibly not earlier than 600 or 700 <span class="smcap">B.C.</span>, and by 300 +<span class="smcap">B.C.</span> they occupied that part of Europe now covered by France, Belgium, +Holland, Rhenish Germany to the Rhine, with Switzerland and northern +Italy. No doubt they had moved westward from southern Russia in that +Aryan stream of which they had formed a part. In the south they +intermingled with the ancient Iberian population; they appear to have +remained fairly pure in the centre, while in the north they became +more or less mixed with Teutonic elements pressing forward across the +Rhine. Besides occupying what is now known as France, these Celts +settled or squatted all over northern Italy, and drove a very +considerable wedge into central Spain, where they formed the fierce +warrior people called Celtiberians, who served in masses in the +Carthaginian and Greek armies, and held out against the Romans until +about 100 <span class="smcap">B.C.</span> Further than this a wing of these Gaulish Celts made +their<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_10" id="page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> way along the Danube, wasted Greece in about 270 <span class="smcap">B.C.</span>, and +formed an important settlement in Asia Minor which was called Galatia +up to about <span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 500.</p> + +<p>The Celts in Italy were the first to come under the heel of Rome +between 300 and 190 <span class="smcap">B.C.</span> Gaul itself followed, and a Roman province, +named Narbonensis after its chief city Narbo Martius (now Narbonne), +was formed along the Mediterranean coast. All the rest of Gaul was +added between 58 and 50 <span class="smcap">B.C.</span> by Gaius Julius Caesar, and from that +time until the disruption of the Roman Empire was one of its greatest +and richest provinces.</p> + +<p>With the weakening of Roman domination in the 4th century <span class="smcap">A.D.</span> a +fierce German race or confederacy, calling themselves "Franks" (<i>i.e.</i> +Freemen), flooded into northern Gaul. They gave their name to the +country they had subjected, and for some five centuries their +Merovingian and Carolingian kings ruled without interruption. The +Franks were numerically a small proportion of the population of France +during this period, and they and other tribes which had irrupted into +Gaul during the same period gradually became completely absorbed by +the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_11" id="page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> stubborn Celto-Roman people, and their language was to a great +extent lost owing, perhaps, to the fascination the splendour of Latin +would exert upon the users of an uncouth tongue. The Franks had +disappeared as a race by the year 1000, but their name had become +permanently attached to the land and the people in whose midst they +had settled—a phenomenon repeated in the case of Bulgaria.</p> + +<p>Towards the north and east of France there is a very considerable +Germanic strain, although entirely French in language, customs, and +sympathy. In the south-east the people have much Italic blood in their +veins, while in the extreme south-west the Gascons and the Landais +(the people of Les Landes near Bordeaux) are probably of Iberian +stock, nearly related to the Basques who belong to the pre-Celtic +inhabitants of France, and are therefore more or less distinct from +the main mass of the population who remained Gallic with a Romanised +language. Although it is true that, with one exception, all the +different elements have been quite assimilated, the <i>patois</i> spoken in +some districts is barely comprehensible to the ordinary Parisian. The +exception is Brittany, where the people are an<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_12" id="page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> admixture of the +primitive inhabitants with Gauls and Celts from Britain who migrated +to the peninsula during the 4th and 5th centuries, their language +being pure Celtic to this day, and so similar to Welsh that a Breton +onion-seller in Wales can make himself understood without much +difficulty. The seamen Brittany provides for the French navy are +undoubtedly the finest sailors the country possesses, and they have +for some time past formed a very real portion of French sea power.</p> + +<p>The people of Normandy have a strong infusion of Scandinavian blood +and certain peculiarities of speech, but they are scarcely greater +than the difference between that of the Londoner and the Yorkshireman. +Whatever has been the stock from which the inhabitants of modern +France has sprung, their extraordinary capacity of assimilation seems +to have endowed them generally with those national characteristics +popularly labelled the genius of the French. This process, discernible +all through the pages of history, seems as vital to-day as ever.</p> + +<p>To any one familiar with the French people, it is a matter for +astonishment that the average Briton fails in the most profound +fashion to realise the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_13" id="page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> most obvious of the national characteristics +of his neighbours across the Channel. The popular notion is that the +French are a frivolous people, devoted to pleasure; they are supposed +to be veritable Miss Mowchers for volatility; to speak with extreme +rapidity; to have a taste for queer dishes which the same Briton +regards with abhorrence; and are, generally speaking, a people with +the lowest of morals. All these ideas are more or less erroneous, and +only as the average Englishman comes to learn the truth can the French +character be better understood. In the first place, the French, far +from being a mass of frivolity, are one of the most serious peoples in +the world. They have to such an extent woven a care for the future +into the fabric of the nation, that the humblest <i>bonne-à-tout-faire</i>, +the underfed <i>midinette</i>, and simplest son of the soil, aim at and +generally succeed in becoming modest holders of State <i>rentes</i>. +Instead of the happy-go-lucky methods of the middle and lower class +Anglo-Saxon, who will turn a family of sons and daughters loose upon +the world with very little thought as to their future beyond the bare +necessities of food, clothing, and shelter, the French parent regards +it as his duty to see that<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_14" id="page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> each daughter is provided with a <i>dot</i> +suitable to her position, and the Civil Code requires a parent to +leave a proportion of his property to each member of his family. +French men and women work out their incomes with such exactness that +they know to a <i>sou</i> what they have to spare for pleasure, and with a +very large mass of the people in town and country that margin is so +microscopically small, that pleasure in the sense of a commodity that +is bought is often only obtainable at long intervals. In Paris, where +the inaccurate ideas of French life are generally gathered, it is the +almost universal custom for a family to dine at a restaurant on +Sundays, in order that the <i>bonne-à-tout-faire</i>, who cooks the meals +and waits at table in the average flat, may have most of the day off. +Thus the week-end visitor to the capital sees in every café and +restaurant families dining in public, and gathers the impression that +all these people are spending their money on an evening's amusement. +Probably, if the flats to which these people return a little later +were examined, it would be found that there was practically nothing in +the tiny larders, for it is the French custom to buy daily at the +markets in small quantities at<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_15" id="page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> the lowest prices, and the meals taken +at a restaurant on Sunday do not entail any loss through deterioration +of food at home.</p> + +<p>It is wrong, too, to suppose that the average French people speak more +rapidly than the Anglo-Saxon. They are more vivacious, and they often +put more emphasis and gesticulation into their conversation than their +island neighbours; but there are Englishmen who have a right to speak, +who will affirm with the greatest assurance that the French are the +slower and more deliberate speakers of the two! No doubt it will take +a long time to entirely eradicate from among ill-informed Anglo-Saxons +the notion that a French menu is largely composed of strange creatures +not usually regarded as edible, but the excellence of French food and +cooking is getting so widely known and appreciated that this ancient +misconception is being steadily dissipated.</p> + +<p>Perhaps it is because no sooner does the visitor land at Calais or +Boulogne, or step out of the railway terminus in Paris, than he sees a +kiosk where comic papers full of improper drawings are boldly +exhibited, that he comes to the conclusion that the French are an +entirely immoral people. But painful as it is to witness<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_16" id="page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> this +flaunting of vulgar suggestion before the casual passer-by, it is not +quite a fair gauge by which to take the standard of morals in France. +There was no wave of Puritanism in France as in England, and the +standard of public decency is therefore lower, but French home life is +probably nearly as moral as in England, and it is a well-known fact +that girls belonging to the middle classes live irreproachable lives +in the almost unnatural seclusion maintained by their parents. The +attitude of the young man towards the other sex before he marries is +certainly lamentably inferior to that of the Anglo-Saxon who may fall +from the ideal to which he has been trained, but nevertheless regards +his failure as a disaster, while the French youth looks upon such +matters as a recognised feature of his adolescence.</p> + +<p>Justification for the idea prevalent in Anglo-Saxon countries that the +French are exceptionally lax in their morals, can be found in the fact +that in all ranks of French society there is no secrecy maintained +when irregular relations have been established, and also in the fact +that the illegitimate births are considerably more than twice as +numerous as those of Great Britain and Ireland. It should be +remembered, however, that Germany stands only a trifle better than<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_17" id="page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> +France in this matter, while six other European countries are +infinitely worse.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="illus027" id="illus027"></a> +<img src="images/illus027a.jpg" width="600" height="450" alt="Cafe" /></div> +<p class="center"><b>IN THE CAFÉ ARMENONVILLE IN THE BOIS DE BOULOGNE, PARIS.</b></p> + +<p>What are to the man in the street the characteristics of the French +race are, therefore, so wide of the truth, that until simple and +accurate books on this great and talented people are used in all +British schools it will take a considerable time to put matters +straight. In the meantime an opportunity occurs here to do something +in this direction.</p> + +<p>More than any other nation on the whole face of the earth the French +are a people of great ideas. They frequently leave their neighbours to +carry out the conceptions with which they enrich the world, but they +think on a great scale, and produce men and women whose agility of +mind is often hugely in advance of the age in which they live. It was +a Frenchman who first thought it feasible to sever Africa from Asia, +and made the first attempt to cut the cord that unites North and South +America; it was the French who led the way in applying the internal +combustion engine to locomotion, and they have dazzled the world with +the brilliant performances of their flying men. A Frenchman was the +pioneer in tunnel boring, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_18" id="page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> his son Isambard Brunel devised a +railway on such a magnificent scale that it still remains an ideal +which engineers regard with admiration. Another Frenchman, Charles +Bourseul, invented the telephone, and yet another led the way in the +science of bacteriology. As conscious empire-builders on a world-wide +scale the French were also putting their ideas into practice when +England was still thinking commercially in such matters. England as a +whole always does think in pounds, shillings, and pence, and in +empire-building possessions have mainly been added to the British +Empire with the idea of increasing its trade. In naval developments +France recently led the way with the submarine and submersible, +setting an example to the rest of the world which has been followed so +thoroughly that the lead in this arm of sea-power is no longer with +the pioneer country. Innumerable instances could be given of the +initiative in big ideas being taken by Frenchmen, and of other nations +taking them up and developing, perfecting, and sometimes consummating +for the first time projects devised in France.</p> + +<p>Mr. C. F. G. Masterman has laid stress on the patience of the British +working man, but that<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_19" id="page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> willingness to endure hard circumstance is not +so pronounced in England as in France. There endurance continues too +long, so that when harsh treatment becomes absolutely intolerable +there is not a fraction of patience left, with the inevitable result +that explosions of varying degrees of violence take place. British +workers bestir themselves and demand redress of grievances before they +are at the end of their patience, and can therefore wait while the +country becomes familiar with their new needs. England has thus known +no "Reign of Terror," nor does the Government of the day suddenly +collapse before some public outburst of passionate feeling. The people +who can endure the inconvenience of a Government monopoly in matches, +which makes that commodity vile in quality while costing a penny a +box, must indeed be patient.</p> + +<p>The average Frenchman desires to live a quiet and peaceful life +without hurry or bustle. He is content with long hours of work if he +can carry on that occupation at an easy pace, for he is steadily +industrious, and his easy-going nature lets him disregard +misgovernment too long for safety, for when at last he is roused out +of the ambling pace of his normal life, underground<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_20" id="page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> elements of +cruelty and bloodthirstiness may come to the surface with sudden and +terrible swiftness. If fair and honest government and tolerable +conditions of labour could be perpetually guaranteed to France, there +is scarcely a people in the world who would live more peaceable and +uneventful lives, for the British relish for adventure and the +enthusiasm for hustle to be found in the United States finds no echo +in the average French mind. Alongside this disinclination to go +helter-skelter through life is the fact that in certain ways the +French people are all artists, and that they have the critical faculty +developed to a most remarkable degree; their capacity for +discrimination and criticism might indeed be singled out as the most +salient characteristic of the whole people. Even the humblest citizen +is seldom prepared to express unqualified admiration for any piece of +handicraft or painting, but will look with thoughtful care on the +object of consideration, and probably supply an intelligent reason for +only giving it partial approval.</p> + +<p>On the other hand there is a great tendency to over fondness for +generalising without sufficient data; there is a delight in reasoning +and logic which often leads to false conclusions owing to a<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_21" id="page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> want of +real knowledge. This love of reasoning and the capacity for criticism +seem to have given the nation a regard for consequences and a care to +avoid the more or less inevitable economic day of adverse reckoning +which comes to those who are careless and indefinite in their +arrangements. It is the general thriftiness found all through the +peasant and bourgeois class of France that has, to such a great +extent, saved the various grades in the social scale from emulating +the ways of those above them. The disgrace of insolvency is so +terrifying to a French household that a thousand economies are +practised to keep such a contingency afar off, and in following this +rule of life much social intercourse, and nearly all effort to seem +more opulent than the family purse will permit, go overboard. Thus it +has become a characteristic of a most definite order that a +Frenchman's home is his castle in a fashion far more real to the +stranger than is the case in Anglo-Saxon countries.</p> + +<p>Briefly it may be stated that the French are a serious, cautious, +patient, and exceedingly industrious and home-loving race, enjoying +their hardly earned hours of pleasure in a more demonstrative fashion +than do the nations whose<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_22" id="page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> climates are less sunny. They are critical +and fond of generalisation, are capable of large and splendid moments +of inspiration, and have on the whole feminine rather than masculine +characteristics.</p> + +<hr class="l30" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_23" id="page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span></p> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h3> +<h4>FAMILY LIFE—MARRIAGE AND THE BIRTH-RATE</h4> + +<p>For an English resident in France to become an intimate in the home of +a French family is a rare enough occurrence, and for a visitor to +attempt to discover anything as to French family life first hand is +generally a quest doomed to failure. In the vast mass of the middle +classes the habit of mind is to remain as far as possible on the +estate of one's ancestors or in the place in which one is known. There +is no wish to live in foreign lands; those who are obliged to do so +are pitied, and foreigners who come to take up permanent residence in +France are in most instances regarded as people who, for some +regrettable reason, are obliged to live outside their native land. +This idea prevents the foreigner from receiving a cordial welcome, and +he generally labels the people of his adopted<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_24" id="page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> land as inhospitable. +On the other hand, it must be remembered that Belgians and Italians +belonging to a common stock are assimilated with extreme rapidity into +the great body of the nation.</p> + +<p>The hospitality of the average French household of the middle classes +is, owing to the need for great thrift, narrowed down to the +necessarily limited circle of the family. No sooner is the aforetime +stranger joined to a family by the tie of marriage than the doors of +the homes of all the relations are thrown wide open to receive him. It +is this custom which makes it so essential for the prospective +parents-in-law to ascertain the antecedents, the status, and financial +prospects of a proposed husband for their daughter. Should some +disaster, monetary or otherwise, fall upon this new addition of the +family, the blow is inflicted upon all the members and all the +branches of that circle. Similar enquiries are put on foot by the +parents of a son who is intending to ally himself to another family.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="illus037" id="illus037"></a> +<img src="images/illus037a.jpg" width="600" height="450" alt="Theatre" /></div> +<p class="center"><b>IN THE PLACE DU THÉÂTRE FRANÇAIS, PARIS.</b></p> + +<p>Wherever the family tie is given undue importance there is inevitably +less willingness to entertain the stranger and to take the risks this +wider sociality involves. So English people, with <span class="pagenum"><a name="page_25" id="page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span>Paris (which they +do not really know) as the basis of their observations, are too ready +to state with confidence that there is no real home life in France. It +may be that there is less in the capital than in the rest of the +country, but Paris is the least French portion of France. The English, +or more accurately the British, quarter of Paris remains outside the +closely guarded circles of Parisian family life, and large sections of +the city live in water-tight compartments even as they do in London. +What does the average middle-class family know of the French residents +in London? Probably the number of those of the upper classes who are +closely in touch with French residents of their own social rank is +very small, and the humble French population of Soho and Pimlico live +their hard-working lives almost as detached from the rest of the city +as though they were on the other side of the Channel.</p> + +<p>One of the most marked differences between the Anglo-Saxon and the +French home is the fact that in the latter the place of the housemaid +is to a very great extent taken by men. The sterner sex dust and sweep +and polish as a matter of course. There is little restriction on the +amount of noise made by the servants, male<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_26" id="page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> and female, while they are +about their work. It is quite usual to hear them laughing, talking, +singing, and even shouting to one another, where in an English +household there would scarcely be a sound above the quietest +conversation drowned by the noise of the broom.</p> + +<p>The ordinary house of the middle classes does not enjoy that +periodical refurbishing and redecorating accepted as necessary north +of the Channel. With a wife as keen as himself on living well within +their joint income the French head of the family is not urged to put +aside a certain annual sum for new curtains, carpets, chair and sofa +covers, and such expensive items. The initial outlay on the home is +generally considered to be almost sufficient for a lifetime if care is +used in maintaining what has been purchased. It is not necessary to +have entered many French homes to become familiar with the typical +bedroom which is reflected faithfully enough in the average hotel. One +essential feature of a bedroom as the Anglo-Saxon knows it is alone +allowed to form a feature of the furnishing of the apartment. It is +the bed, draped as a rule with elaborate curtains and coverings and +surmounted by some form of canopy. A massive<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_27" id="page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> feather-bed-like +eiderdown, covering about one-half of the necessary area of the bed, +reposes at the foot and leaves those unfamiliar with these nightmare +pillows wondering if the people who use them are a practical race. The +dressing-table and washstand are generally hard to find. If there is a +<i>cabinet de toilette</i>, these essentials of a bedroom will be stowed +away in what is often a roomy cupboard, and where the feature does not +exist, both pieces of furniture will be so modest in dimensions and +sufficiently well disguised to be almost unrecognisable at a casual +glance. Conspicuously placed, however, will be an ample sofa and a +writing-table not necessarily provided with adequate writing +materials. Every effort is made to give the sleeping apartment as much +the atmosphere of a reception-room as sofas and chairs and an absence +of toilet appliances will allow, for when, right away in the fifteenth +century, it became the custom for the sovereign to hold audiences in +the bed-chamber the rest of French society imitated the royal example, +until it became an established usage in <i>bourgeois</i> circles as much as +in those of the class which enjoyed the direct influence of court +fashions. Democratic and Republican<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_28" id="page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> France has swept away the whole +edifice of the monarchy, but unconsciously perpetuates in a most +remarkable fashion the weakness of a sovereign to carry on the +business of the day from his bed!</p> + +<p>The average husband regards the <i>cabinet de toilette</i> as the peculiar +possession of his wife, and would hesitate to enter that annexe to his +bedroom unbidden. Possibly to those who have been brought up with this +idea the English custom of providing a small dressing-room for the +husband and allowing <i>madame</i> paramount rights over the whole bedroom +may seem unaccountably odd.</p> + +<p>Formality is generally the prevailing note of the reception-rooms. +Comfortable chairs have only lately begun to make their appearance at +all, and as a rule the middle-class household maintains a traditional +severity in the arrangements of its drawing-room. Straight uninviting +chairs and an absence of any indications of books, magazines or +papers, or anything in the way of a needlework bag or a writing-table +that is in regular use, deprive the room of any home-like +individuality. The extreme economy exercised in the use of fuel makes +the unnecessary lighting of<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_29" id="page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> a fire a wanton extravagance. Commodities +in Paris cost double or even more than double what they do in the +British Isles, and in the country generally one-third more; the +salaries of the civil and military officials, who form such a big +section of the middle-class population, are considerably less than +those enjoyed in England, and the incomes of the professional classes +are as a rule smaller than those of the Englishman. Add to this the +abnormally high rents of Paris and it will be understood that in the +capital there is always need for the most rigid economy. <i>Madame</i> must +keep a watchful eye on the household store of coal, not only to see +that it is not wasted in her own fires, but to make sure that +pilfering is not carried on by her servants. Where in England a fire +is kept quietly smouldering, it will be raked out in France and +relighted when required a few hours later. In this way a good deal of +hardihood in the endurance of cold is developed, and contrivances in +the way of stoves that burn fuel with extreme economy are much in use. +This restraint in coal consumption reduces the quantity of carbon +particles discharged into the atmosphere of French cities, and +accounts to a great extent for the clearer air the inhabitants<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_30" id="page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> enjoy, +at the same time keeping the annual bill for coal and wood down to +very modest proportions.</p> + +<p>Economy must also be rigidly maintained in the purchase of food, and +this is generally accomplished by discreet buying in the markets. A +servant or a member of the household makes daily purchases in this +manner, and the middleman's profits on the chief part of the food +required are successfully avoided. In Paris the maid-of-all-work, who +is generally the only servant employed in a modest flat, makes these +daily purchases, out of which she obtains from those with whom she +deals a commission of a <i>sou</i> in every <i>franc</i> expended. This is a +universally recognised custom, but in addition there is a prevalent +but altogether reprehensible practice, known as <i>faire danser l'anse +du panier</i>. It is pure dishonesty, for the <i>bonne</i> puts down in the +books a small overcharge on each item, and this with the market-man's +<i>sou du franc</i> amounts to a considerable sum in the course of a year, +often nearly equal to her wage. It is an interesting fact that Breton +servants are generally quite guiltless of the overcharge system, for +the people of Brittany are of much the same stock as the Welsh, +concerning<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_31" id="page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> whom there is a proverb for which the writer fails to find +justification.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="illus046" id="illus046"></a> +<img src="images/illus046a.jpg" width="600" height="465" alt="Evening" /></div> +<p class="center"><b>EVENING IN THE PLACE D'IÉNA, PARIS.</b></p> + +<p><i>Déjeuner</i> at 11.30 or 12 and dinner at 6.30 or 7 are the two +essential meals of the day. Breakfast, served in the bedroom, consists +of coffee or chocolate and small crisply baked rolls with butter and +perhaps honey, while the Anglo-Saxon meal called tea is only an +established feature among the upper classes, where English customs are +extremely fashionable. The two chief meals both consist of at least +four courses, with a cup of coffee added to give a finish to the +whole. It might be thought absurd for those who are poor or living +with great economy to begin their meals with an <i>hors-d'oeuvre</i>, but +Miss Betham-Edwards, whose knowledge of the French is sufficiently +wide to be an authority, asserts that a careful housekeeper will give +this preliminary course as an economy, for being great bread-eaters a +little scrap of ham or sausage or herring eaten with several mouthfuls +of bread will take the edge off the appetite and enable her to be less +lavish with the other courses. Soup is very frequently made out of the +water in which vegetables have been stewed with a suspicion of +flavouring added, and the meat courses are provided<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_32" id="page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> not from large +joints, but from little scraps of meat which the French butcher +produces in astonishing quantities from the same animal as his English +neighbour handles in an entirely different and very much less +economical fashion. These methods of cutting with a view to quantity +rather than quality give much of the meat an unhappy toughness as +though it were cut across or against the grain. Even the +<i>bonne-à-tout-faire</i> will prefer to make a sacrifice in the quantity +of food in each course of a meal if by so doing she can be quite sure +of finishing with a cup of coffee.</p> + +<p>The contrast of the mid-day meal, consisting of a chop and bread and +cheese, supplied by the small provincial hotel to the commercial +traveller in England, with that provided or obtainable in France, is +astonishing. It is true that the knife and fork given for the first +course must be retained for those that follow, but this little +labour-saving custom can be overlooked in the presence of the savoury +dishes that follow. Still more pronounced is the contrast when +dinner-time arrives, for a very large majority of country hostelries +in England will offer nothing more varied than a large plate of ham +and eggs or cold meat, followed by bread and cheese and perhaps<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_33" id="page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> +apple or plum tart. It is the universal demand for appetising and +well-cooked meals throughout France that ensures for the wayfarer +wherever he goes an excellent dinner of several courses. It would, +however, be unfair not to mention that a very great improvement has +been taking place in the hotels of England in the last few years owing +to the demand for well-cooked meals caused by motorists. The +pre-eminence of France in this matter will cease to be remarkable +before long if the present rapid progress is maintained. If one +enquires still further into the reasons for French folk being dainty +in the way their food is prepared, the explanation given by Mr. T. +Rice Holmes that Celtic peoples as a rule have weak stomachs may +perhaps be the correct answer.</p> + +<p>If wall-papers are not often renewed in French houses, there is a +delight in clean raiment which is most commendable. Clothes which are +not washable are frequently sent to the cleaner, and as the most +poorly paid <i>midinette</i> generally buys good materials for her clothes +they last some time, and will stand cleaning and refurbishing better +than the average clothes worn by her equals in England. This is +typical of the inborn<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_34" id="page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> thrift of the whole nation. Personal ablutions +are, on the other hand, not so frequent or so thorough as among +Anglo-Saxons, the supply of water for this purpose being generally +very meagre and the basin for washing the face and hands awkwardly +small. The itinerant bath is still to be found in country towns. It is +brought to the house of those who desire to indulge in this luxury, +and the water at the required temperature is provided also. The +rinsing out of a bath with a little clean water after it has been used +is not considered a sufficiently thorough method of satisfying +individual fastidiousness, and a cotton covering large enough to +entirely line the bath is therefore usually provided for each person. +If one adds to this the difficulties confronting those for whom it is +considered scarcely within the limits of propriety that they should be +entirely unhampered by garments while in the bath, this simple +operation of the toilet becomes a somewhat laborious undertaking!</p> + +<p>It has been already stated how great is the reverence of the French +for the family. It is certainly fostered by that wonderful institution +the Family Council, a form of highly developed autonomy dating from +the far-away days when<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_35" id="page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> France was a Romanised province. The council +is formed to look after the welfare of orphans and weak-minded and +ne'er-do-weel minors. It consists of six members—three from among the +relatives of each parent—and is presided over by a local <i>juge de +paix</i>, who is attended by his clerk.</p> + +<p>For those sons of wealthy parents who are developing into incorrigible +idlers and a source of perpetual anxiety to their parents, owing too +often to the excess of ill-judged kindness lavished on only sons by +widowed mothers, there has been instituted in France what is known as +<i>la maison paternelle</i>. If sent to this establishment the boy +generally threatens to commit suicide or some other desperate act. He +is at first placed in a solitary cell, where he is under the constant +supervision and the special care of a "professor," who is appointed to +deal with the particular case. By salutary talk, the most inflexible +discipline, and regular studies, accompanied by a judicial kindliness, +the refractory youths are almost invariably brought to their senses +after a few months, and retain the warmest affection for the +professors in after years.</p> + +<p>As a rule the French child of almost every<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_36" id="page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> class except the very +lowest comes into the world with the prospect of some future +inheritance of land or capital. The first infant in a very large +proportion of families is both alpha and omega, and it is very +exceptional for parents not to restrict their offspring to two or +perhaps three, which is almost counted as a large family. For some +time past census figures reveal the very remarkable fact that +considerably over 1¾ millions of married couples are childless. +Rather more than a quarter of the marriages result in one child; +another quarter has two children, and 17 per cent are childless. Thus +the duty of making up the deficiency of one large section and the +total failure of another falls upon one-third of the married couples, +and the latest returns show that this task is only just accomplished, +the average number of births for each family hovering about the +bed-rock figure 2. The year 1907 was altogether alarming, for the +figures showed 19,890 more deaths than births for the twelve months, +and it has been with considerable relief that the civilised world has +seen the surplus turned over to the more healthy direction in +subsequent years. With a population that does not increase there is +less and less danger of overcrowding or<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_37" id="page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> of extreme poverty, and +therefore France houses her citizens better than Germany, England, or +the United States. The individual child arrives in the world with his +or her place more or less made in advance, and as the years pass by +the son or daughter steps into the vacancy caused by the departure to +"the land o' the leal" of a parent or relation. Such an even balance +of vacancies and new arrivals tends to make livelihoods more stable in +France than in the countries where the number of persons to the square +mile is steadily increasing; it robs the whole nation of any desire to +find homes outside the limits of the fatherland, and makes it +practically impossible to make any real use of colonial possessions. +Until civilised countries come to settle their differences without the +senseless and futile appeals to brute force, by which they have +unsuccessfully striven to do so in the past, this static condition of +the population of France can only be looked upon as a calamity, but +the growing strength of commercial ties is weakening bellicist +prejudices and national antipathies every day, and the fact that the +nations are now asking themselves whether any advantage is gained by +fighting a civilised people shows that the world is on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_38" id="page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> threshold +of emancipation from what is most truly a great illusion.</p> + +<p>Being so often the only child or one of two, the infant enters on life +as the ruler of the household. The devoted parents, instead of +following the golden maxim, which says "Apply the rod early enough and +there will be no need to use it at all," give way to every passing +mood or whim of their offspring, and insist that the nurse shall +follow the same foolish course. If the infant cries it obviously needs +something, and this must be supplied regardless of character-building. +No wonder that <i>la maison paternelle</i> has been found a needful +institution in the land! Maternal duties are not as a rule undertaken +by the mother, and in a very large number of instances this is +necessitated or at least encouraged by the large share in the +maintenance of the household taken by the wife. In Parisian flats the +<i>concierge</i>, owing to the smallness of his wage, is generally obliged +to go out to work and depute his wife to undertake his duties during +his absence. A mewling and puking infant under these conditions is a +nuisance and must be brought up elsewhere.</p> + +<p>In the average middle-class home the children are not given their +meals in the nursery, but at<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_39" id="page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> a very early age eat at the same table +as their parents, and enjoy a varied menu including wine when English +children are still having little besides milk puddings and mince.</p> + +<p>Much more is concentrated into the earlier years of life in France +than across the Channel. This is particularly so in regard to the +<i>jeune fille</i>, who ceases to come under that title as soon as she has +reached the age of twenty-five. The business of getting married must +be achieved by that time, or else there is nothing for it but +acquiescence in the popular judgment that the young girl has become an +old girl—is on the shelf—and to preserve her self-respect must +retire either to a convent or a conventual boarding-house. This custom +is, like many others, as undesirably medival, gradually breaking +down owing to the strongly intellectual training now given to the +<i>jeune fille</i> at state <i>lycées</i>. No religious instruction is given in +these schools, and the girls are therefore developing a new +independence. A change, too, is taking place in the extremely secluded +life that girls of the middle and upper classes have hitherto led. +They are not invariably taken to school and fetched by a maid, and it +is quite possible that this emancipation from continual supervision +may lead to a<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_40" id="page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> considerable modification in the present method of +arranging marriages. The existing system of the choice of a husband +for their daughter being made by the devoted parents has a striking +similarity to the customs of the Far East. The young men the <i>jeune +fille</i> is allowed to see are only those who are eminently eligible, +that is, whose financial position is sound and whose family +connections are not likely to cause anxiety when brought into the +family circle by the union of the two young people.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="illus057" id="illus057"></a> +<img src="images/illus057a.jpg" width="400" height="527" alt="Centre" /></div> +<p class="center"><b>THE CENTRE OF PARIS.</b></p> + +<p>To the French mind the idea of the betrothal of a man and a girl +without the necessary means for immediately entering the state of +matrimony is looked at with the most extreme disfavour. "Falling in +love" might lead to most undesirable family ties, for each of the two +parties concerned marries a family as well as a husband and wife +respectively. No, the <i>mariage d'inclination</i> is a danger, and the +young people must learn to fall in love during the honeymoon, a task +the French girl seems to find less impossible than it sounds. The +Anglo-Saxon method of a growing and entirely non-committal intimacy +followed by a period of betrothal scarcely exists in France. Having +little knowledge or experience of men, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page_41" id="page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span>the girl accepts the suitor +proposed by her parents because, as a rule, she has not much choice +and the time is short before she has reached the old-maidish age of +twenty-five. Then beyond this there is all the thrill and romance of +some new and strange life in which she may succeed in falling +desperately in love with her husband. If not, the situation has +occurred before, and the average married woman seems to find some +solace in other interests; there will perhaps be a son or a daughter, +or possibly both, and on them it will be easy for her to expend her +pent-up feelings of love, and later on there will perchance come what +is an ideal with the average Frenchwoman—the satisfaction of being a +grandmother.</p> + +<p>During the short time between the formal acceptance of her proposed +husband and the wedding ceremony the affianced pair are not as a rule +allowed to be together alone. No doubt in many instances this harsh +ruling of long-established custom is broken through, but it would be +done surreptitiously unless the parties concerned were exceptionally +emancipated from the great body of French tradition. It is also quite +unusual for the mother to speak of love<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_42" id="page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> when discussing with her +daughter a man who has offered himself as a husband; it is merely +understood that he is pleased with the girl's general appearance and +not dissatisfied with her <i>dot</i>.</p> + +<p>Strict Roman Catholics do not recognise the civil contract beyond +going through the required legal ceremony. The banns, stating several +personal particulars regarding the parents as well as the contracting +parties, are put up at the <i>mairie</i> ten days before the marriage can +be performed. If the betrothed pair have not reached the age of +thirty, they must have the consent of their parents, but over +twenty-one they are able to obtain that consent through a legal +process at the office of a certified notary. Even extreme action of +this character does not entail total loss of a certain portion of the +parental inheritance, for the Civil Code does not permit parents to +leave more than a proportion to strangers. One-half must fall to the +children's share. Quite recently an example of the small satisfaction +this may cause to the recipients came to light. An aged grandparent's +estate produced a sum of 100 francs, to be divided equally between +four legatees. The legal expenses entailed in certifying the status of +each party and other matters<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_43" id="page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> ran up to such a large sum that the +surplus divisible was barely 20 francs.</p> + +<p>On the appointed day the wedding party assembles at the <i>mairie</i>, +where the mayor, after reading to the couple that portion of the Civil +Code relating to the duties of the married state, hears their +declaration and the permission of the parents, after which both +parties exchange wedding rings and are pronounced man and wife. The +register having been signed, first by the wife and then by the +husband, the civil ceremony is complete, and in Republican society the +wedded pair as a rule trouble themselves not at all about the attitude +of the Church to the contract they have made. Many, however, as +already stated, do not regard this as the real wedding, and the bride +and bridegroom remain apart until the next day, or perhaps two or +three days later, when the religious ceremony is performed in a +church. There the wedding rings are blessed before being put on, and +the completion of the religious ceremony is marked by the presentation +of a tray for offerings. One cannot be very long in a French church +without this opportunity presenting itself. The writer has vivid +recollections of his almost precipitate retreat from the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_44" id="page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> Madeleine +after he had been present for a short time at a service in that +classic church on the occasion of his first visit to Paris. His memory +recalls how cheerfully he paid for his seat for the first time, how he +produced another coin when, with a charming smile, a young woman +applied for a second alms, and how, when a third bag was placed before +him with the words <i>pour les pauvres</i>, he found a sou, and in a few +moments had, with a sigh of relief, exchanged the Gregorian +solemnities of the great church for the rattle and stir of the +<i>Boulevard des Capucines</i>.</p> + +<p>But to return to the wedding ceremony. The young couple having been +now made man and wife in the sight of Church as well as the State, +they start on their voyage together into the unknown, to discover one +another and, if possible, after what answers to a time of courting, to +fall in love with each other. Should this time of exploration into +each other's characters and temperaments, likes and dislikes, prove +entirely unsatisfactory, it becomes a matter of acute interest to +enquire how the knot may be loosened or untied. Until 1883 divorce was +not legal, but since that year of emancipation the Civil Code permits +it for several reasons. These are<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_45" id="page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> divided under three headings: +first, unfaithfulness or desertion on either side; second, acts of +violence and <i>injures graves</i>, which covers the great area of +incompatibility of temperament; and third, penal sentences passed on +the man or woman. It is fairly obvious that this wide doorway will +permit the entrance of a great majority of those who wish for freedom +from an ill-chosen partner, and the result has been a steady increase +in the number of divorces in recent years. The figures were 10,573 in +1906 and 13,049 in 1910. Even the Church of Rome will allow the +marriage tie to be severed under certain conditions not perhaps open +to a poor couple.</p> + +<p>There can be little doubt that divorce in France is facilitated by the +fact that the wife has in most cases an independent source of income, +and is therefore economically on her feet in the event of a +termination of her wedded state. She is, generally speaking, looked +upon with less favour as a divorced woman than is a man. No doubt this +is due to slow-dying prejudice in favour of the man in these +circumstances. Changes are, however, coming with such accelerating +speed in these matters that anything written to-day is more or less +out of date by the time it is printed.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_46" id="page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span></p> + +<p>To come back to the normal condition of married persons in France, +there is no doubt that, surprising as it may seem, the <i>jeune fille</i> +does in a very large majority of cases settle down contentedly with +the husband chosen by her parents. She blossoms with the speed of an +Indian juggler's magic plant into a woman of affairs, and in a very +short time is taken into the fullest confidence in monetary matters by +her husband. Many develop such a capacity for business that they +rapidly out-distance their men folk in such matters, and if, as is +very often the case in middle-class life, they are obliged to +contribute towards the family budget, their earnings will frequently +exceed those of the easy-going husband. Any one at all intimate with +France knows the keenness and capacity of the woman in business, +whether as a shopkeeper, a manageress, or a hotel proprietor. They can +drive a hard bargain and are less easy to deal with than men, although +the writer is inclined to think that he has met quite as many men as +women who are difficult or unpleasant in a financial matter.</p> + +<p>In spite of this frequently existing superior ability in dealing with +money matters, a wife must obtain her husband's written consent before +she<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_47" id="page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> touches her capital! And further than this, the Civil Code +requires that the husband must make good any deficiency from his +wife's original <i>dot</i> should he wish to obtain a divorce, +notwithstanding the fact that the diminution had taken place with her +consent; and it is a curious and interesting fact that in the case of +disagreement the husband finds the Code ignores the perchance superior +wisdom of the wife.</p> + +<p>As a rule it is <i>madame</i> who rules the household, while "<i>mon mari</i>" +is a worshipper who obeys willingly, both being the slaves of their +child or children, to whom within the strict boundaries of <i>comme il +faut</i> nothing must be denied. How, with such spoiling as children, the +French man and woman grow up to do their share in the world's work it +is hard to understand. Possibly the dislike evinced by the race as a +whole to undertake an adventurous career entailing risk, the lack of +some of the luxuries which have been long enjoyed, and an element of +uncertainty may be in part ascribed to the lack of discipline in the +nursery. An explanation for this characteristic might be given by +merely pointing to the figures of population, which, as just +mentioned, remain almost stationary, and do not provide that driving +force<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_48" id="page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> which sends other peoples out into new lands in great numbers; +but this condition of a static population has been brought about +voluntarily by the people themselves, through their desire to be sure +of a safe and prearranged career for their offspring. And so it is the +family life of the French, the predominance of the weaker partner, and +the craving after those conditions of existence generally regarded as +feminine, which result in a weakening of France as a colonising +nation, and often cause misgivings in the minds of those who are her +well-wishers.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="illus066" id="illus066"></a> +<img src="images/illus066a.jpg" width="600" height="399" alt="Abbeville" /></div> +<p class="center"><b>THE MARKET PLACE AND CATHEDRAL AT ABBEVILLE.</b></p> + +<hr class="l30" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_49" id="page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span></p> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h3> +<h4>HOW THE FRENCH GOVERN THEMSELVES</h4> + +<p>It may be broadly stated that the French people are content to be +governed and to feel a controlling authority in operation in all +departments of their lives. This results in a silent acquiescence +under long-endured grievances which could easily be redressed by a +little ventilation of public opinion. Where the Anglo-Saxon uses his +newspapers to make known his attitude towards various matters +requiring new legislation, where he takes advantage of an election, +parliamentary or municipal, to obtain undertakings from candidates, +the average Frenchman will neither write nor speak, so that editors +and deputies, and the great public as well, remain generally ignorant +of a widespread area of smouldering resentment. Like the burning +coal-beds not unfrequently discovered in Central Europe, the +underground<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_50" id="page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> combustion, which has perhaps been continuing for many +years, is only brought to light by accident.</p> + +<p>When legislation takes place on some important economic issue it will +be framed, as a rule, on abstract lines disregarding the past, and in +many ways ignoring general convenience. There is in this way little +evolution in the growth of the French constitution, and an old law may +exist unmodified so long that when change comes it is so out of date +that it must be swept away. The Revolution cut down to the roots the +rotten tree of unregenerate feudalism, and planted in its place a +sapling which has to conform to the essential requirements of +progress; it must be trimmed and lopped, and must put forth new growth +in order that it too, in the effluxion of time, may not become as +unsuited to modern needs as its predecessor.</p> + +<p>In August 1789 the first Republican Parliament wrote down certain +cardinal matters relating to the welfare and freedom of the individual +and called it the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. +Thirteen years before this the United States of North America had +drawn up their Declaration of Independence,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_51" id="page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> and no doubt this +inspired those who framed the more compactly worded document. In their +seventeen brief articles French Republicans, in an age when ideas of +freedom had fertilised both sides of the Atlantic, boldly and simply +stated their new-born beliefs, commencing with the assertion that "All +men are born and remain free and have equal rights." In <i>Article 2</i> +they stated that "the object of all political groupings is the +preservation of the natural, inalienable, and sacred rights of man," +those rights being "liberty, property, security, and the right to +resist oppression." Although possessing the last-mentioned power, it +has already been pointed out that the people are slow to make use of +it. The nation likewise fails to carry out the spirit of <i>Article 9</i>, +which says, "As a man is deemed innocent until he shall have been +declared guilty should it be necessary to arrest him no rigour that is +not essential for the securing of his person shall be tolerated by the +law." In the final—the 17th—Article there is food for thought for +the Socialist, for it is there stated that property is "an inviolable +and sacred right," followed by the qualifying sentence, "No man may be +deprived of it, unless public interest demand it evidently<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_52" id="page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> and +according to the Law, provided, moreover, that a fair indemnity be +first paid to him." Even the most civilised of peoples are still a +good deal short of that high degree of wisdom and goodness which will +make every man competent and willing to be his brother's keeper, and +it is therefore probable that for some time to come <i>Article 17</i> will +stand as a living part of the French Constitution. It is interesting +to remember that in the Declaration of 1789 the right of Habeas Corpus +was first established in France, while it had been on the statute book +of England for over a century, and would have been there some time +before but for repeated rejections by the House of Lords.</p> + +<p>Upon the splendid substructure of the Declaration of the Rights of Man +the first French Constitution was reared. It was framed with care, +took two years in the making, and was finally accepted by Louis in +1791. Since then there have been many constitutions, but, omitting the +Napoleonic interlude, the principles of the Declaration show +themselves with triumphant ascendency as the foundation of each +reconstruction. Like all written constitutions, modifications are +frequently found necessary. There<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_53" id="page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> is none of the elasticity of the +unwritten constitution which exists only in the land of the people who +are said to have a genius for governing themselves, and perhaps it is +that endowment with the capacity for self-government which makes the +nebulous character of the British Constitution so valuable. It is true +that a very great majority of well-educated British people could not +give any clear idea of the nature of the constitution of their +country, and when any constitutional point arises only a handful of +experts can state how far the precedents of the past, by which the +constitution is modified, affect the immediate issue; and yet there +would be a considerable feeling of alarm if it were seriously proposed +to make the whole situation plain by producing a modern written +constitution, however much based on all that has gone before.</p> + +<p>Britons, as a rule, do not even trouble to acquaint themselves with +the survival of many ancient royal prerogatives. Walter Bagehot<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> +puts into one pregnant paragraph what Queen Victoria could do without +consulting Parliament. "Not to mention other things," he writes, "she<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_54" id="page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> +could disband the army (by law she cannot engage more than a certain +number of men, but she is not obliged to engage any men); she could +dismiss all the officers, from the General Commanding-in-Chief +downwards; she could dismiss all the sailors too; she could sell off +all our ships of war and all our naval stores; she could make a peace +by the sacrifice of Cornwall, and begin a war for the conquest of +Brittany. She could make every citizen in the United Kingdom, male or +female, a peer; she could make every parish in the United Kingdom a +'university'; she could dismiss most of the civil servants; she could +pardon all offenders." The present sovereign could do the same, but +safeguards in the form of impeachment of Ministers and change of a +Ministry preserve the country from proceedings of this nature; but in +a country with a written constitution such legacies from the days when +the head of the State was a military dictator exist no longer.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> <i>The English Constitution</i>, Introduction to 1872 +Edition.</p></div> + +<p>While the British law-makers and administrators bear on their backs +the whole weight of centuries of laborious constitution-building, the +French work with the light equipment of a constitution framed in 1875, +everything prior to<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_55" id="page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> that date being null and void.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> No French +politician is therefore required at any time to be aware of a usage of +the reign of Louis XI., or any curtailment of the royal authority +which may have taken place when Philippe Auguste occupied the throne. +The throne itself has ceased to exist since the fall of Napoleon III. +in 1870, and France since that year has remained under its third +Republic.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> The Constitution was slightly revised in 1879 and 1884.</p></div> + +<p>The laws passed in 1875 provide that the legislative power shall be in +the hands of two assemblies—the Chamber of Deputies and the +Senate—and the executive in those of an elected President and the +Ministry. The Upper House or Senate is composed of 300 members, now +entirely elected by the Departments or Senate. They must be over forty +years of age. In England, if the Prime Minister is a commoner he can +only go into the Upper House as a listener, and all the Cabinet are +under the same restriction, but in France Ministers can sit in both +Chambers and can speak in either place as occasion requires or the +spirit moves. Voting, however, is restricted to the Chamber to which +the Minister belongs. One is inclined to wonder whether eloquence<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_56" id="page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> +that stirs the hearts and sways the voting in the British House of +Commons would be as productive if addressed to the hereditary body. +There is no separate Minister for the Post Office, that office being +included in the Ministry of Commerce, and there are only twelve +Ministers against the twenty or twenty-one of the British Cabinet. The +Ministry of Labour and Public Thrift appears almost quaint to the much +less thrifty people of England.</p> + +<p>The Lower Chamber consists of 584 deputies, and is elected every four +years by universal suffrage. On coming of age, every citizen not in +military service and having a residential qualification of six months +may exercise the franchise. Women have not yet achieved the right to +vote. Perhaps the majority of French married women exercise already as +much power as they care to possess, for even peasant women are quite +familiar with the method of voting through their docile husbands. Only +in 1897 were women entitled by law to act as witnesses in civil +transactions; prior to that date a woman came under the same category +as a minor or the insane!</p> + +<p>That the Frenchwoman is beginning to wake<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_57" id="page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> up to the possibilities of +her twentieth-century emancipation is shown in a hundred directions. +In January 1913 a woman came forward as a candidate for the French +presidential chair, the first in the history of the Republic. When +questioned as to the seriousness of her purpose she asked, "And why +not a woman head of the State? People may regard it as a joke; but +what about Catherine the Great and Queen Victoria?" When one +remembers, too, the astonishing business capacity of the average +Frenchwoman, one is inclined to echo the question, "Why not?" There +are already more than a dozen women barristers in Paris, besides +seventy doctors, eighteen dentists, ten oculists, and six chemists! +Women, too, have for many years occupied on the railways of France +positions which are exclusively in the hands of the stronger sex in +England. Who is not familiar with the hard-faced woman who with a horn +at her lips controls the level crossings?</p> + +<p>The only restriction among French citizens to becoming President is +that which rules out any member of a royal family which has reigned in +France. He is elected for seven years and the salary is £48,000 a +year, one half of which is<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_58" id="page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> received as salary, the other being for +travelling and official expenses connected with office. This sum +appears generous when contrasted with the £5000 paid to the British +First Lord of the Treasury and his unpaid services as Prime Minister +of the Crown. The President appoints all the Ministers and heads of +the civil and military departments. He declares war with the consent +of both Houses, and a Minister counter-signs every act.</p> + +<p>The national desire for security prompts the men folk of a large +proportion of the upper middle classes to aim towards the pleasantly +safe pigeon-holes in the State dovecot. In order to attain these +places of refuge from commercial or professional struggle, every +public official who has reached the desired haven of his ambition, or +at least one of the assured steps that will surely lead him thither, +is the subject of endless demands for aid in the same direction from +his remotest relatives and acquaintances. Upon this system of +<i>pistonnage</i> the aspirant to an official position must lean, for if he +does not the crowd ready to fill each vacancy will all have superior +chances on account of the word here and there spoken on their behalf +in the right quarter. <i>Pistonnage</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_59" id="page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> does not, however, apply to those +who aspire to a seat in either the Senate or the Chamber of Deputies, +where a salary of 15,000 fr. a year and free travelling relieves the +representative of financial anxiety, so long as he is devoting his +time to his country's service.</p> + +<p>By direct and semi-direct taxation about £25,000,000 was produced in +1912. These taxes include a levy on windows and doors, varying +according to the density of the population, the more closely inhabited +areas paying more than the less populous. There is a tax on land not +built upon, assessed in accordance with its net yearly revenue based +on the register of property drawn up in the earlier half of last +century and kept up to date. The Building tax is 3.2 per cent on the +rental value, and is paid by the owner. The Personal tax places a +fixed capitation on every citizen, varying from 1s. 3d. to 3s. 9d. +according to the department. The Habitation tax is paid by every one +occupying a house or apartments in proportion to the rent. The Trade +License tax embraces all trades, and consists of a fixed duty levied +on the extent of business as revealed by the number of employés, and +population, and the locality, and so on, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_60" id="page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> also an assessment on +the letting value of the premises.</p> + +<p>By indirect taxation a little over £100,000,000 was raised in 1912. +The sum was realised by stamps of all sorts (excluding postage), by +registration duties on the transfer of property in business ways and +general changes of ownership, and by customs, including a tax on Stock +Exchange transactions, a tax of 4 per cent on dividends from stocks +and shares, taxes on alcohol, wine, beer, cider, and alcoholic liquors +generally, on home-produced salt and sugar, and on railway passenger +and goods traffic. The State monopolies of tobacco, matches, and +gunpowder produced the large sum of £38,000,000, but even this did not +meet the charges for interest on the National Debt, which were about +51½ millions, the accumulated sum for which this is required being +(1912) £1,301,718,302. This is almost double as great as the British +national indebtedness.</p> + +<p>Over each of the 86 Departments is a prefect chosen by the Minister of +the Interior, and through him the minor officials are kept in touch +with the Government. The arrondissement and the canton are +administrative divisions into<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_61" id="page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> which each Department is divided, each +canton including about a dozen communes. The commune is controlled by +the mayor, who is chief magistrate and, as in England, is the head of +the municipal body. According to the size of the commune deputy mayors +are elected. The great city of Lyons requires 17 of these officials, +and when one remembers that the presence of the mayor or a deputy +mayor is required at every marriage in order that it may become legal, +the number does not seem excessive.</p> + +<p>Every canton has its <i>juge de paix</i>, who is in a general sense a +police court judge. He tries small cases, but his responsibilities are +carefully limited, and he may not inflict a fine exceeding 200 francs. +Any offence requiring a heavier hand must go up to the <i>Tribunal +correctionnel de l'arrondissement</i> or the court of <i>Première +Instance</i>. The <i>juge de paix</i> wears a tall hat encircled with a broad +silver band, and although, as a rule, a man who has received a fairly +good education, his salary averages between £120 and £160 per annum. +On such an income there is no opportunity for pretentious living! The +wife of a <i>juge de paix</i> cannot, as a rule, afford to keep a +nursemaid, and one maid-of-all-work is as much<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_62" id="page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> as the <i>ménage</i> can +afford to maintain. Nevertheless the position is an honourable one, +there is a pension at sixty years, and the hours of labour are, to the +man with a sense of humour, often brightened by the absurdity of the +cases that are brought into court. There is generally much fun for the +court in the frequent cases of <i>diffamation</i>, in which citizens drag +one another into the presence of the <i>juge de paix</i> for calling each +other names. The court allows noisy altercation in a fashion unknown +in England, and the task of the magistrate is, to the Anglo-Saxon +mind, almost beyond belief. The breezy outpourings of plaintiff and +defendant are ended with the <i>juge de paix's</i> words, "You can retire," +and, as a rule, some sound and friendly advice has been offered to the +unneighbourly neighbours. A very considerable amount of litigation +arises through the possession of land or houses, for the thriftiness +of the French has always inclined the people towards the ownership of +their farms or the land they till. In the old days before the +Revolution, all such disputes came before courts in which the +unprivileged and poor might be fairly sure of losing the day. The +scandal of those venal courts was so great that nothing<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_63" id="page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> short of a +clean sweep could effectually rid the land of the curse they +inflicted, and the overthrow of the monarchy was followed by the +establishment of administrators of justice who were servants of the +State and none other.</p> + +<p>The correctional courts mentioned deal with the graver offences which +are outside the ambit of the <i>juge de paix</i>. As a rule there are three +judges and no jury. These courts are empowered to inflict punishment +up to imprisonment for five years. The Courts of Assize are held every +three months in each Department. They are presided over by a +councillor of the Court of Appeal with two assistants and a jury of +twelve, but a unanimous verdict is not required, the fate of the +accused hanging on a majority only. Another feature of these courts is +the <i>juge d'instruction's</i> secret preliminary investigation into each +case.</p> + +<p>Superior to the Courts of Assize are those of Appeal and the <i>Cour de +Cassation</i>, which became so well known to the English public during +the famous trial of Dreyfus. This court, as its name implies, can +abrogate the ruling of any other tribunal, with the exception of the +administrative courts. This high authority decides on matters<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_64" id="page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> of +legal principle or whether the court from which appeal has been made +was competent to make the decision in question. It does not concern +itself primarily with the facts of the case, and if it should annul +any finding the case is sent to a fresh hearing of a court of the same +authority.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="illus085" id="illus085"></a> +<img src="images/illus085a.jpg" width="600" height="384" alt="Tea" /></div> +<p class="center"><b>FIVE O'CLOCK TEA IN PARIS.</b></p> + +<p>The administrative police, or <i>gardiens de la paix</i>, are approximately +equivalent to British police constables, and must not be confused with +the <i>gendarmerie</i>, which is a military body carrying out civil duties +in times of peace. The <i>gendarmerie</i> are recruited from the army, +there being one legion in each army corps district. Their strength is +roughly 22,000 men, equally divided between cavalry and infantry. In +Paris there is a separate force known as the <i>Garde républicaine</i>, +which carries out police duties very much the same as the +<i>gendarmerie</i> in the Departments. They number about 3000, of whom 800 +are mounted. The French prison system was in a very antiquated state +in 1874, when a commission on prison discipline issued its report in +favour of cellular confinements. Prisons were therefore reconstructed, +and after many years had elapsed some of the older ones were +demolished, the prisoners thereafter being removed from the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_65" id="page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span>disadvantages they encountered in association. The system of +isolation required the construction of a huge new prison at +Fresnes-les-Rungis. It contains 1500 cells, and when it was completed +in 1898 the historic Paris prisons of Grande-Roquette, St. Pélagie, +and Mazas were swept away.</p> + +<p>Taken as a whole, one can scarcely endorse Taine's utterance that +modern France is the work of Napoleon. The present organisation of the +nation is undoubtedly due to the masterly brain and tireless energy of +Napoleon, but the national characteristics of the French people have +shown little change. The existence of a constitution, the even-handed +administration of justice, and the opening of the highest offices in +the State to the citizen of the humblest origin, do not yet seem to +have affected the nature of the people. Laughter, tears, and anger are +still near the surface; love of adventure in thought, word, and deed +does not yet lead the French into the acquisition of the solid +advantages their enterprise would bring did they only persevere on the +lines of their initial enterprise. In spite of the almost frantic +desire for liberty there is no doubt that the French tamely submit<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_66" id="page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> to +a régime which Englishmen would find in some matters quite +intolerable. If suspicion of smuggling falls upon a house the police +can make domiciliary visits of a quite arbitrary character. The Civil +Code, too, must be regarded as oppressive so long as it retains its +attitude of looking upon the untried person as guilty until such time +as his trial establishes his innocence, and the Anglo-Saxon mind is +revolted at the practice of endeavouring to extort a confession from a +prisoner. The Napoleonic mould did not alter these qualities, and even +in the matter of religious tolerance the French have still much to +learn.</p> + +<hr class="l30" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_67" id="page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span></p> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h3> +<h4>ON EDUCATION AND RELIGION</h4> + +<p>The annual sum of 4250 francs (£170) was considered by Napoleon—in so +far as he had opportunity for considering the subject—a sufficient +amount of money to devote directly to the education of the people! But +the rulers of States a brief century ago were, as a whole, inclined to +leave educational matters in clerical hands, and the nineteenth +century will stand out in the world's history as the dawn of State +responsibility in regard to the education of the people.</p> + +<p>At the Restoration in 1814 more than twelve times as great a sum as +that expended by Napoleon was being devoted to education, and the +amount rose to 3,000,000 francs in 1830, to 12,000,000 during the +Second Empire, and to 160,000,000 under the Third Republic. To the +last sum<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_68" id="page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> must be added another 100,000,000 francs (excluding the +money devoted to the erection of schools) spent by the municipalities +and communes, making a total of about £11,400,000. In 1912 the State +alone was spending about £12,000,000 on national education.</p> + +<p>At the head of this great spending department of the State is the +Minister of Public Instruction. He controls not only the whole of the +primary schools, but to some extent the entire educational machinery +of the country, private schools being subjected to State inspection +and supervision. Between 1901 and 1907 some 3000 public clerical +schools, and more than 13,000 private clerical schools, were +suppressed by law. The law passed in 1904 required that all schools +controlled by religious bodies should be closed within the next ten +years, which period is just about to elapse. Since the State awoke to +its responsibilities in educational matters, it has taken roughly a +century finally to extinguish clerical control. The schools are +divided into the three grades of Primary, Secondary, and Higher, and +the State admits into any of these pupils of any grade of society. In +the rooms of <i>lycée</i> or college the classes meet in a truly democratic +fashion.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_69" id="page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> The college, which is controlled by the commune under the +State, is considered inferior to the <i>lycée</i>, which is entirely in the +hands of the central authority. While the primary schools are +compulsory and gratuitous between the ages of six and thirteen, the +secondary schools charge small fees ranging from £2 a year up to £16. +But parents with bright children can often avoid this expenditure +through the lavish system of scholarships offered by the State.</p> + +<p><i>Lycées</i> were first established for girls in 1880, and there are now +several in existence, one of them having 700 students. The hours of +the classes are from 8.30 to 11.30, and from 1.30 to 3.30, and the aim +has been to run them on the same lines as those of the boys. Since +clericalism was removed from the education of girls, there has no +doubt been a very considerable change in the scholastic environment of +the <i>jeune fille</i>, but until a long period has elapsed it will be +difficult for any but those in the closest touch with educational life +in France to point out how far the advantages outweigh the +disadvantages or <i>vice versa</i>. The lay schoolmistress may be in +essentials as religiously-minded as any convent-trained type of woman. +Her influence<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_70" id="page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> on her pupils may produce as moral and as religious +types of women in the coming generation as those of the immediate +past, but in such a change in the training of the girls of a race not +fond of moral discipline who can foresee the results?</p> + +<p>The general tendency of the training given in the <i>lycée</i> has been +towards the suppression of originality. There seems to have grown up +in the mind of the authorities an impression that the only means of +keeping the youth of France under proper control is by holding them +down with an iron grip, not merely during the hours of work but during +recreation also. This may have been necessitated by a certain lack of +discipline in the earliest years of life, young children being allowed +to have their own way to an altogether undesirable extent. As soon as +they are old enough the boys, having, as a rule, begun to be a source +of much trouble in the home, are sent to school. If their parents are +able to afford the fees, the gates of the <i>lycée</i> soon close upon +their days of wilfulness and disobedience. In place of the home life +and the feminine influence with which they have been familiar, they +are confronted with a discipline of semi-military<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_71" id="page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> severity. Games are +not allowed, and in the hours of recreation in walled playgrounds of a +generally forbidding order, walking and talking alone are permitted. +Here, as in the class-room, the boys are perpetually under the eyes of +the <i>pion</i>, whose duties are restricted entirely to the maintenance of +order. Owing to suppression in natural directions, it is not +surprising if the minds of the boys should turn into the unhealthy +directions of intrigue and pernicious literature.</p> + +<p>M. Demolins, who a few years ago tried the experiment of running his +school on English lines, has found the results excellent. So greatly +appreciated are his efforts to abolish the bad features of the <i>lycée</i> +that he is unable to meet the demand on the capacity of his buildings. +He is of opinion that the Anglo-Saxon is superior to the French +because of the better training given at school, discouragement of +initiative and suppression of independence being the chief features of +the schools of his own country, while the Anglo-Saxon allows boys a +freedom which develops self-reliance and individuality.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="illus094" id="illus094"></a> +<img src="images/illus094a.jpg" width="408" height="550" alt="Children" /></div> +<p class="center"><b>CHILDREN OF PARIS IN THE LUXEMBOURG GARDENS.</b></p> + +<p>"Every one knows our dreadful college," writes M. Demolins, "with its +much too long classes and studies, its recreations far too short<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_72" id="page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> and +without exercise, its prison walks a monotonous going and coming +between high heart-breaking walls, and then every Sunday and Thursday +the military promenade in rank, the exercise of old men, not of +youth."</p> + +<p>The boarder at the <i>lycée</i>, of course, feels the harshness of the +régime to a degree that the day-boy never experiences, home hours +mitigating the severity of the long working day.</p> + +<p>As a whole, it may be said that the ideal of the educational system +has been intellectuality rather than that of character building, and +in the former France is superior to England, the system producing a +higher average of intellectual capacity. If both countries could take +to themselves the strong features that each possesses it would be very +materially to their advantage. Changes in the right direction are +already taking place in France. It is quite probable that the <i>pion</i> +will be suppressed before long, and cricket, football, and other manly +and health-giving games are beginning to take the place of the old +man's stroll under supervision. The fact that the Boy Scout is +appearing all over France seems to herald the dawn of a growing +sturdiness and manliness in the youth of the nation. At the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_73" id="page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> present +day the average boy has an undoubtedly girlish softness in his dress +and general appearance. He wears sailor suits at an age which would +produce laughter amongst Anglo-Saxon boys. He appears in white socks +for several years longer than the English boy would tolerate, and his +thinly-soled boots suggest the promenade rather than any form of +strenuous game. His clothes do not appear to have been made for any +hard wear, and as a rule the knickerbockers of soft thin grey material +so generally to be seen are unfit for any rough use whatever. Even the +large black leather portfolios in which books and papers are carried +to and from school seem to receive as careful handling as though they +belonged to a Government official rather than that most destructive of +creatures—the schoolboy. In England one is familiar with the sight of +four or five books dangling at the end of the strap which secures +them, enabling the owner to convert his home-work into a handy weapon +of offence, but the soft leather case of French boys and girls, which +must be carefully carried under one arm, offers no such fascinating +by-purpose.</p> + +<p>If parents keep their boys in socks for a longer period than seems +rational to the Anglo-Saxon,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_74" id="page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> they frequently go farther with their +girls, who often enough may be seen with bare legs until they are +nearly as tall as their mothers.</p> + +<p>Very much stress is laid on the examinations, which commence at the +age of fifteen or sixteen, when the <i>lycée</i> and college training +terminates. The system since 1902 has consisted of a period of seven +years divided into two parts. At the expiry of the first, which +consists of four years, the pupil can choose one of four courses. The +first is Latin and Greek, the second Latin and sciences, the third +Latin and modern languages, and the fourth sciences and modern +languages. Having passed three years on one of these courses, he +should be ready for the two examinations by which he can obtain the +degree known as the <i>Baccalauréat de l'enseignement</i>. This is the +outer gateway to be passed through before the scholar can enter the +citadels of any of the great professions, such as law, letters, +medicine, or Protestant theology.</p> + +<p>The State provides the higher education in its universities and in its +specialised higher schools, and since 1875 private individuals and +bodies, so long as they are not clerical, have been permitted to take +part in the advanced educational <span class="pagenum"><a name="page_75" id="page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span>work of the country, but the State +faculties alone have the power to confer degrees. The five classes of +faculties associated with the various universities confer degrees in +law, science, medicine, letters, and Protestant theology.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="illus099" id="illus099"></a> +<img src="images/illus099a.jpg" width="600" height="434" alt="Auvergne" /></div> +<p class="center"><b>LE PUY-EN-VELAY IN THE AUVERGNE COUNTRY.</b></p> + +<p>The keystone of the arch of learning in France is the <i>Institut de +France</i>. It embodies the five great academies of science and +literature, but omits that of medicine, which stands apart.</p> + +<p>In England some social importance attaches to a man on account of his +having been educated at Eton or Harrow and having afterwards taken a +degree at one of the two mother universities, irrespective of his +having shown himself an indifferent scholar, but south of the Channel +the scene of a man's education counts for naught in later life. The +moral and social sides of the English system would seem to have +crowded out to a great extent the intellectual side, which, with the +essentially practical people of France, forms the whole structure. +From the teacher in the primary school to the heads of the +universities no effort is made to influence character: "As soon as the +student leaves the lecture hall he is free to return to the niche he +has constituted for himself, to its probable triviality and its<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_76" id="page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> +possible grossness, or to the vulgar pleasures of the town.... We lose +the advantage of that peculiar monastic, thoughtful life which is +offered to the young Englishman."<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> W. L. George.</p></div> + +<p>An almost childlike simplicity seems to be the keynote of the religion +of that portion of the French people which still adheres to the +observances of the Roman Church. The nation, until recent years, +professed the Catholic faith and worshipped the Virgin as the mother +of the Saviour of the world. In her honour, and to keep her presence +ever in mind, to envisage her to mortal eyes, they erected statues and +placed little figures at street-corners, by the road-side, and upon +the altars of churches, and these are still objects of veneration +among the people. One of the largest and most imposing representations +of the Virgin is Notre Dame de France, a colossal figure cast from +guns captured in the Crimean War, which is erected on the summit of +the basaltic cliff which towers above the ancient town of Le +Puy-en-Velay (Haute Loire). The figure is so gigantic—it stands forth +gilded by the rising or the setting sun high above one's head, even +when standing on the top of the rock<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_77" id="page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> upon which it has been +erected—that one can scarce forbear to look upon it without some +admiration, irrespective of its merits as a work of art. The features +are of a sweet and simple beauty, although of a stereotyped order, and +even to those whose religious ideas do not lean in the direction of +the veneration of representations of deities it is easy to see how a +simple peasant, trained in the religious system which erects such +images, can fall into the attitude of prayer by merely looking on such +an achievement.... Gazing at the figure standing high in the midst of +an amphitheatre of picturesque mountains, one feels some explanation +for the attitude of the religious towards the immense figure; ... and +then one turns away to descend from the rock, and passing behind the +pedestal of the effigy one observes a door, and above it a notice to +the effect that on payment of ten centimes one may ascend within the +<i>Vierge</i>, and when the maximum fee has been paid one may actually +place oneself within the head and gaze out upon an immense panorama +from a position of wonderful novelty.... Where is the vision, where +the sense of fitness, where any atmosphere of sanctity? Does the +incongruity of such an arrangement strike no one<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_78" id="page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> among the +religiously-minded people who visit Le Puy?</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="illus104" id="illus104"></a> +<img src="images/illus104a.jpg" width="600" height="445" alt="La Roche" /></div> +<p class="center"><b>LA ROCHE, A VILLAGE OF HAUTE SAVOIE.</b></p> + +<p>It would appear that the French prefer to have all that is outward in +their religion as much a part of their daily lives as any other +objects of common use. Thus the coverings of the inner doors of a +French church are almost invariably worn into holes or discoloured +with the frequent handling of those who every day spend a few minutes +in the incense-laden atmosphere of their parish church. The floors are +dirty with the constant coming and going from the streets, and the +need for doormats does not appear to be observed. On week-days, apart +from the clergy, it is exceptional to see a man in a church unless he +is there in some official capacity. One will find men carrying out +repairs, and it does not seem to occur to them to remove their hats; +one will see them as tourists with guide-books in their hands, or, as +at St. Denis in the suburbs of Paris, a man in uniform will conduct +visitors through the choir and crypt, and he too finds it unnecessary +to uncover his head; but one goes far to find any other than women and +children kneeling in prayer before the altars or stations of the cross +on any other<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_79" id="page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> day than Sunday. It is the women whose religious needs +bring them into places of worship in the midst of the working hours of +the weekday, men rarely coming unless their steps are directed thither +for a wedding or a funeral. And on Sundays few churches would be +required if the women ceased to attend.</p> + +<p>Funerals have not yet lost their impressive trappings as is the case +in England, where even the poor are beginning to find it less a +necessity to have the hearse drawn by horses adorned with immense +black plumes and long black cloths coming down almost to the ground. +In France these things are still much in evidence, and imposing black +and purple hangings studded with immense silver tear-drops are put up +in the church if the estate or the relatives of the deceased can +afford such melancholy splendour. Before leaving the church after the +funeral service, friends and relatives pass one by one to the bier, +and there each takes a crucifix and makes the sign of the cross.</p> + +<p>The interior of a French church is, as a rule, so dark and shadowy +that the clusters of candles burning before the shrines sparkle +brilliantly in the cavernous gloom of its apsidal chapels,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_80" id="page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> casting an +uncertain and mystic light on pictures and effigies of saints and +apostles, on shining objects of silver and gold, and on gaudy ornament +and tinsel. Looming out of the obscurity, the ghostly representation +of the crucified Christ is faintly illuminated; a few inky figures are +grouped before the altars, their blackness relieved only by the white +caps of the peasants—for it is the custom for women to wear black +when they go to church; the air is heavy with incense, and one feels +that superficial glamour which makes its strong appeal to those who +find satisfaction in the mainly sensuous emotions caused by these +surroundings. When an organ pours forth its sonorous and mellow notes +and men's voices chant Gregorian music before the brilliantly lighted +altar sparkling with golden ornament, when the solemn Latin liturgy is +recited and the consecrated elements are raised by the priest, the +average religious requirements of the French would seem to be +satisfied. Those who do not find any satisfaction in watching and +listening to these offices of the Roman Church as a rule drop into a +state of agnosticism, if not of complete irreligion. To be logical one +must do so, and a growing majority of Frenchmen seem to find no other +course<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_81" id="page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> unless they belong to the comparatively small body of +Protestants or the Jewish communities.<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> There can be no doubt at all +that the Roman Church has lost its hold on a vast proportion of its +adherents, and those who are still numbered among the "faithful" are +every year shrinking in numbers.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> The Protestants number about 600,000, the Jews 70,000, +and the nominal Catholics 39,000,000.</p></div> + +<p>"French Protestants," writes Mr. W. L. George,<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> "and French Jews are +as devout, as clean-living, as spiritually minded as our most +enlightened Churchmen and Nonconformists; a visit to any Parisian +synagogue or to the Oratory will demonstrate in a moment that the +French have not forgotten how to pray. The congregations are as large +as ever they were, and they contain as great a proportion of men as in +England." And he adds: "This distinction of sex must everywhere be +made, and particularly in France, where Roman Catholicism flaunts a +sumptuous aestheticism, voluptuous and worldly, capable of appealing +both to the refined and to the sensuous." Mr. George believes that +French Catholics have not turned against Christ, but against the +ministers of the Christian religion in<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_82" id="page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> his land because they have +been discovered to be unfaithful servants. It is his belief that the +Church is dying—"dying hard but surely"; and who can quarrel with his +statement that the people have turned their backs on its ministers, +that they are on the threshold of agnosticism, and that the Church is +putting forth no hand to stay them? The next two or three generations +can scarcely fail to witness the death by atrophy of the Roman faith +in France; but the French are not an irreligious people, and perhaps a +wider faith may spring up from the ashes of the creed which is so fast +growing cold.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> <i>France in the Twentieth Century</i>—an admirable work.</p></div> + +<p>One might compare religious systems to the unresponsive edifices in +which public worship is conducted, for they seem equally incapable of +spontaneous adaptability to the needs of the people, and only the +stress and labour of the laity ever produces any adaptation to the +changing needs of those for whom the structure exists.</p> + +<p>Because the accumulated resentment of the French people as a whole +against the shortcomings of their national Church has resulted in a +complete divorce from the State, and because the clergy have rebelled +against the laws which have recently been passed, and have therefore +become<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_83" id="page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> in a certain sense outlaws—servants, as it were, of a +discredited section of the community—it has been easy for superficial +observers to come to the conclusion that the French nation has +virtually assumed the garb of atheism. This is always the arrow which +strikes the legislative body determined to dissociate itself with any +form of religion, but as in England, where devoted Churchmen are +ranged on the side of disestablishment, so in France the national +voice that spoke for a severance between Church and State was not that +of a people without religion, but rather that of a people unwilling to +maintain a system which had fallen away from its duty and its ideals. +Atheism and agnosticism would appear to be phases in the religious +development of the human race, the positions into which various types +of mind are driven when dissatisfied with the explanation of the +purpose, duty, and future of the individual as set forth by a +particular Church. That some new development of the truth will +supersede that which has been cast aside seems inevitable.</p> + +<p>In this period of upheaval what is the attitude of the people, of the +peasant, to <i>M. le Curé</i>? Social intimacy between priest and +parishioners<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_84" id="page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> is very great, and the <i>curé</i> is often a very good +fellow whose practical religion is much broader than the +ecclesiasticism he represents. He is, roughly speaking, of the peasant +class and is regarded as socially inferior by the equivalent to the +"county" circle of his neighbourhood. Unlike the English clergy, who +are often distinguishable from the laity by little besides a +distinctive collar and hat, he is always to be seen in his <i>soutane</i> +and with white-bordered black lappets beneath his chin. He is, as a +rule, anti-Republican, and is therefore out of sympathy with the +people and the whole apparatus of the government of to-day. To a huge +mass of the people he is nicknamed the <i>calotin</i>.</p> + +<p>Paul Sabatier explains how the association of the Church with politics +affects the relations of priest and parishioner:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>At election times, especially, how great an impression is made on +the mind of the simple by the defeat of one who has been put +forward as the candidate of <i>le bon Dieu</i>, and the triumph of the +candidate of "the satanic sect"! When such coincidences recur +over forty years with increasing frequency, the most pious +countryman begins to ask if Satan be not stronger than the +Almighty. The artisan, meeting his parish priest, speaks in a +tone at once commiserating and mocking of God's business, which +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_85" id="page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span>is not going well. Blasphemy! thinks our good priest. But no; +they have only blasphemed who taught him to identify a political +party with religion. His rudeness is not very different from that +of Elijah, chiding on Carmel's summit the priests of Baal.... But +this rudeness, like that of the prophet, disguises an outburst of +religious feeling, still awkward in its manifestation, and even, +perhaps, expressing itself by deplorable means——....<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p> +</div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> <i>France To-day: its Religious Orientation.</i> M. Sabatier +proclaims himself a Protestant who has sought to love both Catholicism +and Free Thought.</p></div> + +<p>Since 1882, when the undenominational schools were established, there +has been a fierce battle between Church and State, which has scarcely +come to a close at the present hour; but emerging from the din and +dust of the prolonged warfare there is one salient fact, namely, a +growing desire among the great mass of teachers for increasing the +undenominational moral teaching in the schools. A compelling force is +obliging the school to build up a strong moral training for the young, +entirely independent of clerical influence.</p> + +<hr class="l30" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_86" id="page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span></p> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h3> +<h4>SOME ASPECTS OF PARIS AND OF TOWN LIFE IN GENERAL</h4> + +<p>The reckless driving and the wonderful lack of regulation in the +streets of the capital and the majority of the cities of France do not +prevent the streets from possessing a character encouraging sociality +and relaxation. This is due to a great extent to the ever-inviting +café, which contrives to keep clean table-cloths and the opportunity +of a comfortable meal in the open air within six feet of a rushing and +tempestuous stream of wheeled traffic. In addition there is much +marketing in France, which adds colour and human interest to what +might otherwise be a featureless street or square. In walking as a +mere visitor through the streets of a French town, one seems to +witness more of the intimate life of the place in a few hours than one +would do in England in a<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_87" id="page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> week. From the baking of bread to +haircutting and shaving and the eating of food, there is much more of +work and play visible from the curb-stone. In England the staff of +life seems to reach the dining-room table by invisible means, so +seldom does one see bread carried through the streets, but among the +French—a nation of bread-eaters—long loaves as well as circular ones +are to be seen tucked under the arm of almost every tenth person one +meets. The working classes seem to be continually buying bread freshly +baked, and one loaf at a time! And those who may be seen carrying +bread or vegetables, or whatever they have just purchased at the +market, are more at home in the street than are Anglo-Saxons, who are +apt to regard the common highways of their towns as channels for +coming and going to and from business or pleasure whereon lingering or +conversation is undesirable, indiscreet, and not without danger, for +it is generally recognised that those who pass hours of rest or +idleness in the streets are persons without homes or of undesirable +reputation. But in a French city one is invited at every turn to buy a +newspaper or periodical at a kiosk and to take a seat at a table close +by, where, having<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_88" id="page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> ordered a bock or a cup of coffee, one is free to +read undisturbed for hours.</p> + +<p>In Paris the gossip of the <i>boulevards</i> is part of the life of a big +section of the people, and yet to the casual and superficial observer +it might be thought that there was less opportunity for chatting in +the streets than is offered in London. The French <i>boulevard</i> is in +reality no more free from danger than the English street, but the +people have accustomed themselves to the conditions. Among Latin +peoples there is a time-honoured weakness for throwing out of the +window all sorts and conditions of rubbish, and those who are chatting +in a patch of shade in some quiet corner of a street may be rudely +disturbed by the fall of a basinful of old cabbage leaves or other +kitchen ejecta. Worse than this are the strange and often offensive +odours that assail one in the streets. Imperfect sanitation is +commonly the cause of the noxious atmosphere of so many streets in +French towns. The artist sometimes pays a heavy price for the picture +he obtains of some picturesque quarter on account of the contaminated +air he is obliged to breathe. In Caen, where splendid Norman and +Gothic churches thrill those who appreciate mediaeval<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_89" id="page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> architecture, +the malodorous streets often frighten one away.</p> + +<p>Sanitation has improved enormously in recent years, and is still +making great strides forward, but the people have a great deal to +learn in the use of the new appliances that are provided. This leeway +is less easy to make up than that of mechanical contrivance, and much +time will no doubt elapse before every one is educated up to the +proper appreciation and use of sanitary arrangements. Municipal +authorities have also much to learn. There should not exist the +smallest loophole for an architect to erect a modern building without +providing a direct outlet to the open air to all the sanitary +quarters, and yet in a recently erected hotel in the Étoile district +of Paris, such a cardinal requirement of health is ignored, the only +ventilation being a window that lights a cupboard for hot-water cans, +and that in turn is the sole ventilation of a bathroom, outside air +reaching neither the first nor the last! London, which before the +Great Fire was a city whose smells had become proverbial, is now the +cleanest and healthiest city in the world, its sanitary by-laws +leaving no loopholes for slipshod work; but Paris, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_90" id="page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> world centre +for the choicest and most exquisite of perfumery, has still much +progress to make before complete enjoyment of its cheerful, busy, +richly coloured street life can be experienced.</p> + +<p>Every one knows the difficulties of looking at and observing with +seeing eyes the everyday objects with which one is surrounded. A +little girl paying a visit to London from the country once pointed out +to the writer what a number of blind horses there were to be seen in +the streets, and he was obliged to confess that he had never noticed +any. Such limitations seem to debar one from making comparisons +between one's own form of urban civilisation and another, but allowing +for a certain lack of observation in the land of one's upbringing, +there are some features of French town life to which one may draw +attention.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="illus118" id="illus118"></a> +<img src="images/illus118a.jpg" width="386" height="550" alt="Cocher" /></div> +<p class="center"><b>A TYPICAL COCHER OF PARIS.</b></p> + +<p>Very early in his first experiences of Paris the visitor discovers +that the rule of the road is to keep to the right, and that there is +little certainty of what may happen where the great streams of traffic +meet. The policeman of Paris may hold up his baton, but it is not in +the least likely that a complete check to the traffic behind him will +result. After an exhaustive study of London<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_91" id="page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> methods the Parisian +authorities have come to the conclusion that it is the French +character which prevents their officers from carrying out the same +methods in Paris. Notwithstanding the quiet way in which the French +submit to certain laws which would not be tolerated in England, they +appear to resent control in this department of life. The police of +Britain are a bigger, more solid and imperturbable type than those of +their neighbours across the Channel, but an east-ender might make +impertinent comments if the policeman who held up his donkey-cart had +patent leather toe-caps to his boots—a by-no-means unusual sight in +Paris!</p> + +<p>The quaint, noisy omnibuses pulled by three horses abreast have been +replaced by heavy motor-propelled vehicles which still, however, +preserve the old features of first-and second-class sections, and the +standing accommodation for eight or ten persons. One mounts and +alights from the middle of the rear of the vehicle, the opening being +guarded by a chain controlled by the conductor—a method offering less +opportunity for dropping off before the 'bus has come to a standstill. +Although the motor-cab is present in considerable numbers, the +horse-drawn<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_92" id="page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> taxi still holds its own. It is cheap, and although, +through the close coupling of the front pair of wheels, it can be +overturned quite easily, it is a decidedly pleasant means of +conveyance, with less anxiety for the fare than the auto-taxi, but the +drivers seem to desire to out-do the chauffeurs in giving as much +thrill and sensation as skilful and often reckless driving will +provide.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>His hatred of the <i>bourgeois</i>—the "man in the street"—in spite +of, and indeed because of, his being a potential client, is +expressed at every yard. He constantly tries to run them down, +which makes strangers to Paris accuse the Paris cabman of driving +badly, while in point of fact he is not driving at all, but +playing with miraculous skill a game of his own.... The cabman's +wild career through the streets, the constant waving and slashing +of his pitiless whip, his madcap <i>hurtlements</i> and collisions, +the frenzied gesticulations which he exchanges with his "fare," +the panic-stricken flight of the agonized women whose lives he +has endangered; the ugly rushes which the public occasionally +make at him with a view to lynching him, the sprawlings and +fallings of his maddened, hysterical, starving horse, contribute +as much as anything to the spasmodic intensity, the electric +blue-fire diablerie, which are characteristic of the general +movement of Paris.<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> Rowland Strong, <i>The Sensations of Paris</i>.</p></div> + +<p>No doubt the hansom-cab—the gondola of London as some one termed +it—would have<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_93" id="page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> survived if it had accepted the limitations of the +taximeter, but refusing to adjust itself to circumstance its numbers +steadily diminished.</p> + +<p>Among the omnibuses and taxis of both types and the numerous private +motor-cars there passes at all times of the day a wonderful stream of +country vehicles. Vegetables are conspicuous, but these might be +overlooked, whereas the hay and straw carts assail the eye by their +immense proportions. They might almost be dubbed lazy men's loads, for +they have the appearance of moving hay-stacks and require the most +skilful manoeuvring in the midst of so much impetuously driven +traffic. These country carts almost give the streets of Paris a +provincial flavour, their horses and drivers being more essentially +rural than anything one sees in London, even in the neighbourhood of +Covent Garden. Riding quietly through the wheeled traffic the sight of +half a dozen members of the semi-military <i>Garde républicaine</i> is a +very familiar one. Their uniforms are so military in character that +visitors to Paris generally mistake them for soldiers.</p> + +<p>On the pavements of the streets a striking feature is the number of +women who go about<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_94" id="page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> their business without wearing hats. In the dinner +hour of the <i>midinette</i>, between twelve and one (from which she +derives her name), this is particularly noticeable, the streets and +public gardens overflowing with this hard-worked and underpaid class +of <i>Parisienne</i>. These girls and women are the "labour" of the +dressmaking establishments wherein is produced all that is most +admired by the well-dressed women of the world. The majority are very +underpaid, the young and inexperienced earning about 1 fr. 50 a day, +the <i>petites couturières</i>, as a rule, having a wage between 1 and 3 +francs a day, which does not go far in Paris, where the cost of living +is roughly double that of London. In the leading establishments the +<i>midinette</i> may earn from £35 to over £50 a year, but these are the +highly skilled <i>ouvrières</i> and do not represent a very large +proportion of the whole, whose incomes have been roughly estimated in +three divisions, each representing one-third of the whole number. The +most poorly paid third receives less than 5 francs a day, the +intermediate section attains the 5-franc level, and the most +prosperous third exceeds it to the amount already mentioned. A small +number of women become what is known<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_95" id="page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> as <i>premières</i> in famous +houses in the Rue de la Paix, the classic street from which the +fashions in woman's attire for the whole of the civilised world are +believed to emanate. These clever French women are endowed with a very +high degree of taste and skill, and their gifts reach a comparatively +high market value, bringing in an annual income of about £150.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="illus125" id="illus125"></a> +<img src="images/illus125a.jpg" width="420" height="550" alt="Autumn" /></div> +<p class="center"><b>AUTUMN IN THE CHAMPS ELYSÉES, PARIS.</b></p> + +<p>The work-girls who take sewing to their homes can earn from 75 +centimes to 2 francs a day. In her interesting book on Paris life +Mlle. de Pratz gives the following two budgets of <i>midinettes</i> +receiving £34 and £48 per annum:—</p> + +<div class="center"> +<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="5" summary="salary midinettes"> +<tr><td> </td> + <td> </td> + <th colspan="2">850 fr. per annum</th> + <th colspan="2">1200 fr. per annum</th></tr> +<tr><td> </td> + <td class="tdl"></td> + <th colspan="2">(£34).</th> + <th colspan="2">(£48).</th></tr> +<tr><td> </td> + <td class="tdl">Lodging</td> + <td class="tdl">100</td> + <td class="tdr"> £4</td> + <td class="tdl">150</td> + <td class="tdr"> £6</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td> + <td class="tdl">Food</td> + <td class="tdl">550</td> + <td class="tdr">£22</td> + <td class="tdl">750</td> + <td class="tdr">£30</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdl"></td> + <td class="tdl">Clothes</td> + <td class="tdl">100</td> + <td class="tdr"> £4</td> + <td class="tdl">150</td> + <td class="tdr"> £6</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdl"></td> + <td class="tdl">Heat, light, washing, and recreation</td> + <td class="tdl">100</td> + <td class="tdr"> £4</td> + <td class="tdl">150</td> + <td class="tdr"> £6</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdl"></td> + <td class="tdl"></td> + <td class="tdl">____</td> + <td class="tdl"></td> + <td class="tdl">____</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdl"></td> + <td class="tdl"></td> + <td class="tdl">850</td> + <td class="tdl"></td> + <td class="tdl">1200</td></tr> +</table></div> + +<p>The struggle to make ends meet on the smaller incomes is no doubt +great, for Paris, it must always be remembered, does not provide cheap +living for any one, not even in its poorest quarters. As a whole the +<i>midinette</i> class is badly fed and therefore delicate and too often a +prey to consumption. It does not produce a high average<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_96" id="page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> of +good-looking girls, for, being fond of amusement, late hours are +indulged in very generally, with the result that when the hour for +work arrives insufficient rest has been obtained. No doubt in so large +a class—they are computed to number about 110,000—there is a wide +range of character and morals, but there seems little doubt that, as a +class, the chastity of the most poorly paid does not rank high. In a +moral atmosphere such as that breathed by Parisians as a whole, it +would be almost impossible for girls subjected to so much temptation +on account of poverty to resist. And there is commonly no loss of +self-respect when the downward step has been taken, for even when a +girl convicted of such moral laxity is blamed, she merely replies with +calmness that it is quite natural.</p> + +<p>The Apache class lives in its own particular quarter of the city, and +its members are not easily recognisable by the general public. The +fraternity tattoo a certain arrangement of dots on the forearm by +which recognition is instantly obtained. These dots indicate the motto +of the Apache, <i>Mort aux vaches!</i> by which is intended their perpetual +warfare with the police. This strange class of anti-social beings is +recruited<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_97" id="page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> from many grades of Parisian life, all suffering from some +abnormal mental condition unless drawn into the grip of the strange +brotherhood by mischance when very young, as will sometimes happen +with girls at an immature age. In spite of the national training in +arms of the young men of France, this incredible class continues to +exist and to perpetrate outrage, murder, and robbery. How many of +these outlaws of society have experienced military service, and to +what extent it has modified or accentuated their abnormality, are +questions to which one would like to have answers.</p> + +<p>Probably the average Parisian of the middle classes is more aware of +the enormities of the <i>concierge</i> than of the Apache. The one is an +ever-present annoyance, and the other a thing read about in the +evening newspapers, but not encountered personally. Not so <i>La +Concierge</i>. This individual is employed by a landlord to act as his +watchdog in a block of flats. His duties are connected with showing +the flats to prospective tenants, collecting rent, keeping the +staircases clean, and delivering letters, the last being required +because the Paris postman does not climb the stairs in flat +buildings—all the letters<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_98" id="page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> for the building being delivered into the +hands of the <i>concierge</i>. It is this matter of one's letters which +gives the caretaker his power. He uses it to extort liberal gratuities +for every small service, as well as a handsome <i>étrenne</i> on New Year's +Day. It is the landlord who is at the fountain-head of the trouble. +How seldom is it otherwise! He pays the <i>concierge</i> an entirely +inadequate sum for his services, and as he has to supplement his +income in some other way he, as a rule, leaves his wife in charge for +a large part of the day and earns a supplemental sum elsewhere. The +Frenchwoman is too often inclined to avarice, and it seems to be the +exception to find in Paris a <i>concierge's</i> wife who will not levy a +form of blackmail on the tenants whose letters come into her hands. +She will make herself familiar with the character of the +correspondence that each tenant receives, and if insufficiently tipped +will not hesitate to hold up any letters that she believes are of +importance. The opening of letters with steam is not beneath the moral +plane of <i>Madame la Concierge</i>, and by various means she obtains such +an intimate knowledge of the concerns of each tenant that peace and +freedom from endless petty annoyances<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_99" id="page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> can only be bought at the price +which she deems satisfactory. Mlle. de Pratz gives a vigorous picture +of this bugbear of flat life in Paris, telling of the scandals that +are circulated concerning entirely innocent people who have failed in +the liberality of their <i>étrennes</i>, and how the residents of +ill-reputation buy immunity from these baneful attentions by their +liberal tips. How long, it may reasonably be asked, will Paris consent +to this iniquity, which could be remedied by the delivery of letters +direct to the door of each flat?</p> + +<p>It is often a matter of discussion how far the proverbial politeness +of the French goes beneath the surface. Generalising on such a topic +is hedged about with pitfalls, and the wary are disinclined to enter +such debatable ground. Compared to the British, whose +self-consciousness or shyness too often leads to awkwardness in those +moments of social intercourse when dexterity is needful, the French +are undoubtedly ages ahead. The right phrase exactly fitting the +requirements of the moment comes easily to their lips, and with it, as +a rule, the right expression and attitude; and yet one must travel +often in the underground railways of Paris to see a<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_100" id="page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> man give up his +seat to a woman who is standing. It is understood that a young man +cannot offer his place to a young woman, because it would suggest +<i>arrière-pensées</i>; but if this regrettable state of affairs does +exist, the restriction to such action does not apply when an old woman +carrying a bundle is standing beside a youth, who could not be accused +of anything but courtesy if he rose to save her the discomfort of +standing. But no one seems to think such action a requirement of +common politeness. While one finds great charm and civility among the +assistants in shops, which often add very much to the pleasure of +shopping, a disagreement on a business matter may be handled with much +less courtesy than in a British shop. A hard, almost angry expression +will come upon <i>madame</i> or <i>mademoiselle's</i> face, where over the +Channel one would meet a look of mere anxiety. But Paris shopkeepers +no doubt have a very cosmopolitan world to attend to, and they perhaps +encounter many rogues. There is unevenness in manners everywhere, and +while one class of workers may be soured by adverse conditions and +lose their natural charm in the economic struggle, another will expand +in the sun of easy and pleasant<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_101" id="page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> conditions. The Parisian horse +taxi-cab driver with his picturesque shiny tall hat and crimson +waistcoat is not conspicuous for his politeness unless his +<i>pour-boire</i> is very liberal, and the railway porter can easily be +insulting if he is dissatisfied with a tip. In London there is much +unmannerly pushing on to trams and omnibuses during the morning and +evening hours, restricted here and there by the method of the queue, +but in Paris all the chief stopping-places of the omnibuses are +provided with publicly exposed bunches of numbered tickets. On a wet +day a little girl or a cripple has merely to tear off one of these +slips of paper, and when the 'bus arrives the conductor takes up his +passengers in the numerical order of their tickets—all unfair +hustling being thus eliminated.</p> + +<p>The Parisian <i>bonne à tout faire</i> has been diminishing in numbers for +many years. In the thirty years between 1866 and 1896 the total was +nearly halved, leaving about 700,000 of this overworked and underpaid +class. The day of frilled caps has gone, and even a bib to the apron +is considered an out-of-date demand. It is no doubt the need for +stringent economy in the flats constituting the greatest part of home +life<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_102" id="page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> in Paris, which is responsible for the dislike to domestic +service on the part of the young women of the capital.</p> + +<p>An undesirable arrangement in flat buildings is the housing of all the +maids of the building in very small bedrooms on the top floor. In the +hours in which the girls are free from duty they are able to do more +or less as they please on their floor, and the result is that the +natural protection of the home is missing in the hours of rest and +leisure, when their need is most pressing. The average <i>bonne à tout +faire</i> is not disinclined to hard work, and she is clever and willing +to put herself to any trouble in an emergency or when there are guests +to be entertained. Boredom however, seems to settle upon her during +the normal routine of life, and her buoyant nature makes her inclined +to sing and talk loudly about her work. She is in a great proportion +of cases more intimate with the family than the servants in London +flats, and on this account her manner assumes a familiarity that in +the circumstances is fairly inevitable. A man visitor will commonly +raise his hat to the maid and call her "Mademoiselle."</p> + +<p>Probably the Paris maid-of-all-work is not<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_103" id="page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> worked any harder than the +single servant in London—the only real difference being the morning +marketing, which she regularly undertakes. There is attractiveness in +the life she sees in the streets and markets, and in addition there is +the tradesman's <i>sou</i> which finds its way into her pocket for every +<i>franc's</i> worth of goods purchased. If honest the girl's commission +begins and ends with the <i>sou du franc</i>, but if she is otherwise she +will make little alterations to the amounts in the household books, +and thus add by these petty but perpetual thefts a considerable sum to +her annual wages. How far such dishonesty is practised it is +impossible to say, and in the absence of any figures one may hope that +a few cases are the cause of much talk.</p> + +<p>Rents in Paris are high, and the tendency is to mount still higher. +Blocks of flats that have been let at a quite reasonable rent are +frequently "modernised" with a few superficial improvements and +renovations and relet at vastly increased prices. This is much the +case with those formerly let at from £60 to £100 a year, and the +restriction in the number of cheaper homes available for the poor has +been going on so steadily that the problem has become one which<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_104" id="page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> it +will be necessary for the State to tackle. The increase in rents has, +in some instances, been only 10 per cent, but in many instances it is +more than that, and here and there the upward bound has reached three +or four times that amount.</p> + +<p>One is sometimes puzzled to know how the Parisian struggles along, for +besides his ascending rent he has to pay much more for all household +stuff, whether it is curtains for his windows (which are taxed), a +cake of soap, or an enamelled iron can. No wonder that the best +sitting-room is kept shut up on certain days of the week, and that +polished wooden floors are so frequently seen in place of carpeted +ones.</p> + +<p>Tenants having large families are in a most awkward predicament, for +landlords on all hands discourage them, and if the Government wish to +go to one of the root causes of the diminishing birth-rate, they must +see to it that the housing of the middle and lower middle classes is a +less difficult and precarious feature of their struggle for existence. +Perhaps, now that the United States has set the example of lowering +and in some instances sweeping away the protective tariffs on certain +articles, France may follow suit. If the heavy duties on cotton goods +were removed<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_105" id="page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> there is no doubt whatever that the burden of +housekeeping in France would be instantly relieved. But the relief in +this respect would be trifling compared to that which would be felt in +the food bill. Tea costs from 4s. to 6s. per pound. Sugar averages +5d., rice 6d., and jam 10d. per pound. A remarkable instance of the +working of the tariff is given by Mlle. de Pratz in her interesting +work already quoted. "In a small village I know near Paris," she +writes, "thousands of pounds worth of fresh fruit and beet-sugar are +exported each year to England. But this village uses English-made jam +made from their own fruit and sugar, which, after being exported and +reimported, costs half the price of home-made French jam."</p> + +<p>As recently as March 1910 the protective system of 1892 was +strengthened, duties being raised all round. In support of the changes +it was argued that foreign countries were adopting similar measures, +and that fiscal and social legislation were laying new burdens upon +home industries. With Great Britain still maintaining its system of +free imports and the United States moving in the direction of Free +Trade, the first argument begins to lose its force.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_106" id="page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span></p> + +<p>These questions of rent and the cost of food do not, of course, press +upon the very considerable numbers of wealthy residents in Paris, but +they are not on this account less vital to the well-being of the +mighty cosmopolitan city. And if these features of urban existence +were overlooked in any book, however slight, which aims at putting +before the reader some salient aspects of French life, the blank would +leave much unexplained. Bearing in mind the expense of living in the +large towns a thousand little things are at once interpreted.</p> + +<p>It has been said of Paris that the population belongs less to France +than that of any other city in the country, for the proportion of +residents of other nationalities has gone up prodigiously in the last +half century. There is a glamour about the city which seems to act as +a magnet among all the civilised nations of the world. "The +aristocratic class," says Mr. E. H. Barker,<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> "nominally so much +associated with Paris life, is becoming less and less French. The old +Legitimist families, so intimately connected with the Faubourg St. +Germain under the Second Empire and a good while afterwards, who at<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_107" id="page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> +one time held so aloof even from the Bonapartist nobility, have +greatly changed their habits and views of social intercourse. The two +nobilities now intermarry without apparent hindrance on the score of +prejudices, and mingle without any suspicion of class divisions. But +all this society helps to form what is called <i>Le Tout Paris</i>, which +is almost as cosmopolitan as French."</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> <i>France of the French.</i></p></div> + +<p>When one stands before the great Byzantine Church of the <i>Sacré +Coeur</i>, that holds aloft its white domes against the sky up above +Paris on the hill of Montmartre, and looks down on the multiplicity of +roofs, there is always a film of smoke obscuring detail and softening +the outlines of some portions of the city. Yet when one walks through +the streets the clean creamy whiteness of the buildings would almost +give the stranger the impression that he had reached a city that had +no use for coal. Even in the older streets where renovation and +repairs are very infrequent there is never a suspicion of that uniform +greyness that the big cities of Britain produce. In all the great +boulevards in the whole of the Étoile district and wherever the houses +are well built and of modern construction, the bright clean stone-work +is so free from the effects<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_108" id="page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> of smoke that a Dutch housewife would +fail to see the need for external cleaning. The façades of nearly all +the houses in the newly reconstructed streets have a certain monotony +about them which has been inherited from the days of Hausmann's great +rebuilding. There is seldom any colour except in the windows of shops, +for the universal shutters, which in Italy are brilliantly painted +bright green, brown, blue, or even pink, are here uniformly white or +the palest of greys. So many of the new streets are, however, planted +with trees that the colour scheme resolves itself into green and pale +cream, except in winter, when the blackish stems of the trees add +nothing to the gaiety of the streets.</p> + +<p>Contrasting the streets in the neighbourhood of the Parc Monceaux with +those of Mayfair, London has the advantage for variety of +architectural styles and for complete changes of atmosphere; but for +spacious splendour, for what can properly be termed elegance, Paris +stands on a vastly higher plane. The dreary stucco pomposity of +Kensington and Belgravia fortunately cannot be discovered in Paris, +and it is well for the world that few cities indulged in this +architectural make-believe. While<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_109" id="page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> Belgravia can only keep her +self-respect by continually covering herself with fresh coats of +paint, the honest stone-work of Paris lets the years pass without +showing any appreciable signs of deterioration. Unlike London, where +there are seemingly endless streets of two and three storeys, Paris +has developed the tall building of five or six floors. The girdle of +fortification has no doubt directed this tendency. Where the streets +are not wide the lofty houses increase the effect of narrowness, and +many of the side streets in the St. Antoine district have, with their +innumerable shutters, a very close resemblance to some Italian cities.</p> + +<p>It is a mistake to suppose that the whole of Paris has been rebuilt; +for, apart from Notre Dame and such well-known Romanesque and Gothic +churches as St. Étienne-du-Mont, St. Germain, the tower of St. +Jacques, and the Sainte Chapelle, there are gabled houses of +considerable age in many of the by-ways. These are almost invariably +covered with a mask of stucco that does its best to hide up their +seventeenth-century or earlier characteristics. The beautiful and +dignified quadrangular building that is now called the Musée +Carnavalet, was the residence of<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_110" id="page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> the Marquise de Sévigné and was +built in the sixteenth century, although altered and added to in 1660. +Earlier than this is the fascinating Hôtel Cluny, a late Gothic house +built as the town residence of the abbots of Cluny. This building even +links up modern Paris with the Roman <i>Lutetia Parisiorum</i>. Another +interesting architectural survival is the Hôtel de Lauzan, a typical +residence of a great aristocrat of the days of <i>Le Roi soleil</i>. The +Palais du Louvre, dating in part from the days of François I., the +Tuileries, begun in 1564 and finished by Louis XIV., and the +Conciergerie wherein Marie Antoinette and Robespierre were confined, +are buildings of such world-renown that it is scarcely necessary to +mention them.</p> + +<p>In many ways Paris is similar in arrangement to London. It is divided +in two by its river, which cuts it from east to west, and the more +important half is on the northern bank. The wealthy quarters are on +the west and the poorer to the east. The great park, the Bois de +Boulogne, is also on the west side of the city. In Paris, the ancient +nucleus of the city was an island in the river, but London, although +it originated on a patch of land raised high above<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_111" id="page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> the surrounding +marshes, was never truly insulated. The Bastille, which may be +compared with the Tower of London, occupied a very similar position +not far from the north bank of the river and at the eastern side of +the mediaeval city. All the chief theatres and places of amusement are +on the north side of the river, and, as in London, so are all the +Royal Palaces; but here the parallels between the cities appear to +end, and one observes endless notable differences.</p> + +<p>The Seine divides the city much more fairly than does the Thames. +London has no opulent quarter south of its river, but Paris has the +Faubourg St. Germain, where her oldest and most distinguished +residents have their residences—houses possessing solemnly majestic +courtyards guarded by stupendous gateways. In the same quarter are +some of the more important foreign embassies. And the river of Paris +being scarcely half the width of that of London has made bridging +comparatively cheap and resulted in more than double the number of +such links. There is no marine flavour in Paris. No vessels of any +size reach it, and its banks are not therefore made ugly by tall and +hideous wharf buildings. It is a walled city, being encompassed by a<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_112" id="page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> +circle of very formidable fortifications, still capable of resisting +attack by modern military methods. Its broad avenues and boulevards, +tree-planted and perfectly straight, give the whole city an atmosphere +of spaciousness and of dignity that is lacking in London, if one +excepts the vicinity of Regent Street and Piccadilly, and a few other +west-end thoroughfares.</p> + +<p>Wherever one goes in France among the cities and larger towns the +ideas of big and eye-filling perspectives are aimed at by the +municipal authorities and architects. Lyons, Nice, Orleans, Tours, +Havre, Montpellier, Nîmes, Marseilles, to mention places that come +readily into the mind, have all achieved something of the Parisian +ideal, and even the more mediaeval towns, whenever an opportunity +presents itself, expand into tree-shaded boulevards of widths that +would make an English municipal councillor rub his eyes and gasp. It +is curious to witness how, in many of the older towns, the narrow and +cramped quarters, necessitated in the days when city walls existed, +are continuing their existence in wonderful contrast to spacious +suburbs. The glamour of these narrow ways is so entrancing to the +visitor and the lover of history that he trembles<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_113" id="page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> to think that a day +may come when all these romantic nuclei of French cities have been +rebuilt on the ideals of Hausmann.</p> + +<p>Wherever one wanders in France, even in mere villages, one can +scarcely find a place that has not at least one café with inviting +little tables on the pavement, giving that subtle Latin atmosphere so +refreshing to the Anglo-Saxon (who, however, would never dream of +wishing to imitate the custom in his own country), and so full of that +curiously fascinating Bohemianism which Mr. Locke has caught in the +pages of <i>The Beloved Vagabond</i>. Could Britain exchange the +public-house for the café half the temperance reformer's task would be +done, but one can scarcely contemplate without a shiver the prospect +of eating and drinking in the open air anywhere north of the Thames +for more than a few weeks of summer.</p> + +<hr class="l30" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_114" id="page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span></p> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h3> +<h4>OF RURAL LIFE IN FRANCE</h4> + +<p>Peasant ownership of land does not always imply prosperity, and +because such a vast majority of French peasants possess their own few +acres, one must not jump to the conclusion that all these little +farmers live comfortable and prosperous lives. In very large tracts of +what has so often been called "the most fertile country in Europe,"<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> +the peasant is only able to tear from the soil he owns the barest +existence. By unremitting toil he makes his land produce enough to +give him and his family a diet mainly composed of bread and +vegetables. Meat, coffee, and wine come under the heading of luxuries, +and so much that is nutritious is missing from the normal dietary that +it would seem as though the minimum requirements of health were not<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_115" id="page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> +met. Long hours of steady toil, and food which the Parisian would +consider insufficient to make life tolerable, is the lot of the +peasant proprietors of France wherever the soil is ungenerous or +distance from railways and markets keeps prices low.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> The same claim is frequently made for England.</p></div> + +<p>In the unprofitable soils of the Cevennes, and in certain parts of the +province of Corrèze, the peasants can cultivate little besides +buckwheat and potatoes. The latter, with chestnuts which are also +produced in these mountainous districts, form the staple food of the +agricultural population, and their drink is water, which they +sometimes enliven with the berries of the juniper. This is the simple +and hard-working life of those whose lot is cast in what may be called +the stony places. Quite different are the conditions of life in +Normandy or the wonderfully fertile plain of La Beauce, where is grown +the greatest part of the wheat produced in France. Here the generous +return for the labour expended on the soil brings such prosperity to +the peasant owner that he often turns his eyes to higher rungs in the +social ladder than that of husbandry, offering his land for sale, and +so giving opportunities for the capitalist to invest in a profitable +industry.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_116" id="page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span></p> + +<p>Success may be said to bring with it dangers to which the peasant of +the poorer soils is not subjected. Writing of the farmers of La Beauce +and of parts of Normandy, Mr. Barker says: "Too often are they found +to be high feeders, copious drinkers, keenly, if not sordidly, +acquisitive, unimaginative, and coarse in their ideas and tastes. +Material prosperity, when its effects are not corrected by mental, and +especially by moral, culture, has an almost fatal tendency to develop +habits that are degrading and qualities that repel.... It is to be +noted as a social symptom that among the class of prosperous +agriculturalists in France, the birth-rate is exceptionally low."</p> + +<p>Of the 17,000,000 of the population who are more or less dependent +upon agriculture for their livelihood, only about 6,500,000 actually +work on the soil. Those who own holdings of less than twenty-five +acres number nearly 3,000,000, and the total area of land held in this +way is something between 15 and 20 per cent of the whole cultivated +area. About three-quarters of a million persons possess the balance. +The sizes of the holdings, of course, vary enormously. Besides those +who own their land, there is the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_117" id="page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> large class of <i>métayers</i>, who are +part of a complicated system which persists in spite of its +theoretical impossibility of smooth working. Where a landowner is a +<i>gentilhomme campagnard</i>, he will in most cases have a few farms +attached to his residence, which is always <i>le château</i> to the +peasant, however difficult to discover its old-time manorial +splendours may have become. The farmers who work for the landowner are +not rent-payers: they merely share with him in the results of their +labour, a system of co-operation which results in very close relations +between landlord and farmer. No hard and fast rules are followed as to +the proportion of the crops which falls to the landlord, or what share +he has of the cattle. It is common for him to furnish draught animals +as well as seed and implements. This system is limited very much to +those districts where agriculture has stood still for a very long +period, such as the Limousin, and the total of the land worked on the +<i>métayage</i> system is only 7 per cent of the whole of the cultivated +land.</p> + +<p>To this day the methods of husbandry maintained in the less accessible +departments are scarcely ahead of the Romans, and on the slopes<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_118" id="page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> of +the Pyrenees one may still see the flail in use for threshing +purposes, while the plough with a wooden share, which seems likely to +hold its own for a long time to come in certain of the mountainous +districts, is the same as those depicted by prehistoric sculptors high +on the rock-faces of Monte Bego on the Franco-Italian frontier.</p> + +<p>In the greatest part of France oxen are used for draught purposes, and +these picturesque, cream-coloured beasts, yoked to curious big-wheeled +country carts, are always an added charm to the country road. Whether +they are seen patiently plodding along a white and dusty perspective +of tree-bordered road, or are standing quietly in a farmyard with +lowered heads while the queer tumbril behind them is being loaded, +they have picture-making qualities which the horse lacks.</p> + +<p>The carts are wonderfully primitive, two wheels being favoured for +purposes which in England are always considered to require four. In +fact the four-wheeled cart is difficult to discover anywhere in rural +France. Even the giant tuns containing the cider they brew in +Normandy, or those that are filled with wine in the Midi and other +grape-producing districts of the land, are<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_119" id="page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> borne on two great wheels, +and a pair of clumsy poles that, when horses are used, are tapered +down to form shafts.</p> + +<p>Farms differ in character and attractiveness according to local +conditions in every country, but France shows an astonishing range of +styles. In the north one finds the timber-framed barn and outhouse +delightfully prevalent, and in Normandy the farm often possesses the +character of those to be seen in Kent and Sussex, although south of +the Channel the compact, rectangular arrangement of barns is perhaps +more noticeable than to the north. Between the Seine and the Loire, +the timber-framed structures are very extensively replaced by those of +stone; but although lacking in the interest of detail, their colour is +exceedingly rich, for the thatched roofs are very frequently thick +with velvety moss, and the cream-coloured walls are adorned by patches +of orange and silvery-grey lichen. Wooden windmills are conspicuous on +the shallow undulations of the plain of La Beauce. Where roofs are +tiled, they too have become green with moss, giving a wonderful +mellowness to the groups of buildings. Farther south the farms are +still of stone, and some of them have an atmosphere<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_120" id="page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> of romance about +them in their circular towers with high conical roofs, and with even +the added picturesqueness of a turret or two.</p> + +<p>South of Poitiers the roofs of nearly all the houses take on the low +pitch and the curved tile which belong to the whole of the southern +zone of the country, and prevent one from noticing any marked +architectural change in crossing the frontiers into Spain or Italy.</p> + +<p>Taken as a whole, the villages are without any of the tidy charm to be +found in nearly every part of England. A hamlet gives the road that +passes through it the appearance of a farmyard. Hay, straw, and manure +are allowed to accumulate to such an extent that in the twilight a +stranger might think he had inadvertently left the road and strayed +into a farm. And whereas in England the rural hamlet does not usually +crowd up to the thoroughfare, it is often very much the reverse in +France. The writer has traversed thousands of miles of French roads, +has wandered with a bicycle in the byways, but has not yet seen a +village green with a pond and ducks, or even a churchyard with a +suspicion of that garden-like finish which makes England unique. The +velvety turf that grows on Britain's<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_121" id="page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> sheep-cropped commons does not +exist outside that land, and one never even expects to find the French +wayside relieved by such features.</p> + +<p>Economy in using every inch of soil, in avoiding the waste of sunshine +on arable lands, and in preventing the waste of timber caused by +letting trees grow untrimmed, has given the French landscape its most +characteristic features. Hedges which the Englishman has learnt to +love from his childhood, first because of the wild life they shelter +and the blackberries and nuts they provide, and later on account of +the beauty they add to every cultivated landscape, are an exceptional +feature in France. In immense areas such a dividing line is never to +be seen, and saving perhaps for a small tree that is scarcely more +than an overgrown bush, there is little to break the horizon line +except the tall poplars, birches, and other trees that line the main +roads. These are not allowed to live idle, ornamental lives: they, +like the toiling peasant, must work for their living by providing as +many branches as possible for the periodical lopping. In this way wood +for the oven and for the kitchen fire is supplied in nearly every +department of the country.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_122" id="page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span></p> + +<p>In the fat and prosperous districts of Normandy, where rich grazing +lands produce the butter for which the province is famed, hedges are +as common as in England, and where mop-headed trees are not in sight, +it is not easy to notice any marked difference between the two +countries.</p> + +<p>Brittany is the province where the wayside cross is most in evidence, +but in every part of the country these symbols of the Christian faith +are to be found. Outside Brittany it is rare to-day to see any one +taking any notice of them, and no doubt the spread of education and +the consequent shrinking of the superstitions of the peasantry, make +the crucifix less and less a need on dark and misty nights. Offerings +of wild flowers are still tied to the shaft of the wayside cross, +where they rapidly turn brown, and resemble a handful of hay. The +well-head is a feature of the farm and cottage which varies in every +part of the land. It is frequently a picturesque object, having in +many localities a wrought-iron framework for supporting the +pulley-wheel.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="illus155" id="illus155"></a> +<img src="images/illus155a.jpg" width="345" height="550" alt="Calvaire" /></div> +<p class="center"><b>A BRETON CALVAIRE. THE ORATORY OF JACQUES CARTIER.</b></p> + +<p>Horses and mules are seldom to be seen without some touch of colour or +curious detail in their harness. It may be a piece of sheep-skin dyed +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_123" id="page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span>blue and fixed to the top of the collar, or that part of the harness +will be of wood, quaintly devised, and studded with brass nails and +other ornament. Red woollen tassels are much in favour in some +districts.</p> + +<p>The breeding of horses in great numbers takes place in the north coast +regions of Brittany, Normandy, and between the mouth of the Seine and +the Belgian frontier. Using cattle for draught purposes so very +extensively no doubt keeps down the number of the horses in the +country, but in 1905 the total had risen to considerably over three +millions. Tarbes, a town near the Pyrenees, gives its name to the +Tarbais breed of light cavalry and saddle-horses, and the chief +northern classes are the Percheron, the Boulonnais for heavy draught +work, and the Anglo-Norman for heavy cavalry and light draught +purposes. Cattle, pigs, and asses have been increasing in numbers in +recent years, but sheep and lambs have shown a very decided falling +off, 22½ millions in 1885 having dropped to 17¾ in 1905. Sheep +are raised on all the poorer grazing lands of the Alps, the Jura, the +Vosges, the Cevennes, and the Pyrenees, and also on the sandy district +of Les Landes on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_124" id="page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> Bay of Biscay. South-western France in general, +and the plain of Toulouse in particular, produce a fine class of +draught oxen. In the northern districts they are stall-fed on the +waste material of the beet-sugar and oil-works, and of the +distilleries.</p> + +<p>It is a popular error to imagine that the State owns all the forests +of France and even the wayside trees. This is due no doubt to the fact +that certain governmental restrictions do apply to the owners of +growing timber. The total of forest land amounts to only 36,700 square +miles, or about 18 per cent of the whole country, and of this about a +third belongs to the State or the communes. Fontainebleau has 66 +square miles of forest, but although the best known, it is not by any +means the largest, the Forêt d'Orleans having an area of 145 square +miles. Much planting of pines has taken place in Les Landes, and that +marshy district, famed for its shepherds who use stilts for crossing +the wet places and water-courses, has by this means altered its +character very considerably. Reafforestation is taking place on the +slopes of the Pyrenees and the Alps which have been laid bare by the +woodman's axe.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_125" id="page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span></p> + +<p>Standing quite apart from the rest of the agriculture of the country +is the wine-grower. His industry requires very specialised knowledge, +and his dangers and difficulties are in some ways greater than those +of the farmer. It may be the terrible insect called the phylloxera +that destroys the growth of the vine, it may be mildew, or it may be +over-production, but any of these troubles bear hardly upon the +vine-grower, who is, broadly speaking, a humble type of peasant with +very little capital. Before the war with Germany these people were a +fairly prosperous and contented class, but since that time formidable +troubles have smitten them very heavily. The awful visitation of the +phylloxera is said to have cost as much as the war indemnity paid to +Germany, <i>i.e.</i> £200,000,000, and when it was discovered that certain +American vines were not subjected to the ravages of the pest, and +feverish planting had established the new varieties in the land, a new +trouble, in the form of over-production, presented itself to the +unfortunate growers. More land had been converted into vineyards than +had ever produced such crops in the past, and a large production of +wine in Algeria so lowered prices that in 1907 affairs in the Midi<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_126" id="page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> +reached a critical state. Riots occurred at Béziers and Narbonne, +incendiarism and pillage took place at Épernay and Ay, and for a time +the Government found itself confronted with an infuriated mass of +peasants, who blamed it for the disastrously low prices then +prevailing. They also attributed the stagnation in the trade to the +fraudulent methods of sale that had become common. They were not very +far from the truth in stating that they did not reap so much advantage +as those who grew cereals and beetroot, while paying for the +protective policy in the high prices of food and all other +commodities.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="illus160" id="illus160"></a> +<img src="images/illus160a.jpg" width="359" height="550" alt="Child" /></div> +<p class="center"><b>A PEASANT CHILD OF NORMANDY.</b></p> + +<p>The peasant might almost be said to wear a uniform, so universal in +France is the soft black felt hat and the dark-blue cotton smock in +which he appears in the market-place. In this garb one sees a wide +variety of national types, from the English-looking men of Normandy to +the dark-complexioned, black-haired, and lithe race of the south. +Often the latter have an almost wild appearance, terrifying to the +British or American girl who strays any distance from the modern types +of palatial hotel which can now be found in regions of medicinal +springs in the Pyrenees. He is, however, a much less formidable<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_127" id="page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> +person when he enters into conversation, and, taken as a whole, the +agriculturalist is a very pleasant-mannered, hospitable, and dignified +person. He possesses in a marked degree the domestic virtues, the +level-headed shrewdness, the patience, thrift, and foresight which +give steadiness to his nation. In small towns in the south he can be a +person of immense sociality. The <i>place</i> during the warmer months of +the year, after the work of the day is done, buzzes with conversation, +the steady hum of which would puzzle a stranger until he saw its +cause. In the strange little walled town of Aigues-Mortes, the entire +male population seems to congregate in the central square, and there +passes the evening at the tables of the three or four cafés. So much +conversation as that indulged in by these peasants of the Rhone delta +would seem sufficient to produce solutions for all the problems of the +wine industry, as well as those of rural populations in general.</p> + +<p>Care for the future makes the peasant toil and save for his children. +Husband and wife will keep their children's future in view in a most +self-effacing fashion, and if their shrewdness in business may go +rather beyond the mark, it is in<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_128" id="page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> the interests of their family that +they are working. The reward is too often that which comes to the +old—the sense of being a burden to their offspring when rheumatism +and kindred ills have robbed them of further capability for toil.</p> + +<p>In the country districts that are out of touch with modern influence, +the peasant keeps his womenkind in a state of subservience that is +almost mediaeval, and the custom of keeping the wife and daughters +standing while the father and sons are at meals is still said to be +maintained in some parts of the country.<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> The peasant is often a +tyrant in his family. In some districts he is in the habit of calling +his sons and daughters "my sons and the creatures." He is sometimes +quite without any interest in politics. The various types are, +however, so marked that the impossibility of labelling the peasantry +of such a large slice of Europe with any one set of characteristics is +obvious. By reading Zola or George Sand, one gets an insight into the +peasant life which little else can give.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> Hannah Lynch, <i>French Life in Town and Country</i>.</p></div> + +<p>One of George Sand's descriptions of the peasantry of the Cevennes is +vigorous and vivid. She writes of it as a race "meagre, gloomy,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_129" id="page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> +rough, and angular in its forms and in its instincts. At the tavern +every one has his knife in his belt, and he drives the point into the +lower face of the table, between his legs; after that they talk, they +drink, they contradict one another, they become excited, and they +fight. The houses are of an incredible dirtiness. The ceiling, made up +of a number of strips of wood, serves as a receptacle for all their +food and for all their rags. Alongside with their faults I cannot but +recognise some great qualities. They are honest and proud. There is +nothing servile in the manner in which they receive you, with an air +of frankness and genuine hospitality. In their innermost soul they +partake of the beauties and the asperities of their climate and their +soil. The women have all an air of cordiality and daring. I hold them +to be good at heart, but violent in character. They do not lack beauty +so much as charm. Their heads, capped with a little hat of black felt, +decked out with jet and feathers, give to them, when young, a certain +fascination, and in old age a look of dignified austerity. But it is +all too masculine, and the lack of cleanliness makes their toilette +disagreeable. It is an exhibition of discoloured rags above legs long +and<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_130" id="page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> stained with mud, that makes one totally disregard their +jewellery of gold, and even the rock crystals about their necks." This +description is growing out of date in regard to the hats and knives, +but the picturesque white cap, with its broad band of brightly +coloured ribbon, worn by nearly all the women over a certain age, +which George Sand does not mention, seems likely to persist.</p> + +<p>The peasant women of France are too often extremely plain and built on +clumsy lines. Exceptional districts, such as Arles and other parts of +Provence, may produce beautiful types, but the average is not +pleasing. This, at least, is the consensus of opinion of those who +profess to know France well. The writer would not venture on such a +statement on his own authority, although his knowledge of a very +considerable number of the departments entirely endorses their +opinion. But the more one knows of provincial France the more prepared +does one become for surprises, and the less ready to generalise.</p> + +<p>Between the educated and uneducated there is less of a gulf than in +other countries, on account of the very high average of good manners +to be found throughout the whole country, and because<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_131" id="page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> of the quick +intelligence that is common to the whole people. The almost pathetic +awkwardness of the old-fashioned English hodge scarcely exists in +France.</p> + +<p>Superstitions among the peasantry are steadily dying out, even in +Brittany. The rising tide of knowledge is finding its way into every +creek and inlet, and is steadily submerging beliefs in supernatural +influences. At one time the rustics lived in the greatest fear of a +rain-producing demon who was called the <i>Aversier</i>, but the science of +meteorology has reduced his personality to a condition as nebulous as +the clouds that heralded his approach.</p> + +<p>Until quite recent times a very large proportion of the medical work +in rural districts was carried out by the nuns of the numerous +convents, and the preference for the free services of the kindly +Sisters, however limited their knowledge, to those of the fully +qualified doctor of the locality is easily explained. The rural +practitioner's usual fee has only lately been raised from two francs +to three, but on driving any distance an additional charge of one +franc for every <i>kilomètre</i> is made. The fee of the town doctor, if he +is a general practitioner with a good practice, is from<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_132" id="page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> five to ten +francs a visit. If he belongs to the type of second-class specialist +not common in England but numerous in the cities of France, his fee is +from ten to twenty francs a visit. The first-class specialist charges +fifty francs, and sometimes seventy-five francs, for a visit. In the +country the medical man is often content with a bicycle as the means +of reaching his patients, for his income is not very often above £500 +a year. No doubt the suppression of the monastic orders in France has +improved the position of the doctors, who found few patients in +certain parts of the country, especially the north-west, where the +fervour of religious belief inclined the rustic to put the most +complete faith in the prescriptions of the nuns. No doubt their ample +experience in the treatment of small ailments (which the average +practitioner so often finds tiresome) gave the Sisters considerable +success in their medical work. Women doctors in every country could +enormously supplement the work of the men, and perhaps the day will +come when the general practitioner has a lady assistant to look after +the minor ailments which so often become serious through lack of +sufficient attention. How relieved would numbers of men doctors be if +they<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_133" id="page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> could turn over to a lady assistant the visiting of all cases of +chronic colds, dyspepsia, and the like!</p> + +<p>Whole books have been devoted to the <i>château</i> life of France, and it +would be easy to overstep the limits of this chapter in writing on +this interesting subject. The wayfarer in France who knows nothing, or +next to nothing, of the interiors of the large houses he sees +scattered over the country would probably say that they all looked as +though shut up and for sale. He sees in his mind the weed-grown main +avenue and the ill-kept pathways. Visions come to him of lawns that +have grown into hay-fields, of formal gardens converted into vegetable +gardens, of terrace balustrades falling into decay, of walls whose +plaster has fallen away in patches like those of a Venetian <i>palazzo</i>, +of closed shutters, and a look of splendours that have passed. Those +who have seen a little more than the mere outsides of the great houses +will tell of occupants whose incomes have shrunk to such small sums +that they are reduced to living in a few rooms of their ancestral +homes, with insufficient servants to do more than keep the place +habitable, and to maintain the output of the kitchen garden and<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_134" id="page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> a few +flowers for the house. That there are many such <i>châteaux</i> is +perfectly true. The occupants are mainly anti-Republican in their +views. They belong to other days, and are too proud to enter any +profession which would bring them into jarring contact with the big +majority who are without Royalist leanings. This obliges them to live +in threadbare simplicity on the small income their shrunken fortunes +provide. Two or three old servants, a few dogs, a horse or two, and a +few other luxuries surround them. Formal visits at long intervals are +paid to neighbours, who often live at some distance. The <i>curé</i> and +perchance the doctor are intimate visitors; there may be a few +relations who come for visits, but this is often the whole of the +social intercourse of M. and Mme. X., who reside in a portion of a +<i>château</i> of the time of Louis XV. which stands surrounded by a large +tract of woodland. But ample incomes, and here and there great wealth, +maintain many of the great houses of the countryside with modern +luxury in every department. Changes have come in the <i>châteaux</i> in +recent years which have made breaches in the wall of old-fashioned +formality that was so universal until quite lately. Instead of sweet +wine<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_135" id="page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> and little hard sponge fingers, tea and <i>brioches</i> appear at <i>le +five o'clock</i>, as it is often called. Where the old-fashioned ideas of +faithful servants will allow it, and the masters and mistresses have +felt the influences that flow from Paris, changes in furnishing appear +in the abandonment of the bareness and austerity of the +reception-rooms. Where such influences have not penetrated, one may be +quite sure to find all the furniture in the rooms ranged against the +walls, and a complete absence of flowers, books, or the smaller odds +and ends of convenience or ornament common to most Anglo-Saxon homes. +There may be fine tapestries, numerous family portraits and other +pictures, elaborate pieces of Boule and ormolu furniture, ornate +clocks, and many other beautiful objects, but restraint and constraint +are the prevalent notes. Bare polished floors and staircases with only +small mats or rugs here and there remain characteristic of the +<i>château</i> interior. Too often there is no more individuality in a +house than would exist were it thrown open to the public as a +show-place or museum.</p> + +<p>In many of the <i>châteaux</i> of the wealthy the charm of what is +essentially French is linked with modifications in the directions of +Anglo-Saxon<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_136" id="page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> convenience and comfort, producing much the same result +as is found in those English homes wherein an affection for a Louis +XV. atmosphere has introduced the tall silken or tapestried panels and +the stilted and elaborate furniture of the eighteenth century.</p> + +<p>Surrounded by extensive forests containing wonderful green +perspectives, the <i>château</i> is often quite cut off from the sights and +sounds of the outer world. When the time of the <i>chasse</i> comes round, +the woods may perhaps be enlivened by visions of the <i>chasseurs</i> in +pink or green coats, three-cornered hats, and tall boots, and the +sound of their big circular horns may be heard. The silence is more +effectually broken when shooting parties meet and the <i>battue</i> takes +place.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="illus173" id="illus173"></a> +<img src="images/illus173a.jpg" width="406" height="550" alt="Chartres" /></div> +<p class="center"><b>THE CATHEDRAL AND PART OF THE OLD CITY OF CHARTRES.</b></p> + +<p>Motor-cars have made neighbours more accessible, and changes are +taking place on this account. In pre-motor days the mistress of a +<i>château</i> was often quite unprepared for visitors. Madame Waddington, +the American wife of a senator, who has put some of her experiences of +social intercourse in the country into a charming volume,<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> +describes a visit paid to a <i>château</i> that was half manor, half farm.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_137" id="page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span></p> +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>We drove into a large courtyard, or rather farmyard, quite +deserted; no one visible anywhere; the door of the house was +open, but there was no bell nor apparently any means of +communicating with any one. Hubert cracked his whip noisily +several times without any result, and we were just wondering what +we should do (perhaps put our cards under a stone on the steps) +when a man appeared, said Mme. B. was at home, but she was in the +stable looking after a sick cow—he would go and tell her we were +there. In a few minutes she appeared, attired in a short, +rusty-black skirt, sabots on her feet, and a black woollen shawl +over her head and shoulders. She seemed quite pleased to see us, +was not at all put out at being caught in such very simple +attire, begged us to come in, and ushered us through a long, +narrow hall and several cold, comfortless rooms, the shutters not +open, and no fires anywhere, into her bedroom. All the +furniture—chairs, tables, and bed—was covered with linen. She +explained that it was her <i>lessive</i> (general wash) she had just +made, that all the linen was <i>dry</i>, but she had not had time to +put it away, and she called a maid, and they cleared off two +chairs—she sat on the bed. It was frightfully cold. We were +thankful we had kept our wraps on. She said she supposed we would +like a fire after our long cold drive, and rang for a man to +bring some wood. He (in his shirt-sleeves) appeared with two or +three logs of wood, and was preparing to make a fire with them +<i>all</i>, but she stopped him, said one log was enough, the ladies +were not going to stay long; so, naturally, we had no fire and +clouds of smoke. She was very talkative, never stopped, told us +all about her servants, her husband's political campaigns.... She +asked a great many questions, answering them all herself; then +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_138" id="page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span>said, 'I don't offer you any tea, as I know you always go back +to have your tea at home, and I am quite sure you don't want any +wine.'</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> <i>Château and Country Life in France</i>, Mary K. +Waddington, 1908.</p></div> + +<p>Washing days only occur in large French households once a quarter, or +at the most monthly, so when the moment arrives the whole +establishment is in a ferment. An orgy of soap-suds takes place, and +coaling ship in the Navy is scarcely more disturbing to the even flow +of daily affairs.</p> + +<p>Conversation, where people seldom paid a visit to Paris, ran always in +a groove in the <i>châteaux</i> and lesser houses described by the young +American. The subjects were the woods, the hunting, the schoolmaster, +the <i>curé</i>, local gossip, and much about the iniquities of the +Republic.</p> + +<p><i>Château</i> life is too frequently dull. It as often as not is as out of +touch with the realities of modern life as many English country houses +where there are no young folk, and where there is no active connection +with London and the busy world. The hunting season and shooting +parties bring life and activity for a time, but "twice-told tales of +foxes killed" do not carry any fertilising intellectual ideas into the +byways of upper-class life. An excess of formality pervades<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_139" id="page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> every +portion of the day, from the conversation on a new novel to the +afternoon drive or the solemn game of <i>bézique</i> after dinner. There is +a tendency for politics to bulk largely in conversation, even among +women, while among men heat is easily generated on this topic, the +French being naturally bellicose. Subjects outside France, and matters +that do not directly concern the French, rarely come up for +discussion, unless the occupants of the <i>château</i> are <i>intellectuels</i>. +It is mainly due to political controversy that duels arise, nearly all +the recent encounters having been between journalists and politicians. +At the present day, honour is commonly satisfied when the first blood +has been drawn, and when pistols are used, hits are infrequent. To +show how lightly he took the matter, Ste. Beuve fought under an +umbrella. Thiers fought a duel, and so also did the elder Dumas, +Lamartine, Veuillot, Rochefort, and Boulanger. Even to-day (1913) +septuagenarian generals are not too old to challenge one another, +General Bosc (seventy-two) having sent his second to demand +satisfaction of General Florentin (seventy-seven) for an unfounded +charge of encouraging the use of illegal badges in societies formed +for the training of<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_140" id="page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> boys in military duties! It is astonishing that +the French should maintain duelling when it is well known how opposed +was Napoleon to the absurd practice. "Bon duelliste mauvais soldat," +he used to say, and when challenged by the King of Sweden, his reply +was that he would order a fencing-master to attend him as +plenipotentiary. But the French have a keen sense of personal honour, +and one remembers that Montaigne said, "Put three Frenchmen together +on the plains of Libya, and they will not be a month in company +without scratching each other's eyes out."</p> + +<p>A poor man can hardly afford the luxury of a duel, for in Paris it +costs about 300 francs, and if one has no friend who is a doctor +willing to attend without a fee, the disbursements will even exceed +this amount! The first expenses are the taxis for your seconds when +they go to meet the other fellow's supporters. These meetings take +place at cafés, and their bills have to be met by the duellists. +Pistols, if they are used, are hired from Gastine Renette, who +inflicts a scorching charge of about 100 francs for the loan. If +swords are used they are bought, and the outlay is less, but not every +one who is challenged<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_141" id="page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> is sufficiently expert to run the chances of +using white weapons. Further expenses are incurred in the hiring of a +vehicle in which to drive to the spot selected for the honourable +encounter. The drive is punctuated by halts for refreshment for the +doctor and the seconds, as well as the coachman. When the conflict has +taken place there is often much more than "coffee for one" to be paid +for by the duellist. Not only does custom require him to invite doctor +and seconds to lunch at an expensive restaurant, but if the duel has +re-established amicable relations, there is a double party to be +entertained. To find a quiet and suitable spot for the meeting is +often exceedingly difficult, the <i>gendarmerie</i> in such convenient +places as the Meudon Woods being perpetually on the alert, and having +offered rewards to any who warned them of the arrival of "a double set +of four serious-looking gentlemen in black frock-coats arriving in +landaus, with one gentleman in each set with his <i>gueule de travers</i>."</p> + +<p>Mr. Robert Sherard has described the preliminaries to a duel forced +upon him a few years ago.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_142" id="page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>"... My fencing had grown very rusty," he wrote, "so ... I went +to a fencing school to be coached. The master ... had the +reputation of being able to teach a man in two lessons how not to +get killed in a sword duel. I was not anxious to get killed, so I +availed myself of his instructions. These mainly consisted in +showing one how to hold one's point always towards one's +adversary with extended arm. When a man so holds his weapon it +is, it appears, impossible for the other man to wound him. At the +same time it is said to be advisable to develop great suppleness +of leg and ankle so as to be able to leap back, still holding +one's point extended, in the event of the other man's rushing +forward with such impetuosity as possibly to break down one's +guard. It was further explained to me, that if whilst leaping +back I could also dig forward with my sword, most satisfactory +results might be hoped for (for me, <i>not</i> for the other man)."</p> +</div> + +<p>It was disappointing to Mr. Sherard, after gaining much proficiency in +leaping backwards while digging forward with his point, to find that +his antagonist would only fight with pistols.</p> + +<hr class="l30" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_143" id="page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span></p> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h3> +<h4>THE RIVERS OF FRANCE</h4> + +<p>Broadly speaking, one half of France is mountainous, and the other +flat or undulating. All the mountains are on the eastern half, the +high grounds of Normandy and Brittany being scarcely more than hills. +The whole country might, for some purposes, be considered as an +inclined plane, for in travelling from the Alps on the eastern +frontiers to the Atlantic coast the altitudes (omitting the valley of +the Rhone) are constantly decreasing. Thus, with the exception of the +Rhone, which carries the snow-waters of the Bernese and Pennine Alps, +the Vosges and the Jura chains, into the Mediterranean, the waters of +nearly the whole of the more habitable three-quarters of the country +drain westwards to the Bay of Biscay and the English Channel. Most of +this immense reticulation of river and stream<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_144" id="page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> is included in the +three great systems of the Seine, the Loire, and the Garonne. The +Adour drains the triangle between the Pyrenees and the Garonne; the +Charente waters the Plain of Poitou between the Garonne and the Loire, +but both are of small account in comparison to the vast areas included +in the basins of the great rivers.</p> + +<p>Both the Rhone and the Garonne are of foreign birth, the first +beginning life at the foot of the great Rhone Glacier in Switzerland, +feeding on her snows and glaciers all the year round, and the second +rising in a Spanish valley of the Pyrenees.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="illus182" id="illus182"></a> +<img src="images/illus182a.jpg" width="600" height="411" alt="Amboise" /></div> +<p class="center"><b>THE CHÂTEAU OF AMBOISE ON THE LOIRE.</b></p> + +<p>The Loire, the longest of her rivers, is, however, entirely a +possession of France. It is, like the Seine, a cause of very much +anxiety on account of its inconstancy. At one season of the year it +inundates large areas with its superabundance, and at another it is +capable of running so low that only mere streams flow between the +sand-banks. So unfortunately situated is the city of Tours in times of +flood that it has found it necessary to surround itself with a +protective dyke. The chief cause of sudden inundations is when the +flood-waters of two or three tributaries <span class="pagenum"><a name="page_145" id="page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span>conspire to pour in their +contributions to the main channel simultaneously, and only when these +headstrong young things are held in check will there be any hope of a +fairly regular level of water in the main course. Two centuries ago +(1711) the need for curbing the flood-waters was recognised so clearly +that a dam was constructed at Pinay, a village 18 miles above Roanne. +It held up 350 to 450 million cubic feet of water, and has been very +successful in maintaining the supply of water in the river-bed during +seasons of drought, as well as checking the violence of the floods. In +recent times three other dams have been built, two of them near the +busy industrial centre of St. Étienne, but until several others have +been constructed the flood-waters cannot be held in check.</p> + +<p>Its immense length of 625 miles takes the Loire through ten +departments, but the changes of scenery are not so remarkable as those +of the Rhone. The source is in the Cevennes, about 4500 feet above +sea-level, on the east side of the Gerbier de Jonc, and almost in +sight of the Rhone. Through Haute Loire in the marvellously +picturesque region of dead volcanoes near Le Puy-en-Velay it takes its +course northwards, flowing at<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_146" id="page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> the foot of basaltic cliffs and +chestnut-clad slopes. On commanding spurs ruined castles are perched +in most romantic fashion, and if it were not for their painful +inaccessibility, the demand among the wealthy for these little +strongholds of the Middle Ages would run up their value to astonishing +figures.</p> + +<p>The action of water in the past has been vastly more energetic in the +Auvergnes and the Cevennes in the ages since their masses of plutonic +rock were produced than at the present day, for the scoria and the +general debris of seismic disturbance has been so much eroded that the +throats of volcanoes filled with the last product of the immense heat +below here and there stand out stripped of their cones. One of the +most remarkable of these phenomena is to be seen at Le Puy. This +strange <i>aiguille</i> has been crowned with a beautiful Romanesque chapel +for some nine centuries, and it is just possible that a Roman temple +stood there at an earlier date.</p> + +<p>In the neighbourhood of St. Étienne the Loire is considered to be +navigable. It traverses the alluvial plain of Forez, the mountains of +that name to the west separating it from the basin<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_147" id="page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> of its great +tributary the Allier, which takes a roughly parallel course and joins +it just below Nevers. If rivers could express their feeling by other +means than overproduction and strikes, the Allier would no doubt say +something forcible as to the ascendency of its neighbour, whose claims +to be the parent stream are open to question.</p> + +<p>Nearly all the way through this plain of Forez the Loire, in fine +weather, resembles a ribbon of fairest blue threaded through lace of +exquisite delicacy, for it is bordered by trees growing close to the +water-side, and only now and then does the band of blue show an +uninterrupted surface. Lower down bare red hills are encountered, +through which the river has forced its way to the plain in which +stands the town of Roanne, after which its course is less picturesque +for a time. This is perhaps a scarcely accurate statement, for +picture-making qualities with trees, cattle, and distant hills are +scarcely ever absent, but there is a certain monotony in the scenery +such as one can hardly find on the Thames or the Wye. From Nevers to +Orleans there are no towns on the river, which gradually turns its +course to the west, flowing<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_148" id="page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> exactly in that direction at Orleans, +where its ample width adds much interest and charm to a very much +modernised city. Its habit of flooding, and so causing immense damage +over large areas, has made it necessary to construct very formidable +dykes, which now protect the country it traverses between La +Martinière and Nantes. Between Orleans and Tours, where embankments do +not exist, the writer has seen the cream-coloured flood-waters foaming +and swirling past trees, fences, and hay-stacks over large areas of +the Sologne. Here and there it has been almost impossible to see any +indications of the usual river-bed, and so level is the country to the +south in the neighbourhood of Beaugency that there seems nothing to +check the floods for several kilomètres from the river. On these +occasions one trembles on account of the danger to which the +thirteenth-century bridge at Beaugency, patched, and in part rebuilt, +is hourly exposed. It is the oldest bridge on the Loire.</p> + +<p>Below Blois embankments contain the river, and the roadway on that +which defends the north side provides the charming riverside drive to +Amboise and Tours familiar to all who have visited the romantic +<i>châteaux</i> of Touraine. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_149" id="page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> average rise of the river in flood is 14 +feet, and these dykes are quite equal to this task, but when, as in +1846 and 1856, the Loire raised its surface to over 22 feet, even +these banks were useless. With dredging, embanking, and dam +construction the river is being gradually harnessed, but there is +still much to be done before riverside towns can contemplate the rapid +melting of snow in the mountains without the gravest anxiety.</p> + +<p>An upper course in a country of impervious rock means that the volume +of water is not reduced by absorption, and the difficulties of the +river are increased when it encounters the tertiary beds of the +formation to which Paris gives its name. In this soft soil the Loire +gathers up great quantities of detritus, which it deposits farther +down, producing the sand-banks which cost the communities large sums +to remove.</p> + +<p>If the middle part of its course is not very interesting, the Loire +removes that reproach between Orleans and its mouth. Its waters, and +those of some of its shorter tributaries, reflect the towers and +crenellated walls of some of the most remarkable and interesting of +all the <i>châteaux</i> of France. Blois, the scene of the murders of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_150" id="page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> +Duc de Guise (who had instigated the Massacre of St. Bartholomew) and +of his brother the Cardinal of Lorraine; Amboise, with its great +tower, containing a spiral roadway for carriages and the courtyard in +which Mary Stuart had, in 1560, been the swooning witness of a most +appalling massacre of 1200 Huguenot prisoners, the Duc de Guise +refusing to listen to her entreaties that they should be spared; +Chenonceaux, the scene of many a royal hunting party, and the +possession for a time of Diane de Poitiers, and Chaumont, which +Catherine de Medici obliged Diane to take in exchange; Langeais, where +rich furnishings of the Middle Ages and the early Renaissance bring +one into the very atmosphere of the poignard and of deadly intrigue; +and Angers, with its seventeen round towers, begun by Philippe +Auguste, are all eloquent of the romantic age of French history, of +human passion, of love, hate, and despair.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="illus192" id="illus192"></a> +<img src="images/illus192a.jpg" width="600" height="440" alt="Chateau Gaillard" /></div> +<p class="center"><b>CHÂTEAU GAILLARD AND A LOOP OF THE SEINE.</b></p> + +<p>It would not be easy to think offhand of any river of similar length +and importance whose course shows such amazing dilatoriness as that of +the Seine. The statue of a nymph placed at its source by the city of +Paris is only 250 miles from the sea in a direct line, but the river +seems<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_151" id="page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> to have an unconquerable desire to postpone the hour when it is +swallowed up by the English Channel, and by turning out of its normal +direction, northwards or southwards, every few miles it has dug for +itself a channel 482 miles in length. Such sinuosities on the course +of a great river might be called undignified, if one could not point +to that part of the course of the Moselle that lies between Trèves and +Coblentz, and to the Ebro in the middle part of its journey between +Saragossa and the sea. The increased friction at the numerous sharp +curves prevents the flood-waters from getting away with the rapidity +the Parisians sometimes desire, and this is partly responsible for the +serious damage done in the capital when circumstances combine to send +down an abnormal quantity of water from the higher tributaries. In +January 1910 the height of the river above the normal was 24 feet, and +the racing waters swirled against the keystones of the bridges. But if +the Seine misbehaves itself at intervals,<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> its average flow is so +steady that its navigability is greater than the other important +rivers. This excellent quality<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_152" id="page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> is due to the fact that about +three-quarters of the basin (an area of some 30,000 square miles) is +formed of permeable deposits, and consequently a vast absorption is +constantly taking place. The waters subtracted in this way are given +back by the perennial springs supplied by the saturation of different +strata. In rainless summer weather the first two or three dozen miles +of the river frequently dry up, and only from Châtillon is it a +permanent river. Tributaries of importance then begin to flow in. The +Aube and the Yonne are followed by the Loing and the Essonne, and just +before Paris the confluence with the Marne takes place. At the door of +the last-mentioned river, longer than the Seine by 31 miles, is laid +much of the blame for the volume of the floods. Its source is in the +Plateau de Langres not many miles to the north-east of the Seine. Rich +pasture-lands broken with long lines of tall-stemmed trees and +brown-roofed villages are typical of the scenery of the main river and +its tributaries above Paris. The painter who loves to be in the midst +of opulent nature is happy here. Quaint groups of tall trees, whose +foliage in the fall of the year turns to those delicate yellow greens +and subtle browns that are a never-failing joy to those with <span class="pagenum"><a name="page_153" id="page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span>seeing +eyes, are everywhere arranged in some delightful scheme in which +reflections in smooth oily waters add a double charm to the scene.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> Great risings of the Seine occurred in 1658, 1740, 1799, +1802, 1876, and 1883.</p></div> + +<p>It is not until Paris has been left behind that the river begins to +wash the bold white ramparts of the cretaceous beds. In and out of the +deeply indented front the meandering river takes its way, on the right +bank a wall of gleaming white cliffs and on the left green savannahs +stretching to a far and level horizon. In many places the escarpments +of chalk have the characteristics of ruined drum towers, of barbicans, +and of broken curtains, so that when Richard Coeur-de-Lion's +"<i>fillette d'un an</i>, the Château Gaillard which he caused to be built +with such incredible speed, comes into view, it is at first difficult +to believe that it is anything more than a still more realistic +natural effect. From the high ground that commands the <i>château</i> one +looks over one of the giant loops of the river, hemmed in by +green-topped cliffs of the same marine deposits that form Gris Nez and +the curious caves of Étretat, as well as the white cliffs of Albion. +At one's feet are the still very perfect ruins of a castle that stood +on the frontier of England's possessions in France seven centuries +ago, and lower still is<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_154" id="page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> the little town of Le Petit Andely huddled +for protection at the base of the castle cliff.</p> + +<p>Farther west, where the cliffs fall away, stands that historic city of +France—Rouen, the ancient capital of Normandy. It is a port, for the +Seine at this point becomes navigable for fair-sized sea-going +steamers, and one may watch the unloading of china clay from Cornwall +among the various imports carried directly to the quays.</p> + +<p>Possibly the waterway to the sea was looked upon with little joy by +the inhabitants of the city during the ninth and tenth centuries, when +at any time, and without much warning, the shallow-draught vessels of +the Vikings might appear on the river. How these bloodthirsty pirates +came and came again in spite of strenuous resistance, heavy losses, +and much Dane-geld, is a terrible chapter in the story of the Seine. +How the night sky became copper-coloured under the furnace glow of +burning houses, churches, and monasteries, is a picture which no +historian of the river can fail to put into vivid words. Long ago, +however, Rouen recovered from the disasters inflicted by the Northmen, +and those who wander through her picturesque streets can find traces +of buildings <span class="pagenum"><a name="page_155" id="page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span>that came into existence not very long after this +period.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="illus197" id="illus197"></a> +<img src="images/illus197a.jpg" width="600" height="436" alt="Mont Blanc" /></div> +<p class="center"><b>MONT BLANC REFLECTING THE SUNSET GLOW.</b></p> + +<p>A rare type of steel bridge spans the Seine at Rouen. It consists of a +travelling platform, large enough to take horses and carts, and all +the usual load of a ferry-boat, which is slung from a light framework +connecting two tall lattice steel towers. This curious achievement of +modern engineering and the very tall iron flèche of the cathedral form +the salient features of all distant views of the city.</p> + +<p>Some of the peninsulas carved by the vagaries of the river are +entirely given up to forest, and for many miles dark masses of trees +extend to the southern horizon. Dykes hold the river to its course +below Rouen. Before they were built it was impossible for vessels of +20-feet draught to navigate the river except under exceptional +conditions. A notable feature of the lower reaches is the bore which +occurs at every tide and reaches its maximum height of about 8 feet in +the neighbourhood of Caudebec, where enterprising watermen entice the +visitor into their boats to enjoy a natural water-show that quite +eclipses the artificial thrills of the "Earl's Court" order.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_156" id="page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span></p> + +<p>Beautiful and historic buildings are thickly strewn along the lowest +reaches of the Seine. The ruined abbey of Jumièges, where Edward the +Confessor was educated, raises its lofty Norman towers high above the +trees at the southern end of a big loop; the monastery of St. +Wandrille, which is now converted into a private house and became the +home of Maeterlinck a few years ago, is in a pretty valley leading +from the river; Caudebec, with its glorious Gothic church and romantic +old streets, stands on the right bank and has a sunny quay, and an +open view across the sparkling waters, the opulent level pastures, and +the belts of forest beyond; Lillebonne is the <i>Julia Bona</i> of Roman +times, and has important remains of a Roman theatre, besides the +castle, in whose great hall—alas! no longer existing—William the +Norman announced to a great gathering of leading men his project of +invading England; Tancarville Castle, with its prominent circular +tower, is reflected in the broadening waters nearer the estuary, where +Harfleur looks across to Honfleur, and both seem to dream of the days +when their great neighbour Le Havre was not.</p> + +<p>Being an entirely French river, the Loire has<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_157" id="page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> been described first in +this chapter; the Seine followed, being a smaller river, although of +more commercial importance. Its basin, it should be mentioned, is not +entirely French, some of its water being taken from Belgium. Of the +two great rivers of foreign birth the Rhone is of the greater +importance. It has a drainage area of close upon 38,000 square miles, +and is the greatest river of all those that pour their waters directly +into the Mediterranean. Besides this the Rhone is numbered in that +distinguished group composed of the greatest of the rivers of Europe. +More than any of the rivers of France it stands out as a big factor in +history. One thinks of Hannibal with his host and his elephants faced +by the swiftness and breadth of its flow; of the terrible struggle of +the Romans with the Cimbri and Teutones on its banks; of St. Bénézet +in the twelfth century copying the methods of the Roman architect of +the Pont du Gard, and accomplishing what had never been done before, +<i>i.e.</i> the construction of a stone bridge that could resist the +onslaught of the flood-waters for centuries. Four of the big +elliptical arches still stand, seemingly as strong as the day they +were erected, and above one of the piers rises the little<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_158" id="page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> Romanesque +bridge chapel where the body of the good builder was buried.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="illus202" id="illus202"></a> +<img src="images/illus202a.jpg" width="600" height="448" alt="Evian" /></div> +<p class="center"><b>EVIAN LES BAINS. ON LAKE GENEVA.</b></p> + +<p>The source of the Rhone is fitting for such a mighty waterway. It +begins life as a torrent that pours from the foot of the great Rhone +Glacier, 5909 feet above sea-level. It is now ascertained that it is +the glacier itself from under which it emerges which gives birth to +the river, and not the warm springs which issue from the ground at the +point formerly reached by the glacier. Very early on its course +another glacier-fed torrent adds its waters to the Rhone, which foams +and rages through a gorge of typical Alpine grandeur. The exuberance +of its youth is maintained by the torrents that feed its adolescent +stages. It falls more than 3600 feet in less than thirty miles from +its source, joined at frequent intervals by companions born of ice and +snow, such as the Eginen, the Binna, and the Massa, a child of the +Aletsch Glaciers. Below Brieg comes the Saltine, and then follows a +quiet stretch, when the growing river passes through a stretch of +alluvium—a dull period, a first governess, as it were, to a +high-spirited youth—where floods are frequent. Below the old town of +St. Maurice the river is confined within the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page_159" id="page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span>narrow gorge that +forms the western entrance of the Vallais, and it emerges from this +gateway to Switzerland to flow across the marshy plain that was +formerly the south-eastern end of the Lake of Geneva. Year by year the +debris of the Bernese and the Pennine Alps is washed down by the +tireless waters, and the date is approximately ascertainable when the +lake will have ceased to exist. That will be a sad day for the Rhone, +for it is through the filter-like action of the lake that the river +flows forth freed from its burden of detritus, and Byron's "blue +rushing of the arrowy Rhone" will describe a river whose character has +changed for ever, unless the hand of man erects barriers in its +course, and so introduces periods of artificial repose. But France +to-day does not receive from Switzerland the gift of a river in its +unsullied youth, for not long after it has passed from the lake it is +contaminated by an untutored glacier-bred youth fresh from the Mont +Blanc range, whence it has carried down much solid matter. For a +certain distance the two rivers do not recognise one another, the +waters refusing to mix, but propinquity brings its familiar result and +justifies the copy-book maxim concerning evil companionship.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_160" id="page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span></p> + +<p>All through the long journey to Lyons the Rhone preserves the +character of an uncivilised mountain-bred river, of small service to +commerce or communication, although it is termed "navigable" from a +point between Le Parc and Pyrimont. It must be said in defence of the +river that the circumstances of its path in life do not tend towards +the restful stability beloved of commerce. No sooner does it enter +France than it is obliged to fight its way through a constricted +channel between the Crédo and the Vuache, and gorge succeeds gorge for +the greatest part of the distance between Geneva and Lyons. And who is +there possessing any love for untrammelled nature who does not love +the river's wild moods, its impetuosity, its generosity, and its +reckless enthusiasm. By the time it has reached the great city of +Lyons it has, however, subdued its wild ways, for having come within +sight of the beautiful Saône it passes through the city on a sedately +parallel course, and very soon they are wedded. For the rest of its +life—a distance of 230 miles—the Rhone is a hard-working member of +society, carrying day by day the manufactures of Central France down +to the ancient "middle sea." It was the little time of engagement, +the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_161" id="page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> brief interval before the marriage with the Saône was +consummated, that produced the peninsula whereon the second city of +France was founded, and gave it a situation of the greatest security +in unsettled times. No doubt the Segusiani, who are generally +mentioned as the earliest people to occupy the tongue of land, had had +predecessors on the same spot, but the fogs of prehistoric times +prevent one from knowing much of the settlement before the Roman had +reached the confluence of the rivers. Then the mists roll away, and +one has a vision of Agrippa making it the centre of four great roads; +Augustus is seen giving the city a senate and making it the place of +annual assembly of representatives from the sixty cities of Gallia +Comata. Besides conferring these distinctions, the reign of Augustus +saw the building of temples, aqueducts, and a theatre. In <span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 59, +during the reign of the half-demented Nero, the city was burnt and +afterwards rebuilt on grander lines. Great buildings succeeded one +another until the two rivers must have reflected as fine a city as +could be found within the Roman Empire. But the unsettled centuries of +the Dark Age of Europe brought successive waves of destructive +invasion to <i>Lugdunum</i>, and for evidences<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_162" id="page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> of the Roman period of the +city it is necessary to go to the museum, where, however, the +Gallo-Roman objects are numerous and of the greatest importance.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="illus207" id="illus207"></a> +<img src="images/illus207a.jpg" width="386" height="550" alt="Avignon" /></div> +<p class="center"><b>THE CHAPEL ON THE BRIDGE OF ST. BÉNÉZET, AVIGNON.</b></p> + +<p>Farther down its course the great river's swift-flowing flood has on +its banks the towns of Vienne, Valence, Avignon, Tarascon, and Arles, +all by a curious chance on the left bank, although at Avignon and +Tarascon there are sister towns on the opposite side, and Arles has a +suburb across the water. Vienne and Arles still boast notable Roman +structures, and Orange and Nîmes, as well as the Gard, the last +tributary the river receives before entering the period of its dotage +in the Carmargue, preserve vast Roman buildings at no great distance +from the Rhone. It is just possible that the great part this river has +played in the making of France might have received a far less adequate +recognition had these visual tokens of the days of imperial Rome +vanished as did so many others.</p> + +<p>In its journey southwards from Lyons the character of the country +traversed by the Rhone undergoes remarkable changes, and after Valence +there is a decidedly southern aspect in the landscapes. The olive +begins to appear, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_163" id="page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> vine is cultivated on all sides, and dark lines +of cypresses become conspicuous. From Avignon the dusty limestone +country extends across Provence to the sea, and the arid sun-baked +hills terraced here and there for vineyards, the lines of sentinel +cypresses, and the constant presence of the olive are the chief +features of scenery that might be in Turkey, in Asia, or the Holy +Land. And yet this river began life in an Alpine glacier and passed +its middle age in the fertile lands of west-central France. The delta +of the Rhone is a huge triangular area enclosed between the Grand +Rhone and the smaller branch it throws off near Arles. It is called +the Carmargue, and is a flat waste only cultivated at the river sides, +and in certain patches helped by irrigation. Almost treeless in great +portions, and exposed to the fierce mistral that blows its cold Alpine +breath upon the delta whenever the mood arises, it is surprising to +find any towns or villages in the whole district. Yet Aigues Mortes +and St. Gilles, and a few villages, keep alive under the most adverse +conditions. Below Arles, to the east of the river, and extending to +the Étang de Berre, is the stony plain of La Crau, and there too, in +spite of the climatic discomforts and lack of soil,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_164" id="page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> two or three +villages have come into existence along the main road between Arles +and Aix-en-Provence. The Crau is probably more the work of the Durance +than of the Rhone, which has deposited its burden of ice-carried +boulders in the Lake of Geneva for ages, while the Durance in its +comparatively short course from the Maritime Alps has no filtering +vat, and in its periods of flood has forced millions of large stones +down to the Rhone delta, gradually building up a barrier between +itself and the sea, and necessitating a junction with the Rhone just +below Avignon. When the sun beats down on the level waste of stones, +whose depth averages from 30 to 45 feet, such heat is produced that a +mirage is a not uncommon result. Any explanation for such a remarkable +number of stones accumulated in one place was so hard to be found in +early days that it was necessary to resort to the supernatural, and +Strabo records the legend that it was Zeus who bombarded with these +projectiles the Ligurian tribesmen who attacked the early Phoenician +traders and colonisers of the mouth of the Rhone.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="illus213" id="illus213"></a> +<img src="images/illus213a.jpg" width="600" height="427" alt="Autumn" /></div> +<p class="center"><b>CAP MARTIN, NEAR MENTONE.</b></p> + +<p>The Garonne, the last of the four great rivers of France, is the least +interesting. As already<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_165" id="page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> mentioned it is of foreign birth, its +head-waters being in the Maladetta chain of peaks in a Spanish portion +of the Pyrenees, and the river has traversed about 30 miles before it +enters France through the <i>cluse</i> of the Pont du Roi. One of the two +torrents in which the river begins its life plunges into a cavity in +the rock, known as the Trou du Taureau, and does not appear again for +two and a half miles. The Rhone also had formerly a small subterranean +experience in its upper course, but the roof of rock has been +destroyed.</p> + +<p>The course of the river is roughly north-westward until it reaches the +formidable plateau of Lannemezan, where it is turned sharply to the +east, carrying with it the waters of the Neste, a considerable stream +fed by the snows of Mont Perdu and its big neighbours. In this part of +its course the scenery is exceedingly fine. Before the snows have +melted off the mountains there are always the pale blue-grey peaks +flecked with sunny patches, and slopes forming a magnificent +background to dark wooded hills full of purples and ambers, and in +spring the more subtle browns turning to yellow and the palest +suspicion of green. Immense views are obtained from the Lannemezan +plateau, the frontier mountain-range<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_166" id="page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> stretching away east and west in +a most imposing perspective of white peaks.</p> + +<p>On its eastward course the Garonne passes the little town of St. +Gaudens, whose name is derived from a Christian boy who was martyred +in 475 by Euric, king of the Visigoths. St. Martory, the next town, +spans the river with a bridge guarded by a formidable +eighteenth-century gateway which Arthur Young thought could have been +built for no other purpose than to please the eye of travellers. After +this the westward tilt of France begins to assert itself, and the +river works northwards to the city of Toulouse, where it gradually +turns towards the west. Toulouse, while owing much to its river, does +not forget the ill-turns it has received from its mountain-born +waterway, which carried away the suspension bridge of St. Pierre in +1855, and twenty years later, in a disastrous flood, demolished the +bridge of St. Michel and 7000 houses in the Faubourg St. Cyprien, +while about 300 people were drowned. This suburb is on the left bank, +and its situation on the inner side of the curve made by the river as +it passes through the city makes it peculiarly liable to suffer from +floods. The Pont Neuf, occupying a central<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_167" id="page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> position, was built about +the middle of the sixteenth century by the sculptor Nicholas +Bachelier, whose arches have proved capable of resisting the angry +moods of the Garonne until the present day. He adorned with his work +many of the churches and mansions of Toulouse.</p> + +<p>For the remainder of its course the river keeps to a north-westerly +direction, and passing along the northern edge of the plateau which +diverted its course, it absorbs all the rivers that flow from it. +There is no other town of any consequence until the great port of +Bordeaux is reached. This is not many miles from the mouth of the +Garonne, for when the Dordogne adds its flood to the longer river the +wide tidal estuary called the Gironde has been entered. It is scarcely +fair on the Dordogne to call it a tributary of the Garonne when it +does not join that river until it has entered the broad waterway +common to both, but it is undoubtedly a part of the Garonne system. +With the exception of the town of Bergerac—a place of no importance +and of less interest—the Dordogne has only one other town on its +banks, the little port of Libourne at its mouth where the wines of the +locality are shipped.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_168" id="page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span></p> + +<p>The Adour and its important tributary the Gave de Pau figured +conspicuously in Wellington's successful operations against Marshal +Soult in the concluding period of the Peninsular War, and it was +during the siege of Bayonne by Sir John Hope, while the Duke was +following Soult towards Orthez, that the famous bridge of boats was +built across the river below the town. The construction of this bridge +entailed enormous risks in getting the boats across the bar at the +river's mouth, and its successful accomplishment was considered one of +the greatest engineering feats achieved by the British army during +this period.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="illus218" id="illus218"></a> +<img src="images/illus218a.jpg" width="600" height="383" alt="Chenonceaux" /></div> +<p class="center"><b>THE CHÂTEAU OF CHENONCEAUX.</b></p> + +<hr class="l30" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_169" id="page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span></p> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h3> +<h4>OF THE WATERING-PLACES</h4> + +<p>French sea-coast watering-places fall easily into two groups—those of +the English Channel and those of the Mediterranean. The first may be +subdivided into the fashionable places between Deauville and the +Belgian frontier and the go-as-you-please resorts of Brittany. There +are long intervals between the different resorts, and few would dream +of wandering along the coast from one to another; but on the +Mediterranean the Riviera is almost one continuous chain of +watering-places from St. Raphaël to Mentone.</p> + +<p>In the early days, when English doctors were beginning to recommend +their more wealthy patients to winter on the French Riviera, there was +little beyond the sunshine, the equable climate, the colour and the +loveliness of the scenery to attract the visitor, and what more,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_170" id="page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> one +asks, could any rational being who has gone away with congenial +companions require? A visit to the Riviera amply answers such a +frivolous question. In the early days, visitors and tired politicians, +perhaps of the type of Lord Brougham, or less strenuous people to whom +the fogs of the northern winter were a periodic menace, found no +hotels much above the average of the country inn, and villas were not. +Obviously these things had to be provided, and now from Cannes to +Garavan, which is within a shout of the Italian frontier, there is a +very nearly continuous chain of villas and hotels. And where villas +are too close together to permit the erection of a newly projected +<i>Hôtel Splendide</i>, a terrace is constructed a little higher up the +face of the sea-front, and the new building offers to its guests finer +views and less noise than those who stay lower down. Villas are +pleasant enough, but they can become dull to those with a passion for +amusement, a desire to escape from themselves or whatever one cares to +call the disease, and a hotel to such offers very little more. +Besides, one is practically driven to bed at a quarter to ten, so a +casino is a sheer necessity. Then no one who wishes to be healthy can +be so for long without exercise,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_171" id="page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> and a golf-course must be +provided. This is a difficulty on the French Riviera only overcome at +Cannes, where the alluvial Plaine de Laval near La Napoule offers +suitable ground. Everywhere else the mountainous nature of the coast +vetoes the game. Lawn-tennis, however, is quite possible even where +steep slopes reach down to the sea. The race-course, too, has been +found a necessity for existence, and it has been provided. The casino +offers gambling and music and theatrical performances. But this is not +enough, there must be a theatre too. A Battle of Flowers is a relief +to the monotony of the days, and at Nice such an extravagance is +indulged during the Carnival, the climax of the season's manufactured +gaiety. Besides all this there are regattas, motor weeks, +pigeon-shootings, exhibitions of hydroplaning.... The list of +distractions is now so enormous that the visitor almost needs a visit +to one of the quiet spots beyond Genoa to rest before returning to the +gaieties of the season in Paris or London.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="illus223" id="illus223"></a> +<img src="images/illus223a.jpg" width="600" height="460" alt="St. Malo" /></div> +<p class="center"><b>ST. MALO FROM ST. SERVAN.</b></p> + +<p>The English were the discoverers of the French Riviera from the +health-resort standpoint. They wrote books describing fine air and the +attractions of this wonderful coast, and the social distinction<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_172" id="page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> of +some of the writers assured an attentive audience. Lady Blessington +penned an account of her journey along the Riviera in 1823, which +reveals a condition of things as far removed from the luxury of to-day +as are the shores of Patagonia. To journey from Nice to Florence was +then more or less an adventure. "The usual route by land," she writes, +"is over the Col di Tenda, and via Turin, but this being impracticable +owing to the snow, and as we had a strong objection to a voyage in a +<i>felucca</i>, we determined to proceed to Genoa by the route of the +Cornice, which admits of but two modes of conveyance, a <i>chaise à +porteurs</i>, or on horseback, or rather on muleback." The Lady +Blessingtons of to-day travel on an excellently engineered and, for +the most part, a dust-free road, in the luxurious ease provided by the +builders of the modern motor-car <i>de luxe</i>. The six-cylindered engine +purrs so softly that the sound of the waves on the rocks beneath the +road is not lost, and even the faint smell of petrol is overcome by +the exquisite productions of Roget et Cie.</p> + +<p>Hyères stands quite apart from the long chain of fashionable resorts. +It is a picturesque old town separated from the sea by two or three<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_173" id="page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> +miles of salt marshes, and only ranks as a watering-place on account +of the proximity of Costebelle, where modern hotels perched +picturesquely on the wooded hills known as the Montagnes des Oiseaux +look across the Iles d'Or to the beautiful Maure Mountains. The +villages perched on the face of the cliffs, and those standing on the +intervals of alluvial shore along the coast of Les Maures, are typical +of the whole Riviera before the leisured and wealthy classes of the +western nations began to make their annual incursions. East of the +valley at whose mouth stands Fréjus, dozing in the midst of its +eye-filling evidences of importance in Roman times, is St. Raphaël, +with its hotel quarter known as Valescure, high among the pines on the +first slopes of the densely wooded Estérel Mountains. Healthfulness is +still the main attraction here; but those who do not thirst for +distracting gaiety love the sweet-smelling solitudes and the bays +where the porphyry rocks, purple-red as the name implies, are overhung +by masses of dark pines, and bathed by waters that reflect sky, trees, +and rocks in a wonderful confusion of strong colour, reminiscent of +bays on the south Cornish coast. Hotels have appeared near the larger +villages on the littoral of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_174" id="page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> Estérels, but Nature is still free +down to the splashing waves, and it is only when Cannes is reached +that one is in the real Riviera atmosphere.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="illus228" id="illus228"></a> +<img src="images/illus228a.jpg" width="600" height="421" alt="Monaco" /></div> +<p class="center"><b>MONTE CARLO AND MONACO FROM THE EAST.</b></p> + +<p>The first view of the sweeping coast-line between Cannes and the +confines of Italy that suddenly unfolds itself as one goes eastwards +on the coast road is one of surpassing loveliness, provided that the +weather lives up to its honestly-earned reputation. A great sweep of +sea of an exquisite, a tender, a most lovely blue fills half the +scene. It is perhaps shaded here and there by clouds, and their +shadows turn the blue to amethyst. There is a fringe of white along +the low sandy shores of the Gulf of La Napoule. Farther off the coast +becomes steep and clothed with a mantle of dark green foliage, +speckled along its lower margin with creamy-white villas, while +higher, the horizon is serrated with snow-capped peaks. As the coast +recedes it becomes more lofty, the mountains coming to bathe their +feet in the blue sea. There are islands and promontories faintly +visible in the soft opalescent haze. Such is the first impression one +obtains of a fairyland coast-line, which owing to various +circumstances had to be discovered to the French people by foreigners. +With their inherited instinct towards roving the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page_175" id="page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span>British have not +even been able to keep to their own land when merely taking a little +seaside holiday.</p> + +<p>It might be said of the French that, apart from their dozen or more +seaports, they were until recently in a state of comparative ignorance +as to the nature of the wonderful coast-line of their country. It was +only recently that any considerable proportion of the great French +middle-class population acquired the habit of taking an annual holiday +by the sea. The expense of such a migration is a big item in a small +budget, and when undertaken it is the need for economy which makes the +housekeeper prefer to take a house wherein she can provide for her own +<i>ménage</i>, and avoid giving a landlady a living at her expense.</p> + +<p>At first the seaside visits were of a very adventurous character, and +little wooden châlets of a very temporary character were run up. They +were placed in a most haphazard fashion where land was available. +Gardens were not cultivated; and even when quite a number of these +meretricious little seaside homes had gathered together at one spot, +there was no attempt to produce the features regarded by the English +as essentials. Instead of the pier with<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_176" id="page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> its concert-room raised above +the waves on barnacle-swollen iron pillars, the French build a casino. +In it all forms of evening amusement are concentrated, and all the +holiday life is to be found there after sunset. The esplanade, that +most tiresome feature of all English seaside resorts, is only built +when the place has become so matured that it begins to yearn for +smartness. Possibly foreigners are the main cause of the promenade. On +the Riviera, where it has been the aim of the municipalities and the +hotel proprietors to study the habits of <i>les Anglais</i>, the esplanade +is to be found at every resort, and it is probably only the +overwhelming expense due to the precipitous nature of a very +considerable proportion of the coast that has saved the Riviera from +becoming one continuous promenade from Cannes to Mentone. Even if this +were ever accomplished the irregularities of the coast are so +pronounced that there would be few opportunities for those who +abominate the sea-front of the Brighton type to complain. At Cannes +the isolated mass of rock crowned by the picturesque "old town" +effectually cuts the frontage to the sea in two, and at Nice the +tabular rock in whose shadow ancient Nice grew, forms<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_177" id="page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> an abrupt +termination to the eastward end of the parade, the central portion of +which is called the Promenade des Anglais, and there is situated a +jetty to satisfy the tastes of the same patrons of "Paris by the Sea." +Villefranche does not give any opportunity for producing sterile +perspectives on account of the deep and narrow bay formed by the Cap +du Mont Boron and the St. Jean peninsula. Beaulieu is little more than +a fortuitous concourse of villas and hotels, and the only level ground +is that occupied by the Corniche road.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="illus233" id="illus233"></a> +<img src="images/illus233a.jpg" width="600" height="433" alt="Mont St. Michel" /></div> +<p class="center"><b>MONT ST. MICHEL AT HIGH TIDE.</b></p> + +<p>The promontory of Monaco is entirely precipitous, but gardens on its +outward side give shady walks and charming peeps of the distant coast. +One side of the bay of Monaco is formed by the curving northern face +of the tabular projection, and facing it are the creamy-white terraces +of Monte Carlo, rising up to the blocks of equally brilliant +red-roofed buildings terminating in the world-famed Casino, which +stands at the apex of a small projection of the rocky shelf. The +architecture of the Casino is of the commonplace "exhibition" type, +and the gardens surrounding it support the parallel. Only the +determination of man could have made the precipitous slopes of the +mountainous sea-front produce<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_178" id="page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> lawns and flowers and shady trees, for +the heat of summer would destroy all but the hardiest forms of +vegetation, unless artificial aids were employed. The colour of Monte +Carlo is intensely brilliant on account of the immense reflecting +surface of pinkish limestone rock that towers up some 1300 feet from +the sea, and makes the place quite unique among watering-places. +Strictly speaking one hardly has any right to include it in a +description of French watering-places, for Monaco is an independent +principality, and its area includes Monte Carlo and the intervening +township of Condamine, which is packed in between the gaming +metropolis and the <i>col</i> that separates Monaco's peninsula from the +mainland.</p> + +<p>Until 1856 the principality had no gambling halls, and it was not +until 1858 that the Prince of Monaco laid the foundation stone of the +existing Casino, the gaming-tables having been first set up within the +walls of the old town. In a few years the annual income from the +Casino ran up to £1,000,000, a sum of £50,000 being the Prince's +share. So by playing down to the widespread instinct for gambling, one +of the most unprofitable patches of coast has become in proportion to +its area the most revenue-producing in the whole<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_179" id="page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> world. It is a +melancholy reflection that one of the most perfect spots on the +Mediterranean for enjoying all the warmth of the winter sun should be +so fatally contaminated by a cosmopolitan crowd of ne'er-do-weels of +every grade of society. One sees all the world at Monte Carlo, for no +one who passes along the Riviera can quite resist the desire to have a +peep at a place of such notoriety. And so many come to Monte Carlo for +this selfsame purpose that the real habitués, the professionals and +the "last-hopers," are rather lost sight of in the crowd of quite +irreproachable people who half fill the concert-hall, and drift +through the gaming-rooms throwing a few five-franc pieces on to the +roulette tables "just to see what happens," or to experience the very +edge of the strange fascination which leads men and women to fling +away a competency in a fevered desire for wealth.</p> + +<p>The two superimposed roads between Nice and Mentone known as the Upper +and the Lower Corniche, are both laboriously engineered highways, +possessing almost unrivalled charms. On the lower road there used to +be a most serious disadvantage to the enjoyment of the scenery in the +choking clouds of dust raised by every<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_180" id="page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> passing vehicle. Motor-cars +used to throw up such a smother of dust that it did not settle for +some minutes, and in the interval fresh clouds would be produced. Tar +has at last been brought to rescue the charms of the Lower Corniche +from being completely destroyed. Trams grind and scream as they follow +the constant curves of the road, and their presence robs it of any +sense of repose. It is therefore more possible to enjoy the changing +panorama of bay, cliff, and promontory, of brilliantly coloured waves +in shadow and in sunshine from a seat in a car than on foot. An +automobile, unless driven very slowly, is tiresome and tantalizing in +such scenery. One can only compare the sensation of being flung +through beautiful surroundings of this character at 30 miles an hour +to being obliged to go through the galleries of the Louvre at a trot.</p> + +<p>On the Upper Corniche the traffic is light, there are no trams, and +dust is scarcely noticeable. The scenery is altogether on a greater +scale. At certain spots one commands nearly the whole of the French +Riviera at once. The sea is far below, and its nearer shores are +almost invariably hidden. Whoever passes one on this lofty highway is +fairly sure to have come there for pleasure,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_181" id="page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> business taking few +along the high "cornice." Energetic folk from all the resorts within +reach are to be found climbing up the steep zig-zag pathways to this +splendid vantage-ground. Frenchmen in clothes suited for <i>le sport</i> or +perhaps wearing the dark city type of jacket suit which so many adhere +to even when holiday-making, Germans thoughtfully carrying their red +Baedekers with them, and Englishmen of the retired military officer or +I.S.O. type are all to be found enjoying or "doing" the Upper Corniche +in the various manners of their widely differing temperaments. At La +Turbie, where the remains of the huge monument to Caesar Augustus, the +conquering emperor, still bulk prominently in the midst of the +village, there is a funicular railway connecting the upper and lower +roads, bringing the splendid air and scenery of the heights within +reach of the infirm or the merely slack types of visitors.</p> + +<p>The long winding descent from La Turbie to Mentone brings the two +roads together opposite Cap Martin, a promontory densely grown with +old and gnarled olives and masses of dark pines that come down to the +water's edge. From beneath their shade one can look across the blue +waves breaking into white along the curving<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_182" id="page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> shore to Mentone's villas +and hotels overtopped by its old town on a spur of the mountain slopes +that rise sharply just behind. Although built at the mouth of two +torrents, Mentone is sheltered by an imposing amphitheatre of lofty +mountains, which very effectually screen it from the treacherous +mistral, and it is this fact which has made it the most popular place +for invalids on the whole of <i>la Côte d'Azur</i>. It is fortunate in +having been spared the inflictions of overpowering perspectives of the +Nice or Brighton order, and one can sit close to the shore under the +shade of great eucalyptus trees free from the glare and the traffic of +a big sea-front roadway of the stereotyped British pattern.</p> + +<p>The eastern extension of Mentone, known as Garavan, is within a few +minutes' walk of the Italian frontier, where the sea-coast resorts +become more brightly coloured and have more architectural interest in +their old quarters, the Ligurian type of compactly built walled town +being scarcely recognisable in what remains of old Mentone.</p> + +<p>Not only is the Riviera a land of winter sunshine, it is also one of +the most sweetly-scented coasts in the world. The delicious fragrance +of the lemon and the orange, when those trees are in<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_183" id="page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> blossom, is +often Nature's final lavish filling up of the cup of enjoyment to +overflowing. And in the spring, when the northern sea-coast resorts +are shivering before the icy winds that sweep down the Channel, this +favoured coast has nasturtiums and other flowers that England does not +see until late in summer, in their fullest blossom. France is indeed +fortunate in its Mediterranean shore, of which Plato must have been +thinking when he wrote:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>There the whole earth is made up of colours brighter far and +clearer than ours; there is a purple of wonderful lustre, also +the radiance of gold, and the white which is in the earth is +whiter than any chalk or snow.</p> +</div> + +<p>Among the watering-places on the Channel the twin towns of Deauville +and Trouville, separated only by the river Toques, are pre-eminent +among the wealthiest and most fashionable of Parisians. Trouville has +a longer season, but it is altogether outshone by its neighbour during +the fortnight of the races in August, and during the quieter weeks of +its season Deauville probably boasts more leaders of fashionable +French society than any other coast resort. It is popularly believed +that during the season one cannot smell the salt air off the sea at +either of<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_184" id="page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> these places on account of the scent used by its expensive +visitors. This is more or less true of Étretat also, and possibly of +Biarritz too, and no one who dreams of careless attire should come +near these places during the season.</p> + +<p>Both places possess splendid stretches of sand, and therefore bathing +is safe, and one of the greatest attractions to visitors. The casinos +are well adapted to the demands made upon them, and the villas +include, among the various more temporary old-fashioned types, many +that are quite charming.</p> + +<p>Westward from Deauville is pretty little Cabourg, just beyond the +mouth of the River Dive, where William the Norman assembled his army +for the invasion of England. Here also the beach is of excellent sand, +extending for four miles. The casino is, of course, a prominent +feature, and there is a broad terrace, not far short of a mile in +length, raised above the beach. Between Cabourg and the mouth of the +Orne one finds one of those embryo seaside places that are typical of +the haphazard fashion in which French watering-places grow. It bears +the curious name of Le Home-sur-Mer, and in its present stage of +development is little more than<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_185" id="page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> a railway-station and a collection of +widely scattered and hurriedly-built villas, dumped anywhere along a +sandy ridge.</p> + +<p>After Deauville the seaside resort most patronised by the opulent is +Étretat. It has none of the advantages of a sandy shore, and bathing +from the steep shingly beach is often so dangerous that the +authorities insist on securing intrepid bathers by rope around the +waist. Good swimmers enjoy the depth of water to be found close to the +shore, and have no fear of a buffeting by big rollers; but to the weak +or timid the conditions are often forbidding, and on such days there +are more early arrivals than usual at the first tee on the +golf-course.</p> + +<p>From the point of view of scenery Étretat holds a high position, its +bold chalk cliffs adding enormously to the picturesqueness of the +coast. Erosion produces very curious effects in the chalk, boring vast +cavities with wonderfully domed roofs, and leaving natural arches and +projecting ribs that sometimes suggest the colossal legs of a white +elephant. The arch springing from the central projection of the +cliffs, known as the Porte d'Aval, is approachable from the east at +low tide, and a nearer view can be<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_186" id="page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> obtained of an isolated pillar +called the Aiguille d'Étretat.</p> + +<p>There are lofty cliffs at Fécamp and a curving bay, with a casino in +the centre and the mouth of the Fécamp River to the east; but it +cannot claim to be so much the resort of fashion as its western +neighbour. The town has a busy port and all the picturesqueness +contributed by the fishing-boats that go to the cod or herring +fisheries. There is, as well, the abbey church and the Benedictine +distillery with its interesting museum, but such features do not +attract many holiday-makers, who are looking for amusement of the +entirely social order.</p> + +<p>St. Valery-en-Caux has a beach made up of both sand and shingle, the +upper portion of the bathing-ground being exceedingly stony. On the +lower level children bathe in safety, and the joy of shrimping is +indulged in by visitors of all ages.</p> + +<p>A little to the east is Veules, where the cliffs are low and of rather +loose earth, and the beach is not ideal for bathing. It is popular +with the people of Rouen, being conveniently placed and inexpensive. +The shrimp here too offers a fund of excitement to the families who +are usually content with the most simple of amusements, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page_187" id="page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span>provided +they can drop into the casino after dinner.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="illus245" id="illus245"></a> +<img src="images/illus245a.jpg" width="600" height="435" alt="Nice" /></div> +<p class="center"><b>THE VEGETABLE MARKET, NICE.</b></p> + +<p>Dieppe, owing to its connection with England by the Newhaven steamers, +is popular among English visitors, who can run over for a day or two +with the minimum of trouble and expense. The broad sunny Plage, the +casino to which one is free all day on payment of three francs, and +the Établissement des Bains keep the place very full of life and +gaiety throughout the season; but one does not expect to find there +the people who may be seen at Étretat or Deauville. Possessing a busy +and not unpicturesque port, an historic fifteenth-century <i>château</i>, +and a beautiful Gothic church, it is surprising to find the sea-front +so entirely suggestive of one of the newly developed resorts. To the +north-east is Tréport, an interesting and picturesque little coast +town, with the usual requirements for bathing and summer visitors. +Along the top of the great bank of shingle are the dressing-sheds, +with wooden steps at intervals leading down to the beach. Those who +have any interest in history find the proximity of the famous old town +of Eu a great attraction, but golf acts with such magnetic force over +the average Anglo-Saxon that such considerations<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_188" id="page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> do not often weigh +in the choice of a holiday resort. The French have only lately begun +to know the joys and the profound dejections of golf; it is not yet a +necessary adjunct to a seaside resort. Where there are golf-courses it +is mainly British capital that brings them on to the sand-dunes. Le +Touquet is very cosmopolitan, but it could hardly exist a month +without its English patrons. It is one of those places which come into +existence with the wave of the capitalist's wand. He says, in effect, +"Let us make on this waste an ideal health resort, let us erect +hotels, casinos, theatres, and to these add golf-courses, croquet +lawns, lawn-tennis courts, and polo grounds; we will have rides +through the forest and bathing facilities on this shore, and we will +advertise until the whole world knows that we have made this place." +And, having spoken, everything desired straightway comes to pass, so +that one reads on a leaflet concerning this newly arrived resort such +items as these:—</p> + +<div class="center"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="resorts"> +<tr><td>10 hotels. </td><td>2 golf-courses.</td></tr> +<tr><td>2 casinos.</td><td>3 croquet lawns.</td></tr> +<tr><td>2 theatres.</td><td>17 lawn-tennis courts.</td></tr> +<tr><td>10 miles of forest rides.</td><td>3 miles of sandy beach.</td></tr> +<tr><td>A polo ground.</td><td>Drag-hounds.</td></tr> +</table> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_189" id="page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span></p> +<p>Paris Plage is the newly-built town, brought into existence through +the needs and attractions of Le Touquet, Étaples being a little too +far away to answer this purpose.</p> + +<p>Farther north is Boulogne, with its own casino and promenade and its +village resorts, such as Hardelot, close at hand. So numerous, indeed, +are the bathing-places of this type that it would be tiresome to even +attempt a list of them all, but they all have their own +devotees—French, English, and American—and any little villa along +the coast of Normandy or Picardy may during the hot months be the +temporary home of men and women whose names are household words on +either side of the Channel.</p> + +<p>Brittany is farther away from Paris and from England, and its charms +are only beginning to be appreciated. With the exception of Dinard, +there is no place that is expensive or smart in any sense. Some of the +villages on the long and deeply indented coast-line have at least one +good hotel, and if one is content with what the sea will provide in +the way of amusement, the happiest of holidays may be spent there. +Bathing, sailing, fishing, sketching, walking, exploring quaint +villages, and seeing the curious social customs<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_190" id="page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> that still live in +this very Celtic corner of France, fill up endless days, and only +those to whom none of these things appeal can be dull, provided the +weather is tolerably fine.</p> + +<p>Biarritz, down at the southern extremity of the French Atlantic coast, +in the innermost corner of the Bay of Biscay, with its neighbour St. +Jean de Luz, are far away from the two great groups of coast resorts. +The first was popularised among both French and English on account of +the frequent visits paid to it by King Edward VII. It was understood +when <i>Le Roi Edouard</i> came to Biarritz that no one was to take any +notice whatsoever of his presence. Cameras were promptly confiscated +if any one attempted to snapshot the King or any of his friends, and +it was in this way possible for the sovereign who loved to step down +into the crowd, to forget the tedious functions of his office. After +Sunday morning service he would stroll along the promenade with one or +two friends in the most informal fashion, so that a chance British +visitor who did not dream that he might at any moment rub shoulders +with his sovereign would almost gasp with astonishment when he +suddenly discovered that he had actually done so!</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="illus250" id="illus250"></a> +<img src="images/illus250a.jpg" width="600" height="437" alt="Pyrenees" /></div> +<p class="center"><b>THE PYRENEES FROM NEAR PAMIERS.</b></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_191" id="page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span></p> +<p>Only at intervals does the sea give up its onslaught upon the rocks +that form the coast at Biarritz, and one of the charms of the place is +to be found in the magnificent displays given by the Atlantic. +Thundering waves rear themselves in great walls of green, +marble-veined with foam, which fling themselves in a chaos of white +upon the smooth, sandy shore of the Plage or the deeply indented +promontory which contains the fishing port. The town is very modern, +but is well built and extremely clean and pleasant in every way, the +new streets being full of good houses in gardens that are something +more than a patch of unmown grass.</p> + +<p>Besides bathing, for which there are three <i>établissements</i>, there is +golf and lawn-tennis, while the proximity of the Pyrenees gives +opportunity for motor drives in the midst of deep valleys, whose vast +slopes clothed with pine or box fall precipitously to torrential +rivers. The whole country, too, is rich in memories of Wellington's +successful completion of the Peninsular War. St. Jean de Luz was for a +time his headquarters, the house he occupied being still in existence. +Nearly all who stay at Biarritz go on to Pau, the inland winter resort +close to, but not within the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_192" id="page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> actual embrace of the Pyrenees. English +people visit both places mainly in the winter and spring. They make +the season at those times, while French and Spanish visitors flood +thither in the summer, putting up prices at that period of the year to +a height not reached during the zenith of the English season. Almost +every form of sport and open-air exercise can be enjoyed at Pau, and +foxhounds meet regularly throughout the winter. The town is +magnificently placed on the north side of the Gave de Pau, and the +view it commands of the snowy range of peaks, with the deep and +picturesque valleys leading up to them, is one of the finest +possessions of this character to be found in any town of France.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="illus254" id="illus254"></a> +<img src="images/illus254a.jpg" width="364" height="550" alt="Versailles" /></div> +<p class="center"><b>THE GALERIE DES GLACES AT VERSAILLES.</b></p> + +<hr class="l30" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_193" id="page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span></p> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h3> +<h4>ROMAN, ROMANESQUE, AND GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN FRANCE</h4> + +<p>In the wide range of its ancient and mediaeval architecture France +stands next to Italy. Its Roman buildings are almost as fine as +anything to be found in that country, its Gothic structures include +some of the world's masterpieces, while in examples of the Renaissance +only the country where the re-birth took place can rival her. England, +which competes closely in the Romanesque and Gothic periods, is out of +the running in the earlier epoch, and takes a very much lower position +in the works that succeeded the death of the pointed style. Italy, the +most formidable rival, is superior in its Roman remains, but inferior +in its Gothic work. In the Renaissance, Italy, its home, stands easily +first, and in works of the Byzantine period its possessions at Venice<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_194" id="page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> +and Ravenna leave the western nations far behind.</p> + +<p>Prehistoric architecture is well represented in Brittany, where the +vast scale of the Carnac lines—the Avenues of Kermario—dwarfs the +British survivals on Salisbury Plain and Dartmoor. There are numerous +dolmens and tumuli, containing chambers roughly constructed out of +unhewn stones of the New Grange (Ireland) type, but there is nothing +comparable to Stonehenge.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="illus258" id="illus258"></a> +<img src="images/illus258a.jpg" width="393" height="550" alt="Orange" /></div> +<p class="center"><b>THE ROMAN TRIUMPHAL ARCH AT ORANGE.</b></p> + +<p>When one comes to the Roman period the remains are so splendid that +many are satisfied with what they have seen in Provence, and do not +feel impelled to see Rome before they die. Nîmes stands first among +the towns of Provence for the splendour of the Roman structures it has +preserved. Not only has it an amphitheatre which is more perfect than +any other in existence, but its temple, dedicated to Caius and Lucius +Caesar, adopted sons of the Emperor Augustus, between the first and +the fourteenth year of the Christian era, is also the best preserved +in the world. Having been used successively as a church, a municipal +hall, and a stable, it is now a museum of Roman objects, and seems +capable of standing for an unlimited time. Besides these most famous +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_195" id="page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span>structures there are two gateways, one of them bearing an inscription +stating that it was built in the year 16 <span class="smcap">B.C.</span> To the north of the town +are Roman baths of wonderful completeness, and in their restored +condition of very considerable beauty. Over them on the hill-top rises +the Tour Magne, a Roman watch-tower which formed part of the defences +of the city. Stretching across the deep and rocky bed of the river +Gard, about 14 miles to the north, is the vast aqueduct which carried +the water-supply of Nîmes across the obstruction caused by the river. +The three superimposed tiers of arches filling the wide space make one +of the most imposing of all the Roman works that have come down to the +present time.</p> + +<p>Arles is a serious rival to Nîmes. It has preserved its amphitheatre, +built about the first century <span class="smcap">A.D.</span> and large enough to hold an +audience of 25,000 persons. The remains of its theatre, with two +marble columns of its proscenium, which were utilised as a gallows in +the Middle Ages, standing out among the fallen and dislodged stones, +has preserved just enough of its form to be exceedingly impressive. In +the disused church of St. Anne have been gathered a most remarkable +collection of Roman sarcophagi,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_196" id="page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> altars, and many other objects of +richly sculptured stone, while in the Avenue des Alyscamps one may see +the cemetery of Roman Arles just outside the city walls, dating from +the reign of the Emperor Constantine. On the two sides of the avenue +there are many stone sarcophagi, the larger ones, of which there are +two or three dozen, having retained their lids. There are remains of +the forum and a tower of Constantine's palace, built early in the +fourth century.</p> + +<p>Orange has a theatre which, now that the upper tiers of seats have +been restored, has very much its original appearance. The immense +stone wall, forming the back of the semicircular stage, is 118 feet in +height and 13 feet thick. Stone was close at hand, making its +construction easy, and the auditorium was hewn out of the limestone +hill against which the theatre was built. There appears to have been a +permanent roof of timber—a unique feature—for there are structural +indications leading to such a conclusion, as well as signs of fire, +which no doubt was the cause of its disappearance. In about <span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 21 a +very fine triumphal arch was erected at Orange, then known as +<i>Arausio</i>, and this still<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_197" id="page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> stands complete, save for the detrition on +its surface caused by the weather and perhaps some rough handling in +the Dark Ages. Very judicious restoration has given one a convincing +idea of what is missing where the structure has not been overlaid with +new work. St. Rémy has contrived to preserve a considerable portion of +its triumphal arch, and close to it a remarkably perfect mausoleum, 50 +feet in height. It is adorned with much sculpture like the archway, +and both stand upon an exposed rocky plateau. There are, indeed, so +many survivals of this period which one would like to mention that +there would be no space to deal with any later age. Vienne, on the +extreme confines of Roman Provincia, has its temple, rebuilt in the +second century, converted into a Christian church in the fifth, and +made more famous during the Revolution by the celebrating within its +walls of the Festival of Reason. Remains of the city walls, of a +theatre, of the balustrade of a fine staircase, of a pantheon, an +amphitheatre, and a citadel are still to be seen. The Roman aqueduct, +which supplied the city, restored in 1822, is still to some extent in +use!</p> + +<p>Périgueux is full of indications of its Roman buildings. The Tour de +Vésone is in part a<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_198" id="page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> Gallo-Roman temple, dedicated to Vesuna; the +remains of the amphitheatre include much of the outer wall, in which +are staircases, vomitoria, and the lower vaulting now partially +exposed. At Lillebonne, mentioned in another chapter, are the +carefully excavated remains of a theatre; at Carcassonne, at Narbonne, +at Lyons, in Paris, and in other cities and towns, Roman foundations +and many sculptured stones are full of significance, and of absorbing +interest to the historian, the architect, and the archaeologist.</p> + +<p>Following the age of Roman domination came those strangely fascinating +centuries of disruption and destruction in which the outward +influences of Rome slowly gave way before the westward march of the +lower but healthier civilisation of the tribes of central and eastern +Europe. When these new peoples had settled down among the older +occupants of the country, they began to build permanent structures for +themselves, and although there may have been some craftsmanship among +them, they were unable to do more than make indifferent attempts to +copy the architecture of the Roman era. The dark shadow that the +irruptions caused to fall upon the face of Europe leaves the world in +ignorance as to the fate of the architects,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_199" id="page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> and stone masons who +reared the noble works of Rome's supremacy in western Europe. It would +appear that in the two or three centuries of uncertainty, if not of +perpetual warfare and social chaos, no one had time or opportunity to +do more than erect hurried fortifications of the crude type one sees +in the Visigothic portions of town walls, such as those of +Carcassonne. No architect could flourish under such conditions, and +unless he migrated to the seat of the Eastern Empire opportunities for +applying his knowledge were no doubt impossible to find. And at +Constantinople a new development of architecture was taking place, in +which the exterior was disregarded to a very considerable extent while +internal decoration became extravagant, Byzantine art being +dissatisfied unless every portion of walls and roof was richly +ornamented and brilliant in colour. The profession of the architect +being useless, the dependent handicraftsmen would inevitably die out, +and thus from the sixth century, which is about the earliest date of +any Romanesque building in France, one sees the crude efforts of the +ill-trained sculptors to copy the ornament of the buildings that lay +around them ruined or gutted. In many of the capitals that<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_200" id="page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> were +carved in these early centuries of Christian times, the volutes are +half-hearted attempts to reproduce the Ionic order, with a tendency to +stray into Corinthian foliation. From such very early buildings as the +church of St. Pierre at Vienne, onwards to St. Trophîme at Arles, the +crypts of Notre Dame du Port at Clermont-Ferrand and of St. Denis, +Paris, until one reaches the great churches of the eleventh and +twelfth centuries, such as the cathedral of Angoulême and the church +of Notre Dame la Grande at Poitiers, one can see the steady +development of a curious mixture of bastard Roman with the Byzantine +style, upon which was growing a new individuality which burst into +flower with the introduction of the pointed arch. In France this +abandonment of the Roman semicircular arch came very gradually. +Belonging to the transition stage are many fine buildings, in which +group are the fine church at Poitiers just mentioned and the cathedral +at Le Puy-en-Velay. The sculpture of this period reveals the very +strong Byzantine influence prevailing, and if no other evidence +existed this alone would demonstrate the debt western Europe owes to +the rearguard of its civilisation.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="illus267" id="illus267"></a> +<img src="images/illus267a.jpg" width="600" height="425" alt="Destroyers" /></div> +<p class="center"><b>FRENCH DESTROYERS.</b></p> + +<p>The architecture of Normandy had its own peculiarities during the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_201" id="page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> +Romanesque period, but while these differences have entitled it to a +separate name and classification, it is Romanesque influenced by the +Northmen, and all through England the strong Byzantine influence was +felt until the great expansion of new ideas began to outgrow the forms +and ornament of the preceding centuries.</p> + +<p>Two of the finest Norman Romanesque buildings are the great abbey +churches built at Caen by William the Conqueror and his queen Matilda. +The Abbaye aux Hommes, William's work, is not quite as it was when +consecrated, but it is almost entirely a work of the Norman period. +That there was a simplicity in the style at this period almost +amounting to plainness is shown in the west front of William's church; +while the Abbaye aux Dames, built about a quarter of a century later, +shows a very great advance in the distribution and application of +ornament both within and without. Another abbey church, that of St. +Georges de Boscherville, built in the eleventh century by Raoul de +Tancarville, is a more perfect and complete work of that period than +any other in Normandy. With the exception<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_202" id="page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> of the upper portions of +the western turrets and the broach spire, the whole church stands +to-day as it was originally erected. In these large and not always +very beautiful buildings, it is their association with a romantic +period and the evidences they show of architectural evolution that +provides the chief satisfaction to the informed visitor and the +student.</p> + +<p>A considerable portion of the abbey buildings that engirdle the summit +of the rocky islet of Mont St. Michel belong to the Norman period, +although much of the work is Gothic.</p> + +<p>At St. Denis, outside Paris, one sees the beginnings of French Gothic. +Clearly the builders regarded the new style as empirical, for there +was obvious hesitation to plunge too far into a field of such +considerable possibilities when the west front was designed. A little +later than St. Denis is the cathedral of Noyon, another extremely +interesting example of this period. Almost simultaneously came +Chartres, but a disastrous fire in 1194 left little besides the towers +and the west front. The rebuilding, however, which proceeded almost at +once, was to a considerable extent completed by 1210, and this later +work shows the Gothic style grown to all<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_203" id="page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> the splendour which has +perpetually satisfied and enthralled the minds of succeeding +generations.</p> + +<p>At this time building was proceeding all over Europe with wonderful +vigour. The new style gripped the imaginations of all the western +nations, and wherever sufficient funds were obtainable the monkish +architects were enthusiastically producing designs which were steadily +carried out in stone. In Paris Notre Dame was building all through the +closing years of the twelfth century and the opening of the next; at +Rouen, the cathedral having been burnt in 1200, half a century of +building followed; the glories of Rheims and Amiens were materialising +during the same period, and almost coeval is the vast cathedral of +Beauvais, which was planned to eclipse that of Amiens in every +respect. The ambitious intent of the designers of Beauvais was never +consummated, and in the unfinished pile standing to-day one sees the +failure to build a Titan among cathedrals.</p> + +<p>All through the period known in England as Early English there is much +similarity in design, as well as in ornament, on both sides of the +Channel, but signs of divergence begin to appear with the development +of decorative skill during<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_204" id="page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> the English Decorated Period, and when the +French architect had reached his highest achievement in the subtly +beautiful lines of the Flamboyant style, the English craftsmen, after +a few brief moments in the same direction, turned about and produced +their unique development in the style known as Perpendicular. Here and +there in France there are suggestions of the restraint of the last +phase of English Gothic, but they are almost as rare as the Flamboyant +style in England. At Evreux and at Gisors one sees remarkable examples +of the work of the Renaissance in the reconstruction of the west ends +of these Gothic churches. The contrast of styles is, however, too +marked to allow even the hand of Time to remove the challenge which +the two styles fling at one another.</p> + +<hr class="l30" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_205" id="page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span></p> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h3> +<h4>THE NATIONAL DEFENCES</h4> + +<p>About the year 1909 the administration of the French navy had fallen +into a scandalous state of chaos. Battleships were so long in building +that the type was beginning to be superseded before the vessels were +commissioned. There was a story circulated not long ago to the effect +that some one who enquired of the widow of a workman at Cherbourg what +her son was going to do for a livelihood received the reply that he +would work on the <i>Henri IV.</i> as his father had done. The story may +not be quite true, but it indicates what people were thinking at the +time. British ships are not infrequently completed within a year of +their launch, but the <i>Dupetit Thouars</i> which took the water in 1901 +was only completed in 1905.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_206" id="page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span></p> + +<p>It was during the period of office of M. Pelletan that the various +departments of the navy lost cohesion and their productive capacity +was greatly diminished. This minister was responsible for a species of +socialistic propaganda which brought about the most deplorable results +in so far as the efficiency of the navy was concerned. <i>Le Journal</i>, +in its summary of the conclusions of the commission of enquiry into +the state of naval administration, admitted that money had been wasted +in petty errors and foolish blunders, in orders and counter-orders, on +untried guns, on worthless boilers, on white powder which turned +green, on shells which destroyed the gunners, on 16-centimetre turrets +in which 19-centimetre guns had been placed. "The money," said this +newspaper, "has passed through ignorant hands, and slipped through +fools' fingers."</p> + +<p>Drastic changes were necessary to stop the alarming deterioration that +was taking place, for the nation had not, for fully ten years, been +getting anything near the full measure of sea-power to which it was +entitled by the annual sums voted. Between 1900 and 1909 France +expended 129 millions sterling on her navy, and in the same period +Germany devoted 121 millions<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_207" id="page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> to that branch of national defence, and +at the end of the decade it was found that the country spending the +larger sum had dropped down to a fifth place in the scale of world +sea-power, while with her smaller outlay Germany had risen to the +second place. In other words, the French had paid for the second place +and only realised the fifth!</p> + +<p>In this crisis Admiral Boué de Lapeyrère was appointed Minister of +Marine, and was provided with a civilian Under-Secretary of State to +act as assistant and be responsible with him for civil administration. +Since this appointment much leeway has been made up, although the +nation has had to mourn the loss of the <i>Liberté</i>, which blew up in +the crowded naval harbour of Toulon, and has been alarmed more than +once on account of the unstable quality of the powder with which the +ships have been supplied. At last this danger appears to have been +rectified.</p> + +<p>The French naval officer receives his training at the naval schools at +Brest and Toulon and is generally very keen and capable. He does not +enjoy hard conditions from the sporting instinct after the fashion so +usual in the British navy, but<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_208" id="page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> his devotion to his work produces very +efficient gunnery and admirable handling of submarine craft. For the +lower deck the supply of the suitable class of bluejacket might be +sadly deficient were it not for the seafaring populations of Brittany +and Normandy. At Bologne there was living recently a wrinkled old +grandmother who had forty grandchildren, of whom all the males were +sailors or fishermen, while several of the girls had become fishwives +or had married fishermen or sailors. France owes much to her little +weather-beaten grandmothers of this type.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="illus276" id="illus276"></a> +<img src="images/illus276a.jpg" width="420" height="550" alt="Soldiers" /></div> +<p class="center"><b>SOLDIERS OF FRANCE IN PARIS.</b></p> + +<p>The manning of the fleet is partially carried out by voluntary +enlistment, but the main supply is gained by means of the <i>inscription +maritime</i>, a system established in the latter part of the seventeenth +century by Colbert. This method requires all sailors between eighteen +and fifty to be enrolled in "the Army of the Sea." They begin their +term of seven years of obligatory service at about twenty, two years +of the period being furlough. Any man earning his livelihood on inland +waters, provided they are tidal or capable of carrying sea-going +vessels, is included in the term "sailor." A further supply of men +is<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_209" id="page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> obtained by transferring a certain number of the year's army +recruits to the sea service.</p> + +<p>Cherbourg, Brest, and Toulon are the chief naval ports, Lorient and +Rochefort being of lesser importance. Shipbuilding, however, takes +place at each of the five.</p> + +<p>The frequent changes make it impossible to discuss the strength of the +fleets in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, or those stationed in +colonial waters, but collectively the fighting force of the navy has +for the last few years numbered roughly 25 battleships, 15 large +armoured cruisers, 16 protected cruisers, 80 or 90 destroyers, 180 +torpedo-boats, and about 90 submarines and submersibles. Under the new +administration larger ships are being built, and the destroyer is +taking the place of the torpedo-boat.</p> + +<p>On account of its superiority as a fighting machine the army of France +ranks above the navy, and it should have been placed before the navy +in the short notes which constitute this chapter. The author has felt, +however, that the subject is too complex to deal with in such a book +as this. He confesses to blank ignorance as to the efficiency of the +French artillery material, although from English sources he gathers +that it<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_210" id="page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> is superior to that possessed by almost any other nation. It +would be extremely interesting if one could state how far the army is +prepared for "the real thing," how much it has learned in recent +years, to what extent its very efficient army of the air is a source +of strength, and whether the rifle at present in use is as perfect a +weapon as those of other countries. These are subjects much discussed +by the inexpert, and the author does not feel competent to deal with +them.</p> + +<p>In the present year (1913) the period of service for the conscripts +who form the army was raised from two to three years, and by this +means the numbers of the peace strength were enormously increased from +the former establishment of a little over half a million men. The new +law did not add, as might perhaps be imagined, another quarter of a +million to the total. France has not a sufficiently large population +to provide such a number of men of the required age and physical +fitness. The numbers are, however, considered sufficient to meet the +imaginary dangers which threaten her national existence, and the +country has now to divert much of its energy to meeting the cost of +this regrettable lengthening and<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_211" id="page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> thickening of her big stick. +Incidentally the world's prosperity must suffer, and social reforms +generations overdue must be postponed! With Ebenezer Elliott one asks +again:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>When wilt Thou save the people?<br /> +O God of mercy, when?</p> +</div> +<hr class="l30" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_212" id="page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="illus281" id="illus281"></a> +<a href="images/illus281-8-1500.png"><img src="images/illus281-8-500.png" width="500" height="511" alt="Map" style="border: 0" /></a></div> +<p class="center"><b>SKETCH MAP OF FRANCE.</b></p> + +<hr class="l30" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_213" id="page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="p2"><a name="INDEX" id="INDEX"></a>INDEX</h2> +<div class="left25"> +<ul class="none"> +<li>Ablutions, personal, <a href="#page_34">34</a></li> +<li>Academies, the, <a href="#page_75">75</a></li> +<li>Adour, the, <a href="#page_144">144</a>, <a href="#page_168">168</a></li> +<li>Agnosticism, <a href="#page_80">80</a>, <a href="#page_83">83</a></li> +<li>Agriculture, <a href="#page_116">116</a></li> +<li>Agrippa, <a href="#page_161">161</a></li> +<li>Aigues-Mortes, <a href="#page_127">127</a>, <a href="#page_16">16</a></li> +<li>Aix-en-Provence, <a href="#page_164">164</a></li> +<li>Algerian wine, <a href="#page_125">125</a></li> +<li>Allier, the, <a href="#page_147">147</a></li> +<li>Alms-giving in churches, <a href="#page_44">44</a></li> +<li>Alps, <a href="#page_123">123</a>, <a href="#page_124">124</a></li> +<li>Amboise, <a href="#page_150">150</a></li> +<li>Amiens, <a href="#page_203">203</a></li> +<li>Andely, Le Petit, <a href="#page_154">154</a></li> +<li>Angers, Château d', <a href="#page_150">150</a></li> +<li>Anglo-Norman horses, <a href="#page_123">123</a></li> +<li>Angoulême, <a href="#page_200">200</a></li> +<li>Apache, the, <a href="#page_96">96</a>, <a href="#page_97">97</a></li> +<li>Arles, <a href="#page_130">130</a>, <a href="#page_162">162</a>, <a href="#page_164">164</a>, <a href="#page_195">195</a>, <a href="#page_196">196</a>, <a href="#page_200">200</a></li> +<li>Armoricans, the, <a href="#page_7">7</a></li> +<li>Army, the, <a href="#page_209">209</a></li> +<li><i>Arrondissement</i>, the, <a href="#page_60">60</a></li> +<li>Asses, <a href="#page_123">123</a></li> +<li>Assize, Courts of, <a href="#page_63">63</a></li> +<li>Aube, the, <a href="#page_152">152</a></li> +<li>Augustus Caesar, <a href="#page_161">161</a>, <a href="#page_181">181</a></li> +<li>Auvergnes, the, <a href="#page_146">146</a></li> +<li><i>Aversier</i>, the, <a href="#page_131">131</a></li> +<li>Avignon, <a href="#page_162">162</a>, <a href="#page_164">164</a></li> +<li>Ay, <a href="#page_126">126</a></li> +</ul> +</div> + +<div class="left25"> +<ul class="none"> +<li><i>Baccalauréat de l'enseignement</i>, <a href="#page_74">74</a></li> +<li>Bachelier, Nicholas, <a href="#page_167">167</a></li> +<li>Bacteriology, science of, <a href="#page_18">18</a></li> +<li>Bagehot, Walter, <a href="#page_53">53</a></li> +<li>Banns, announcement of, <a href="#page_42">42</a></li> +<li>Barker, Mr. E. H., <a href="#page_106">106</a>, <a href="#page_116">116</a></li> +<li>Bastille, the, <a href="#page_111">111</a></li> +<li>Bath, the itinerant, <a href="#page_34">34</a></li> +<li>Battle of Flowers at Nice, <a href="#page_171">171</a></li> +<li>Bayonne, <a href="#page_168">168</a></li> +<li>Beauce, La, plain of, <a href="#page_115">115</a>, <a href="#page_116">116</a>, <a href="#page_119">119</a></li> +<li>Beaugency, <a href="#page_148">148</a></li> +<li>Beauvais, <a href="#page_203">203</a></li> +<li>Bedroom, the typical, <a href="#page_26">26</a>, <a href="#page_28">28</a></li> +<li>Bergerac, <a href="#page_167">167</a></li> +<li>Bernese Alps, <a href="#page_143">143</a>, <a href="#page_159">159</a></li> +<li>Betham-Edwards, Miss, <a href="#page_31">31</a></li> +<li>Béziers, <a href="#page_126">126</a></li> +<li>Biarritz, <a href="#page_184">184</a>, <a href="#page_190">190</a>, <a href="#page_191">191</a></li> +<li>Birth-rate, the, <a href="#page_36">36</a></li> +<li>Blessington, Lady, <a href="#page_172">172</a></li> +<li>Blois, <a href="#page_148">148</a></li> +<li>Blois, Château de, <a href="#page_149">149</a></li> +<li><i>Bonne-à-tout-faire</i>, the, <a href="#page_13">13</a>, <a href="#page_14">14</a>, <a href="#page_101">101</a>, <a href="#page_102">102</a> + <ul class="none"> + <li>commissions of the, <a href="#page_30">30</a></li> + </ul></li> +<li>Bordeaux, <a href="#page_167">167</a></li> +<li>Bore on the Seine, <a href="#page_155">155</a></li> +<li>Boué de Lapeyrère, Admiral, <a href="#page_207">207</a></li> +<li>Boulanger, <a href="#page_139">139</a></li> +<li>Boulevards, the, <a href="#page_88">88</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_214" id="page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span></li> +<li>Boulogne, <a href="#page_189">189</a>, <a href="#page_208">208</a></li> +<li>Boulogne, Bois de, Paris, <a href="#page_110">110</a></li> +<li>Bourseul, Charles, <a href="#page_18">18</a></li> +<li>Boy Scouts in France, <a href="#page_72">72</a></li> +<li>Bread, French, <a href="#page_87">87</a></li> +<li>Brest, <a href="#page_207">207</a>, <a href="#page_209">209</a></li> +<li>Brieg, <a href="#page_158">158</a></li> +<li>Brittany, <a href="#page_11">11</a>, <a href="#page_12">12</a>, <a href="#page_122">122</a>, <a href="#page_123">123</a>, <a href="#page_131">131</a>, <a href="#page_189">189</a>, <a href="#page_208">208</a> + <ul class="none"> + <li>megalithic remains, <a href="#page_7">7</a></li> + </ul></li> +<li>Brougham and Vaux, Lord Chancellor, <a href="#page_170">170</a></li> +<li>Brunel, Isambard, <a href="#page_18">18</a></li> +<li>Buckwheat, <a href="#page_115">115</a></li> +<li>Butcher, the French, <a href="#page_32">32</a></li> +<li>Byron, Lord, <a href="#page_159">159</a></li> +<li>Byzantine architecture, <a href="#page_193">193</a>, <a href="#page_199">199</a>, <a href="#page_200">200</a>, <a href="#page_201">201</a></li> +</ul> +</div> +<div class="left25"> +<ul class="none"> +<li>Cabourg, <a href="#page_184">184</a></li> +<li>Caen, <a href="#page_88">88</a>, <a href="#page_201">201</a></li> +<li>Caesar, Gaius Julius, <a href="#page_10">10</a></li> +<li>Cafés, the, <a href="#page_86">86</a>, <a href="#page_87">87</a>, <a href="#page_88">88</a>, <a href="#page_113">113</a></li> +<li>Calvaries, roadside, <a href="#page_122">122</a></li> +<li>Cannes, <a href="#page_170">170</a>, <a href="#page_174">174</a></li> +<li><i>Canton</i>, the, <a href="#page_60">60</a></li> +<li>Carcassonne, <a href="#page_198">198</a></li> +<li>Carmargue, the, <a href="#page_163">163</a></li> +<li>Carnac, prehistoric remains at, <a href="#page_194">194</a></li> +<li>Carnavalet, Musée, Paris, <a href="#page_109">109</a></li> +<li>Carts, country, <a href="#page_118">118</a></li> +<li>Casino, the, <a href="#page_171">171</a>, <a href="#page_176">176</a>, <a href="#page_178">178</a></li> +<li><i>Cassation, Cour de</i>, <a href="#page_63">63</a></li> +<li>Catherine de Medici, <a href="#page_150">150</a></li> +<li>Cattle, <a href="#page_123">123</a></li> +<li>Caudebec, <a href="#page_155">155</a>, <a href="#page_156">156</a></li> +<li>Cevennes, the, <a href="#page_115">115</a>, <a href="#page_123">123</a>, <a href="#page_145">145</a>, <a href="#page_146">146</a> + <ul class="none"> + <li>peasants of, <a href="#page_128">128</a>-<a href="#page_130">130</a></li> + </ul></li> +<li>Charente, the, <a href="#page_144">144</a></li> +<li>Chartres, <a href="#page_202">202</a></li> +<li>Château Gaillard, <a href="#page_153">153</a></li> +<li><i>Château</i> life, <a href="#page_133">133</a>-<a href="#page_137">137</a></li> +<li>Châtillon, <a href="#page_152">152</a></li> +<li>Chaumont, Château de, <a href="#page_150">150</a></li> +<li>Chenonceaux, Château de, <a href="#page_150">150</a></li> +<li>Cherbourg, <a href="#page_205">205</a>, <a href="#page_209">209</a></li> +<li>Chestnuts, <a href="#page_115">115</a></li> +<li>Children, training of, <a href="#page_38">38</a>, <a href="#page_39">39</a></li> +<li>Churches, <a href="#page_78">78</a> + <ul class="none"> + <li>attendance at, <a href="#page_78">78</a></li> + <li>decorations in, <a href="#page_79">79</a>, <a href="#page_80">80</a></li> + <li>irreverent behaviour in, <a href="#page_78">78</a></li> + </ul></li> +<li>Church-going, women and, <a href="#page_79">79</a></li> +<li>Cimbri, <a href="#page_157">157</a></li> +<li>Civil Code, the, <a href="#page_14">14</a>, <a href="#page_42">42</a>, <a href="#page_47">47</a>, <a href="#page_66">66</a></li> +<li>Cleanliness, <a href="#page_33">33</a></li> +<li>Clermont-Ferrand, <a href="#page_200">200</a></li> +<li>Cluny, Hôtel, Paris, <a href="#page_110">110</a></li> +<li>Coal consumption, <a href="#page_29">29</a></li> +<li><i>Concierge</i>, the, <a href="#page_38">38</a>, <a href="#page_97">97</a>, <a href="#page_98">98</a>, <a href="#page_99">99</a></li> +<li><i>Conciergerie</i>, the, Paris, <a href="#page_110">110</a></li> +<li>Conscription, <a href="#page_210">210</a></li> +<li>Constantine, Emperor, <a href="#page_196">196</a></li> +<li>Constitution, the French, <a href="#page_50">50</a>, <a href="#page_51">51</a>, <a href="#page_52">52</a>, <a href="#page_53">53</a></li> +<li>Conversation in the <i>château</i>, <a href="#page_139">139</a></li> +<li>Cooking, French, <a href="#page_2">2</a>, <a href="#page_3">3</a></li> +<li>Corniche Roads, the, <a href="#page_179">179</a>, <a href="#page_180">180</a>, <a href="#page_181">181</a></li> +<li>Corrèze, <a href="#page_115">115</a></li> +<li>Costebelle, <a href="#page_173">173</a></li> +<li>Crau, La, <a href="#page_163">163</a>, <a href="#page_164">164</a></li> +<li>Critical faculty of the French, <a href="#page_20">20</a></li> +<li>Curé, the, <a href="#page_83">83</a>, <a href="#page_84">84</a>, <a href="#page_85">85</a></li> +</ul> +</div> +<div class="left25"> +<ul class="none"> +<li>Deauville, <a href="#page_183">183</a></li> +<li>Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, the, <a href="#page_50">50</a>, <a href="#page_51">51</a>, <a href="#page_52">52</a></li> +<li>Demolins, M., <a href="#page_71">71</a></li> +<li>Deputies, Chamber of, <a href="#page_55">55</a> + <ul class="none"> + <li>salaries of, <a href="#page_59">59</a></li> + </ul></li> +<li>Diane de Poitiers, <a href="#page_150">150</a></li> +<li>Dieppe, <a href="#page_187">187</a></li> +<li>Dinard, <a href="#page_189">189</a></li> +<li>Discipline, lack of, <a href="#page_47">47</a></li> +<li>Dive, the, <a href="#page_184">184</a></li> +<li>Divorce laws, <a href="#page_44">44</a>, <a href="#page_45">45</a></li> +<li>Doctors, fees of, <a href="#page_131">131</a>, <a href="#page_132">132</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_215" id="page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span></li> +<li>d'Or, Iles, <a href="#page_173">173</a></li> +<li>Dordogne, the, <a href="#page_167">167</a></li> +<li><i>Dot</i>, the, <a href="#page_47">47</a></li> +<li>Dreyfus, Captain A., <a href="#page_63">63</a></li> +<li>Duelling, <a href="#page_139">139</a>-<a href="#page_142">142</a></li> +<li>Dumas, the elder, <a href="#page_139">139</a></li> +<li>Durance, the, <a href="#page_164">164</a></li> +</ul> +</div> +<div class="left25"> +<ul class="none"> +<li>Ebro, the, <a href="#page_151">151</a></li> +<li>Economies of the French, <a href="#page_21">21</a></li> +<li>Education, expenditure on, <a href="#page_67">67</a>, <a href="#page_68">68</a></li> +<li>Education and social status, <a href="#page_75">75</a></li> +<li>Educational system, <a href="#page_72">72</a></li> +<li>Edward the Confessor, <a href="#page_156">156</a></li> +<li>Edward VII., King, <a href="#page_190">190</a></li> +<li>English Channel, the, <a href="#page_6">6</a></li> +<li>Épernay, <a href="#page_126">126</a></li> +<li>Esplanade, on the Riviera, the, <a href="#page_176">176</a>, <a href="#page_177">177</a></li> +<li>Essonne, the, <a href="#page_152">152</a></li> +<li>Estérel Mountains, <a href="#page_173">173</a>, <a href="#page_174">174</a></li> +<li>Étaples, <a href="#page_189">189</a></li> +<li>Étoile district of Paris, <a href="#page_89">89</a></li> +<li>Étretat, <a href="#page_153">153</a>, <a href="#page_184">184</a>, <a href="#page_185">185</a></li> +<li>Eu, <a href="#page_187">187</a></li> +<li>Euric, king of the Visigoths, <a href="#page_166">166</a></li> +<li>Evreux, <a href="#page_204">204</a></li> +</ul> +</div> +<div class="left25"> +<ul class="none"> +<li>Faculties, the State, <a href="#page_75">75</a></li> +<li>Family Council, the, <a href="#page_34">34</a>, <a href="#page_35">35</a></li> +<li>Farms, <a href="#page_119">119</a>, <a href="#page_120">120</a></li> +<li>Fécamp, <a href="#page_186">186</a></li> +<li><i>Five o'clock, le</i>, <a href="#page_135">135</a></li> +<li>Flail, use of, <a href="#page_118">118</a></li> +<li>Flamboyant style, <a href="#page_204">204</a></li> +<li>Fontainebleau, forest of, <a href="#page_124">124</a></li> +<li>Food, high cost of, <a href="#page_105">105</a></li> +<li>Forests of France, <a href="#page_124">124</a></li> +<li>Forez, plain of, <a href="#page_146">146</a></li> +<li>France as a colonising nation, <a href="#page_48">48</a></li> +<li>Franchise, the, <a href="#page_56">56</a></li> +<li>Franks, the, <a href="#page_10">10</a></li> +<li>Fréjus, <a href="#page_173">173</a></li> +<li>French enterprise, <a href="#page_65">65</a></li> +<li>French people, origin of, <a href="#page_11">11</a>, <a href="#page_12">12</a>, <a href="#page_32">32</a></li> +<li>Frenchwomen, dress of, <a href="#page_2">2</a></li> +<li>Funerals, <a href="#page_79">79</a></li> +<li>Furnishing of the <i>château</i>, <a href="#page_135">135</a>, <a href="#page_136">136</a></li> +<li>Furniture, household, <a href="#page_28">28</a></li> +</ul> +</div> +<div class="left25"> +<ul class="none"> +<li>Galatia, <a href="#page_10">10</a></li> +<li>Gallia Comata, <a href="#page_161">161</a></li> +<li>Games at <i>Lycées</i>, <a href="#page_72">72</a></li> +<li>Garavan, <a href="#page_170">170</a>, <a href="#page_182">182</a></li> +<li>Gard, the, <a href="#page_162">162</a>, <a href="#page_195">195</a></li> +<li><i>Garde républicaine</i>, the, <a href="#page_64">64</a>, <a href="#page_93">93</a></li> +<li>Garonne, the, <a href="#page_144">144</a>, <a href="#page_164">164</a>-<a href="#page_167">167</a></li> +<li>Gascons, the, <a href="#page_11">11</a></li> +<li>Gaul, early tribes of, <a href="#page_7">7</a>, <a href="#page_8">8</a></li> +<li>Gauls, the, <a href="#page_9">9</a></li> +<li><i>Gendarmerie</i>, the, <a href="#page_64">64</a></li> +<li>Geneva, Lake of, <a href="#page_159">159</a>, <a href="#page_164">164</a></li> +<li>George, Mr. W. L., <a href="#page_81">81</a></li> +<li>Gironde, the, <a href="#page_167">167</a></li> +<li>Gisors, <a href="#page_204">204</a></li> +<li>Golf-courses, <a href="#page_171">171</a>, <a href="#page_188">188</a></li> +<li>Grievances, endurance of, <a href="#page_49">49</a>, <a href="#page_50">50</a> + <ul class="none"> + <li>redress of, <a href="#page_19">19</a></li> + </ul></li> +<li>Gris Nez, Cape, <a href="#page_6">6</a>, <a href="#page_153">153</a></li> +<li>Guise, Duc de, <a href="#page_150">150</a></li> +</ul> +</div> +<div class="left25"> +<ul class="none"> +<li>Habeas Corpus, the right of, <a href="#page_52">52</a></li> +<li>Hannibal, <a href="#page_157">157</a></li> +<li>Hardelot, <a href="#page_189">189</a></li> +<li>Harfleur, <a href="#page_156">156</a></li> +<li>Hausmann, the architect, <a href="#page_113">113</a></li> +<li>Havre, Le, <a href="#page_156">156</a></li> +<li>Hedges, lack of, <a href="#page_121">121</a></li> +<li>Holdings, average size of, <a href="#page_116">116</a></li> +<li>Holmes, Mr. T. Rice, <a href="#page_33">33</a></li> +<li>Home life, <a href="#page_25">25</a></li> +<li>Home-sur-Mer, Le, <a href="#page_184">184</a></li> +<li>Honfleur, <a href="#page_156">156</a></li> +<li>Hope, Sir John, <a href="#page_168">168</a></li> +<li>Horses, breeding of, <a href="#page_122">122</a>, <a href="#page_123">123</a></li> +<li>Hotels, <a href="#page_3">3</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_216" id="page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span></li> +<li>Hotels, French and English, contrasted, <a href="#page_32">32</a>, <a href="#page_33">33</a></li> +<li>Household furnishing, <a href="#page_26">26</a> + <ul class="none"> + <li>repairs, <a href="#page_26">26</a></li> + </ul></li> +<li>Housemaid's work done by men, <a href="#page_25">25</a></li> +<li>Housing, <a href="#page_37">37</a> + <ul class="none"> + <li>in Paris, <a href="#page_104">104</a></li> + </ul></li> +<li>Huguenots, <a href="#page_150">150</a></li> +<li>Hunting parties, <a href="#page_136">136</a></li> +<li>Husbandry, primitive, <a href="#page_117">117</a></li> +<li>Hyères, <a href="#page_172">172</a></li> +</ul> +</div> +<div class="left25"> +<ul class="none"> +<li>Ideas, the great, of the French, <a href="#page_17">17</a>, <a href="#page_18">18</a></li> +<li><i>Inscription maritime</i>, <a href="#page_208">208</a></li> +<li><i>Institut de France</i>, <a href="#page_75">75</a></li> +<li>Irreligion, <a href="#page_82">82</a>, <a href="#page_83">83</a></li> +</ul> +</div> +<div class="left25"> +<ul class="none"> +<li><i>Jeune fille</i> the, <a href="#page_39">39</a>, <a href="#page_40">40</a>, <a href="#page_46">46</a>, <a href="#page_69">69</a></li> +<li>Jewish communities, <a href="#page_81">81</a></li> +<li><i>Juge d'instruction</i>, <a href="#page_63">63</a></li> +<li><i>Juge de paix</i>, <a href="#page_35">35</a>, <a href="#page_61">61</a>, <a href="#page_62">62</a>, <a href="#page_63">63</a></li> +<li>Jumièges, Abbey of, <a href="#page_156">156</a></li> +<li>Jura, the, <a href="#page_123">123</a>, <a href="#page_143">143</a></li> +</ul> +</div> +<div class="left25"> +<ul class="none"> +<li>Lamartine, <a href="#page_139">139</a></li> +<li>Landais, the, <a href="#page_11">11</a></li> +<li>Landes, Les, <a href="#page_123">123</a>, <a href="#page_124">124</a></li> +<li>Langeais, Château de, <a href="#page_150">150</a></li> +<li>Language, the French, <a href="#page_8">8</a>, <a href="#page_11">11</a></li> +<li>Langres, Plateau de, <a href="#page_152">152</a></li> +<li>Lannemezan, plateau of, <a href="#page_165">165</a></li> +<li>Lauzan, Hôtel de, Paris, <a href="#page_110">110</a></li> +<li>Le Parc, <a href="#page_160">160</a></li> +<li>Le Puy-en-Velay, <a href="#page_76">76</a>, <a href="#page_146">146</a>, <a href="#page_200">200</a></li> +<li><i>Liberté</i>, destruction of the, <a href="#page_207">207</a></li> +<li>Libourne, <a href="#page_167">167</a></li> +<li>Lillebonne, <a href="#page_156">156</a>, <a href="#page_198">198</a></li> +<li>Locke, Mr. J. W., <a href="#page_113">113</a></li> +<li>Loing, the, <a href="#page_152">152</a></li> +<li>Loire, the, <a href="#page_144">144</a>-<a href="#page_150">150</a>, <a href="#page_156">156</a></li> +<li>Lorient, <a href="#page_209">209</a></li> +<li>Louis XIV., <a href="#page_110">110</a></li> +<li>Louvre, Palais du, Paris, <a href="#page_110">110</a></li> +<li>Lugdunum, <a href="#page_161">161</a></li> +<li>Lutetia Parisiorum, <a href="#page_110">110</a></li> +<li><i>Lycées</i>, the, <a href="#page_39">39</a>, <a href="#page_68">68</a>, <a href="#page_69">69</a>, <a href="#page_70">70</a>, <a href="#page_72">72</a>, <a href="#page_74">74</a></li> +<li><i>Lycées</i> for girls, <a href="#page_69">69</a></li> +<li>Lyons, <a href="#page_61">61</a>, <a href="#page_160">160</a>, <a href="#page_161">161</a>, <a href="#page_162">162</a>, <a href="#page_198">198</a></li> +</ul> +</div> +<div class="left25"> +<ul class="none"> +<li>Madeleine, the, <a href="#page_44">44</a></li> +<li>Maeterlinck, <a href="#page_156">156</a></li> +<li><i>Mairie</i>, the, <a href="#page_43">43</a></li> +<li><i>Maison paternelle, la</i>, <a href="#page_35">35</a>, <a href="#page_38">38</a></li> +<li>Maladetta Chain, <a href="#page_165">165</a></li> +<li><i>Mariage d'inclination</i>, the, <a href="#page_40">40</a></li> +<li>Marie Antoinette, <a href="#page_110">110</a></li> +<li>Maritime Alps, <a href="#page_164">164</a></li> +<li>Marketing, <a href="#page_30">30</a>, <a href="#page_103">103</a></li> +<li>Marne, the, <a href="#page_152">152</a></li> +<li>Marriage, enquiries before, <a href="#page_24">24</a> + <ul class="none"> + <li>parental control of, <a href="#page_40">40</a>, <a href="#page_41">41</a>, <a href="#page_42">42</a></li> + </ul></li> +<li>Martin, Cap, <a href="#page_181">181</a></li> +<li>Martinière, La, <a href="#page_148">148</a></li> +<li>Mary Stuart, <a href="#page_150">150</a></li> +<li>Maure Mountains, <a href="#page_173">173</a></li> +<li>Meals, <a href="#page_31">31</a></li> +<li>Meat, the cutting of, <a href="#page_32">32</a></li> +<li>Medical services in the country, <a href="#page_31">31</a></li> +<li>Megalithic remains of Brittany, <a href="#page_7">7</a></li> +<li>Mentone, <a href="#page_181">181</a>, <a href="#page_182">182</a></li> +<li>Merovingian architecture, <a href="#page_198">198</a>, <a href="#page_199">199</a>, <a href="#page_200">200</a></li> +<li><i>Métayage</i> system, the, <a href="#page_117">117</a></li> +<li><i>Métayers</i>, <a href="#page_117">117</a></li> +<li>Meudon Woods, <a href="#page_141">141</a></li> +<li>Midi, the, <a href="#page_118">118</a></li> +<li><i>Midinette</i>, the, <a href="#page_13">13</a>, <a href="#page_33">33</a>, <a href="#page_94">94</a>, <a href="#page_95">95</a>, <a href="#page_96">96</a></li> +<li>Ministry, the, <a href="#page_56">56</a></li> +<li>Misconceptions concerning France, <a href="#page_13">13</a></li> +<li>Mistral, the, <a href="#page_163">163</a></li> +<li>Monaco, <a href="#page_177">177</a> + <ul class="none"> + <li>Prince of, <a href="#page_178">178</a></li> + </ul></li> +<li>Monopolies, State, <a href="#page_60">60</a></li> +<li>Montaigne, <a href="#page_140">140</a></li> +<li>Monte Bego, <a href="#page_118">118</a></li> +<li>Monte Carlo, <a href="#page_177">177</a>, <a href="#page_178">178</a>, <a href="#page_179">179</a></li> +<li>Montmartre, <a href="#page_107">107</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_217" id="page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span></li> +<li>Mont St. Michel, <a href="#page_202">202</a></li> +<li>Morals of the French, <a href="#page_16">16</a>, <a href="#page_17">17</a></li> +<li>Moselle, the, <a href="#page_151">151</a></li> +<li>Mules, <a href="#page_122">122</a></li> +</ul> +</div> +<div class="left25"> +<ul class="none"> +<li>Nantes, <a href="#page_148">148</a></li> +<li>Napoleon, <a href="#page_67">67</a>, <a href="#page_140">140</a> + <ul class="none"> + <li>modern France the work of, <a href="#page_65">65</a></li> + </ul></li> +<li>Napoleon III., <a href="#page_55">55</a></li> +<li>Napoule, La, <a href="#page_171">171</a>, <a href="#page_174">174</a></li> +<li>Narbonne, <a href="#page_10">10</a>, <a href="#page_126">126</a>, <a href="#page_198">198</a></li> +<li>National debt, <a href="#page_60">60</a></li> +<li>Navy, the, <a href="#page_205">205</a>-<a href="#page_209">209</a></li> +<li>Neste, the, <a href="#page_165">165</a></li> +<li>Nevers, <a href="#page_147">147</a></li> +<li>Nice, <a href="#page_171">171</a>, <a href="#page_176">176</a>, <a href="#page_177">177</a></li> +<li>Nîmes, <a href="#page_162">162</a>, <a href="#page_194">194</a></li> +<li>Normandy, <a href="#page_115">115</a>, <a href="#page_116">116</a>, <a href="#page_118">118</a>, <a href="#page_119">119</a>, <a href="#page_122">122</a>, <a href="#page_123">123</a>, <a href="#page_126">126</a>, <a href="#page_208">208</a> + <ul class="none"> + <li>architecture of, <a href="#page_201">201</a></li> + <li>people of, <a href="#page_12">12</a></li> + </ul></li> +<li>Notre Dame, Paris, <a href="#page_203">203</a></li> +<li>Noyon, <a href="#page_202">202</a></li> +<li>Nuns as medical practitioners, <a href="#page_132">132</a></li> +</ul> +</div> +<div class="left25"> +<ul class="none"> +<li>Odours of France, <a href="#page_5">5</a></li> +<li>Oiseaux, Montagnes des, <a href="#page_173">173</a></li> +<li>Olive, the, <a href="#page_162">162</a></li> +<li>Omnibuses of Paris, <a href="#page_91">91</a>, <a href="#page_101">101</a></li> +<li>Orange, <a href="#page_162">162</a>, <a href="#page_196">196</a></li> +<li>Orleans, Forêt d', <a href="#page_124">124</a></li> +<li>Orne, the, <a href="#page_184">184</a></li> +<li>Orthez, <a href="#page_168">168</a></li> +<li>Oxen, draught, <a href="#page_118">118</a>, <a href="#page_124">124</a></li> +</ul> +</div> +<div class="left25"> +<ul class="none"> +<li>Parc Monceaux, Paris, <a href="#page_108">108</a></li> +<li>Paris, cab-drivers of, <a href="#page_1">1</a>, <a href="#page_2">2</a> + <ul class="none"> + <li>compared with London, <a href="#page_110">110</a>, <a href="#page_111">111</a>, <a href="#page_112">112</a></li> + <li>Étoile district, <a href="#page_107">107</a></li> + <li>fortifications of, <a href="#page_112">112</a></li> + <li>high prices in, <a href="#page_29">29</a></li> + <li>high rents of, <a href="#page_29">29</a></li> + <li>home life in, <a href="#page_25">25</a></li> + <li>Plage, <a href="#page_189">189</a></li> + <li>prisons, <a href="#page_65">65</a></li> + <li>Roman, <a href="#page_110">110</a></li> + <li>St. Antoine District, <a href="#page_109">109</a></li> + <li>Sainte Chapelle, <a href="#page_109">109</a></li> + <li>St. Étienne-du-Mont, <a href="#page_109">109</a></li> + <li>St. Germain, <a href="#page_109">109</a></li> + <li>St. Jacques, <a href="#page_109">109</a></li> + <li>smoke of, <a href="#page_107">107</a></li> + <li>streets of, <a href="#page_86">86</a>, <a href="#page_87">87</a>, <a href="#page_107">107</a>, <a href="#page_108">108</a>, <a href="#page_109">109</a></li> + </ul></li> +<li>Pau, <a href="#page_191">191</a>, <a href="#page_192">192</a></li> +<li>Pau, Gave de, <a href="#page_168">168</a>, <a href="#page_192">192</a></li> +<li>Peasant, costume of, <a href="#page_126">126</a> + <ul class="none"> + <li>life, <a href="#page_114">114</a>-<a href="#page_131">131</a></li> + <li>ownership of land, <a href="#page_114">114</a>, <a href="#page_115">115</a></li> + <li>women, <a href="#page_130">130</a></li> + </ul></li> +<li>Pelletan, M., <a href="#page_206">206</a></li> +<li>Pennine Alps, <a href="#page_143">143</a>, <a href="#page_159">159</a></li> +<li>Percheron horses, <a href="#page_123">123</a></li> +<li>Perdu, Mont, <a href="#page_165">165</a></li> +<li>Périgueux, <a href="#page_197">197</a>, <a href="#page_198">198</a></li> +<li>Philippe Auguste, <a href="#page_150">150</a></li> +<li>Phoenician traders, <a href="#page_164">164</a></li> +<li>Phylloxera, the, <a href="#page_125">125</a></li> +<li>Pigs, <a href="#page_123">123</a></li> +<li>Pinay, <a href="#page_145">145</a></li> +<li><i>Pistonnage</i>, <a href="#page_58">58</a></li> +<li>Plato, <a href="#page_183">183</a></li> +<li>Poitiers, <a href="#page_200">200</a></li> +<li>Poitou, plain of, <a href="#page_144">144</a></li> +<li>Police, <a href="#page_64">64</a></li> +<li>Policemen of Paris, <a href="#page_90">90</a>, <a href="#page_91">91</a></li> +<li>Politeness of the French, <a href="#page_99">99</a></li> +<li>Pont du Gard, <a href="#page_157">157</a>, <a href="#page_195">195</a></li> +<li>Pont du Roi, <a href="#page_165">165</a></li> +<li>Pratz, Mdlle. de, <a href="#page_95">95</a>, <a href="#page_105">105</a></li> +<li><i>Première Instance</i>, Court of, <a href="#page_61">61</a></li> +<li>President, the, <a href="#page_57">57</a>, <a href="#page_58">58</a></li> +<li>Prison system, <a href="#page_64">64</a></li> +<li>Protective tariffs, <a href="#page_104">104</a></li> +<li>Protestants in France, <a href="#page_81">81</a></li> +<li>Provence, scenery of, <a href="#page_163">163</a></li> +<li>Public Instruction, Minister of, <a href="#page_68">68</a></li> +<li>Pyrenees, the, <a href="#page_123">123</a>, <a href="#page_124">124</a>, <a href="#page_165">165</a>, <a href="#page_191">191</a>, <a href="#page_192">192</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_218" id="page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span></li> +<li>Pyrimont, <a href="#page_160">160</a></li> +</ul> +</div> +<div class="left25"> +<ul class="none"> +<li>Rapidity of speech, <a href="#page_15">15</a></li> +<li>Reason, Festival of, <a href="#page_197">197</a></li> +<li>Religion of the French, <a href="#page_76">76</a>, <a href="#page_77">77</a></li> +<li>Rents in Paris, <a href="#page_103">103</a>, <a href="#page_104">104</a></li> +<li>Revolution, the, <a href="#page_50">50</a>, <a href="#page_62">62</a>, <a href="#page_197">197</a></li> +<li>Rheims, <a href="#page_203">203</a></li> +<li>Rhone, the, <a href="#page_127">127</a>, <a href="#page_143">143</a>, <a href="#page_157">157</a>, <a href="#page_160">160</a>, <a href="#page_161">161</a>-<a href="#page_165">165</a></li> +<li>Rhone Glacier, <a href="#page_144">144</a>, <a href="#page_158">158</a></li> +<li>Richard Coeur-de-Lion, <a href="#page_153">153</a></li> +<li>Riviera, the, <a href="#page_169">169</a>-<a href="#page_183">183</a></li> +<li>Road, rule of the, <a href="#page_90">90</a></li> +<li>Roanne, <a href="#page_145">145</a>, <a href="#page_147">147</a></li> +<li>Robespierre, <a href="#page_110">110</a></li> +<li>Rochefort, <a href="#page_139">139</a>, <a href="#page_209">209</a></li> +<li>Roman architecture in France, <a href="#page_193">193</a>-<a href="#page_199">199</a></li> +<li>Roman Catholicism, <a href="#page_81">81</a></li> +<li>Rouen, <a href="#page_154">154</a>, <a href="#page_155">155</a>, <a href="#page_203">203</a></li> +</ul> +</div> +<div class="left25"> +<ul class="none"> +<li>Sabatier, Paul, <a href="#page_84">84</a></li> +<li>St. Bartholomew, Massacre of, <a href="#page_150">150</a></li> +<li>St. Bénézet, <a href="#page_157">157</a></li> +<li>Ste. Beuve, <a href="#page_139">139</a></li> +<li>St. Denis, Paris, <a href="#page_78">78</a>, <a href="#page_200">200</a>, <a href="#page_202">202</a></li> +<li>St. Étienne, <a href="#page_145">145</a>, <a href="#page_146">146</a></li> +<li>St. Gaudens, <a href="#page_166">166</a></li> +<li>St. Georges de Boscherville, <a href="#page_201">201</a></li> +<li>St. Germain, Faubourg, Paris, <a href="#page_106">106</a>, <a href="#page_111">111</a></li> +<li>St. Gilles, <a href="#page_163">163</a></li> +<li>St. Jean de Luz, <a href="#page_190">190</a>, <a href="#page_191">191</a></li> +<li>St. Martory, <a href="#page_166">166</a></li> +<li>St. Maurice, <a href="#page_158">158</a></li> +<li>St. Michel, Mont, <a href="#page_202">202</a></li> +<li>St. Raphaël, <a href="#page_173">173</a></li> +<li>St. Rémy, <a href="#page_197">197</a></li> +<li>St. Valery-en-Caux, <a href="#page_186">186</a></li> +<li>St. Wandrille, <a href="#page_156">156</a></li> +<li>Sand, George, <a href="#page_128">128</a>-<a href="#page_130">130</a></li> +<li>Sanitation, imperfection of, <a href="#page_88">88</a>, <a href="#page_89">89</a></li> +<li>Saône, the, <a href="#page_160">160</a>, <a href="#page_161">161</a></li> +<li>Scholarships, State, <a href="#page_69">69</a></li> +<li>School-boy, the, <a href="#page_73">73</a></li> +<li>Schoolmistress, the lay, <a href="#page_69">69</a>, <a href="#page_70">70</a></li> +<li>Schools, <a href="#page_85">85</a></li> +<li>Segusiani, the, <a href="#page_161">161</a></li> +<li>Seine, the, <a href="#page_11">11</a>, <a href="#page_150">150</a>-<a href="#page_157">157</a></li> +<li>Senate, the, <a href="#page_55">55</a></li> +<li>Servants, female, <a href="#page_26">26</a></li> +<li>Sévigné, Marquise de, <a href="#page_110">110</a></li> +<li>Sheep, <a href="#page_123">123</a></li> +<li>Sherard, Mr. Robert, <a href="#page_141">141</a></li> +<li>Shooting parties, <a href="#page_136">136</a></li> +<li>Shop assistants, <a href="#page_100">100</a></li> +<li>Sologne, the, <a href="#page_148">148</a></li> +<li>Soult, Marshal, <a href="#page_168">168</a></li> +<li>Strabo, <a href="#page_164">164</a></li> +<li>Strong, Rowland, <a href="#page_92">92</a></li> +<li>Submarine, France and the, <a href="#page_18">18</a></li> +<li>Superstitions among the peasantry, <a href="#page_131">131</a></li> +</ul> +</div> +<div class="left25"> +<ul class="none"> +<li>Tancarville Castle, <a href="#page_156">156</a></li> +<li>Tancarville, Raoul de, <a href="#page_201">201</a></li> +<li>Taine, H. A., <a href="#page_65">65</a></li> +<li>Tarascon, <a href="#page_162">162</a></li> +<li>Tarbais horses, <a href="#page_123">123</a></li> +<li>Tarbes, <a href="#page_123">123</a></li> +<li>Taxation, <a href="#page_59">59</a> + <ul class="none"> + <li>indirect, <a href="#page_60">60</a></li> + </ul></li> +<li>Taxis, horse-drawn, in Paris, <a href="#page_92">92</a></li> +<li>Telephone, inventor of, <a href="#page_18">18</a></li> +<li>Tenda, Col di, <a href="#page_172">172</a></li> +<li>Teutones, <a href="#page_157">157</a></li> +<li>Thiers, <a href="#page_139">139</a></li> +<li>Thrift, the need for, <a href="#page_24">24</a></li> +<li>Thriftiness of the French, <a href="#page_14">14</a>, <a href="#page_21">21</a></li> +<li>Toques, the, <a href="#page_183">183</a></li> +<li>Toulon, <a href="#page_207">207</a>, <a href="#page_209">209</a></li> +<li>Toulouse, <a href="#page_166">166</a> + <ul class="none"> + <li>plain of, <a href="#page_124">124</a></li> + </ul></li> +<li>Touquet, Le, <a href="#page_188">188</a></li> +<li>Tours, <a href="#page_144">144</a></li> +<li>Town planning in France, <a href="#page_112">112</a></li> +<li>Traffic of Paris, <a href="#page_90">90</a>, <a href="#page_91">91</a>, <a href="#page_92">92</a>, <a href="#page_93">93</a>, <a href="#page_94">94</a></li> +<li>Trees, roadside, <a href="#page_121">121</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_219" id="page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span></li> +<li>Tréport, <a href="#page_187">187</a></li> +<li><i>Tribunal correctionnel de l'arrondissement</i>, <a href="#page_61">61</a></li> +<li>Trou du Taureau, <a href="#page_165">165</a></li> +<li>Trouville, <a href="#page_183">183</a></li> +<li>Tuileries, the, Paris, <a href="#page_110">110</a></li> +<li>Turbie, La, <a href="#page_181">181</a></li> +</ul> +</div> +<div class="left25"> +<ul class="none"> +<li>Universities, the, <a href="#page_74">74</a></li> +</ul> +</div> +<div class="left25"> +<ul class="none"> +<li>Valence, <a href="#page_162">162</a></li> +<li>Valescure, <a href="#page_173">173</a></li> +<li>Vallais, the, <a href="#page_159">159</a></li> +<li>Veuillot, <a href="#page_139">139</a></li> +<li>Veules, <a href="#page_186">186</a></li> +<li>Vienne, <a href="#page_162">162</a>, <a href="#page_197">197</a>, <a href="#page_200">200</a></li> +<li>Vikings, the, <a href="#page_154">154</a></li> +<li>Villages, <a href="#page_120">120</a></li> +<li>Villefranche, <a href="#page_177">177</a></li> +<li>Vine, the, <a href="#page_163">163</a></li> +<li>Vines, American, <a href="#page_125">125</a></li> +<li>Virgin, representations of the, <a href="#page_76">76</a></li> +<li>Visigothic architecture, <a href="#page_199">199</a></li> +<li>Vosges, the, <a href="#page_123">123</a>, <a href="#page_143">143</a></li> +<li>Vulgarity in illustrated papers, <a href="#page_15">15</a>, <a href="#page_16">16</a></li> +</ul> +</div> +<div class="left25"> +<ul class="none"> +<li>Waddington, Mary K., <a href="#page_136">136</a></li> +<li>Washing days, <a href="#page_138">138</a></li> +<li>Wedding ceremonies, <a href="#page_43">43</a>, <a href="#page_44">44</a></li> +<li>Wellington, Duke of, <a href="#page_168">168</a>, <a href="#page_191">191</a></li> +<li>William the Conqueror, <a href="#page_156">156</a>, <a href="#page_184">184</a>, <a href="#page_201">201</a></li> +<li>Wine-grower, the, <a href="#page_125">125</a></li> +<li>Woman in business, the, <a href="#page_46">46</a></li> +<li>Women, position of, among the peasants, <a href="#page_128">128</a></li> +</ul> +</div> +<div class="left25"> +<ul class="none"> +<li>Yonne, the, <a href="#page_152">152</a></li> +<li>Young, Arthur, <a href="#page_166">166</a></li> +</ul> +</div> +<div class="left25"> +<ul class="none"> +<li>Zola, Émile, <a href="#page_128">128</a></li> +</ul> +</div> + +<hr class="l30" /> +<p class="center"><big><b>THE END</b></big></p> +<p class="center"><big><b><i>Printed by</i> <span class="smcap">R. & R. Clark, Limited</span>, <i>Edinburgh</i>.</b></big></p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of France, by Gordon Cochrane Home + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FRANCE *** + +***** This file should be named 35678-h.htm or 35678-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/6/7/35678/ + +Produced by Melissa McDaniel, Juliet Sutherland and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + +</pre> + +</body> +</html> diff --git a/35678-h/images/covera.jpg b/35678-h/images/covera.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..78f2574 --- /dev/null +++ b/35678-h/images/covera.jpg diff --git a/35678-h/images/illus001a.jpg b/35678-h/images/illus001a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8d8e0ed --- /dev/null +++ b/35678-h/images/illus001a.jpg diff --git a/35678-h/images/illus016a.jpg b/35678-h/images/illus016a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..bfa4957 --- /dev/null +++ b/35678-h/images/illus016a.jpg diff --git a/35678-h/images/illus027a.jpg b/35678-h/images/illus027a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3ff9805 --- /dev/null +++ b/35678-h/images/illus027a.jpg diff --git a/35678-h/images/illus037a.jpg b/35678-h/images/illus037a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..41fbf85 --- /dev/null +++ b/35678-h/images/illus037a.jpg diff --git a/35678-h/images/illus046a.jpg b/35678-h/images/illus046a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f73c7bb --- /dev/null +++ b/35678-h/images/illus046a.jpg diff --git a/35678-h/images/illus057a.jpg b/35678-h/images/illus057a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ed81299 --- /dev/null +++ b/35678-h/images/illus057a.jpg diff --git a/35678-h/images/illus066a.jpg b/35678-h/images/illus066a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..98ccd29 --- /dev/null +++ b/35678-h/images/illus066a.jpg diff --git a/35678-h/images/illus085a.jpg b/35678-h/images/illus085a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..db5d3a4 --- /dev/null +++ b/35678-h/images/illus085a.jpg diff --git a/35678-h/images/illus094a.jpg b/35678-h/images/illus094a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b9783e9 --- /dev/null +++ b/35678-h/images/illus094a.jpg diff --git a/35678-h/images/illus099a.jpg b/35678-h/images/illus099a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9352e04 --- /dev/null +++ b/35678-h/images/illus099a.jpg diff --git a/35678-h/images/illus104a.jpg b/35678-h/images/illus104a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..64c4655 --- /dev/null +++ b/35678-h/images/illus104a.jpg diff --git a/35678-h/images/illus118a.jpg b/35678-h/images/illus118a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b12b753 --- /dev/null +++ b/35678-h/images/illus118a.jpg diff --git a/35678-h/images/illus125a.jpg b/35678-h/images/illus125a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7d14ba7 --- /dev/null +++ b/35678-h/images/illus125a.jpg diff --git a/35678-h/images/illus155a.jpg b/35678-h/images/illus155a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..cf6872a --- /dev/null +++ b/35678-h/images/illus155a.jpg diff --git a/35678-h/images/illus160a.jpg b/35678-h/images/illus160a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4bc2896 --- /dev/null +++ b/35678-h/images/illus160a.jpg diff --git a/35678-h/images/illus173a.jpg b/35678-h/images/illus173a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1c19326 --- /dev/null +++ b/35678-h/images/illus173a.jpg diff --git a/35678-h/images/illus182a.jpg b/35678-h/images/illus182a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e67a316 --- /dev/null +++ b/35678-h/images/illus182a.jpg diff --git a/35678-h/images/illus192a.jpg b/35678-h/images/illus192a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..59b1c8b --- /dev/null +++ b/35678-h/images/illus192a.jpg diff --git a/35678-h/images/illus197a.jpg b/35678-h/images/illus197a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5247812 --- /dev/null +++ b/35678-h/images/illus197a.jpg diff --git a/35678-h/images/illus202a.jpg b/35678-h/images/illus202a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..cb58e83 --- /dev/null +++ b/35678-h/images/illus202a.jpg diff --git a/35678-h/images/illus207a.jpg b/35678-h/images/illus207a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..94af259 --- /dev/null +++ b/35678-h/images/illus207a.jpg diff --git a/35678-h/images/illus213a.jpg b/35678-h/images/illus213a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..dcd00df --- /dev/null +++ b/35678-h/images/illus213a.jpg diff --git a/35678-h/images/illus218a.jpg b/35678-h/images/illus218a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2a814c0 --- /dev/null +++ b/35678-h/images/illus218a.jpg diff --git a/35678-h/images/illus223a.jpg b/35678-h/images/illus223a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..528cfe5 --- /dev/null +++ b/35678-h/images/illus223a.jpg diff --git a/35678-h/images/illus228a.jpg b/35678-h/images/illus228a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..de502af --- /dev/null +++ b/35678-h/images/illus228a.jpg diff --git a/35678-h/images/illus233a.jpg b/35678-h/images/illus233a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..bb1ff13 --- /dev/null +++ b/35678-h/images/illus233a.jpg diff --git a/35678-h/images/illus245a.jpg b/35678-h/images/illus245a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b6b3e18 --- /dev/null +++ b/35678-h/images/illus245a.jpg diff --git a/35678-h/images/illus250a.jpg b/35678-h/images/illus250a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..fe63196 --- /dev/null +++ b/35678-h/images/illus250a.jpg diff --git a/35678-h/images/illus254a.jpg b/35678-h/images/illus254a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1f385da --- /dev/null +++ b/35678-h/images/illus254a.jpg diff --git a/35678-h/images/illus258a.jpg b/35678-h/images/illus258a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a5d477c --- /dev/null +++ b/35678-h/images/illus258a.jpg diff --git a/35678-h/images/illus267a.jpg b/35678-h/images/illus267a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a544a3b --- /dev/null +++ b/35678-h/images/illus267a.jpg diff --git a/35678-h/images/illus276a.jpg b/35678-h/images/illus276a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..dad66f9 --- /dev/null +++ b/35678-h/images/illus276a.jpg diff --git a/35678-h/images/illus281-8-1500.png b/35678-h/images/illus281-8-1500.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..961a9b4 --- /dev/null +++ b/35678-h/images/illus281-8-1500.png diff --git a/35678-h/images/illus281-8-500.png b/35678-h/images/illus281-8-500.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..900e06b --- /dev/null +++ b/35678-h/images/illus281-8-500.png diff --git a/35678.txt b/35678.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..aef4eb1 --- /dev/null +++ b/35678.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5688 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of France, by Gordon Cochrane Home + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: France + +Author: Gordon Cochrane Home + +Release Date: March 25, 2011 [EBook #35678] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FRANCE *** + + + + +Produced by Melissa McDaniel, Juliet Sutherland and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + Transcriber's note: + + Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document + have been preserved. Obvious typographical errors have been + corrected. + + + [Illustration: THE WESTERN FACADE OF AMIENS CATHEDRAL.] + + + + + FRANCE + + + BY + GORDON HOME + + + WITH 32 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR + + + LONDON + ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK + 1914 + + + + + CONTENTS + + PAGE + + CHAPTER I + INTRODUCTORY 1 + + CHAPTER II + THE GENESIS AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE FRENCH 6 + + CHAPTER III + FAMILY LIFE--MARRIAGE AND THE BIRTH-RATE 23 + + CHAPTER IV + HOW THE FRENCH GOVERN THEMSELVES 49 + + CHAPTER V + ON EDUCATION AND RELIGION 67 + + CHAPTER VI + SOME ASPECTS OF PARIS AND OF TOWN LIFE IN GENERAL 86 + + CHAPTER VII + OF RURAL LIFE IN FRANCE 114 + + CHAPTER VIII + THE RIVERS OF FRANCE 143 + + CHAPTER IX + OF THE WATERING-PLACES 169 + + CHAPTER X + ARCHITECTURE--ROMAN, ROMANESQUE, AND GOTHIC--IN + FRANCE 193 + + CHAPTER XI + THE NATIONAL DEFENCES 205 + + INDEX 213 + + + + + LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + + 1. THE WESTERN FACADE OF AMIENS CATHEDRAL _Frontispiece_ + + FACING PAGE + + 2. COMBOURG, A TYPICAL _CHATEAU_ OF THE MEDIAEVAL TYPE 8 + + 3. IN THE CAFE ARMENONVILLE IN THE BOIS DE BOULOGNE, PARIS 17 + + 4. IN THE PLACE DU THEATRE FRANCAIS, PARIS 24 + + 5. EVENING IN THE PLACE D'IENA, PARIS 31 + + 6. IN THE CENTRE OF PARIS 40 + + 7. THE MARKET-PLACE AND CATHEDRAL AT ABBEVILLE 48 + + 8. FIVE-O'CLOCK TEA IN PARIS 64 + + 9. CHILDREN OF PARIS IN THE LUXEMBOURG GARDENS 71 + + 10. LE PUY-EN-VELAY IN THE AUVERGNE COUNTRY 75 + + 11. LA ROCHE, A VILLAGE OF HAUTE SAVOIE 78 + + 12. A TYPICAL _COCHER_ OF PARIS 90 + + 13. AUTUMN IN THE CHAMPS ELYSEES, PARIS 95 + + 14. A BRETON _CALVAIRE_: THE ORATORY OF JACQUES CARTIER 122 + + 15. A PEASANT CHILD OF NORMANDY 126 + + 16. THE CATHEDRAL AND PART OF THE OLD CITY OF CHARTRES 136 + + 17. THE CHATEAU OF AMBOISE ON THE LOIRE 144 + + 18. CHATEAU GAILLARD AND A LOOP OF THE SEINE 150 + + 19. MONT BLANC REFLECTING THE SUNSET GLOW 155 + + 20. EVIAN LES BAINS ON LAKE GENEVA 158 + + 21. THE CHAPEL ON THE BRIDGE OF ST. BENEZET, AVIGNON 162 + + 22. CAP MARTIN NEAR MENTONE 164 + + 23. THE CHATEAU OF CHENONCEAUX 168 + + 24. ST. MALO FROM ST. SERVAN 171 + + 25. MONTE CARLO AND MONACO FROM THE EAST 174 + + 26. MONT ST. MICHEL AT HIGH TIDE 177 + + 27. THE VEGETABLE MARKET, NICE 187 + + 28. THE PYRENEES FROM NEAR PAMIERS 190 + + 29. THE GALERIE DES GLACES AT VERSAILLES 192 + + 30. THE ROMAN TRIUMPHAL ARCH AT ORANGE 194 + + 31. FRENCH DESTROYERS 200 + + 32. SOLDIERS OF FRANCE IN PARIS 208 + + _SKETCH MAP OF FRANCE ON PAGE 212._ + + + + + FRANCE + + + + +CHAPTER I + +INTRODUCTORY + + +The more one knows of France and the French at first hand, and the +more one reads the ideas and opinions of other people concerning this +great people, so does one feel less and less able to write down any +definite statements about the country or its inhabitants. Whatever +conviction one possesses on any aspect of their characteristics is +sure to be shaken by the latest writer, be he a native or a foreigner. +Every fresh sojourn in the country upsets all one's previous ideas in +the most baffling fashion. One used to think the Parisian _cocher_ a +bad driver, and then discovers a writer who eulogises his skill. When +he knocks over pedestrians, says this writer, he does so because his +whole life is given up to a perpetual state of warfare with the +public, from whom he gains his livelihood. This point of view being +new to one, it takes a little time before it can be safely rejected or +accepted, and before this process is completed a man of most decided +views, and possessed of a wide knowledge of France and the French, +comes along with the statement that no Frenchman can drive. He +supports it with a dozen good reasons, and leaves one with a bias +towards earlier convictions. + +It used to be axiomatic, platitudinous, that Frenchwomen dressed +better than Englishwomen. People whose knowledge of France is, say, +ten, perhaps fewer, years out of date would accept this without a +thought, and yet one is inclined to think that the Frenchwoman's +pre-eminence has gone. No doubt all that is truly _chic_, all that is +essentially dainty in feminine attire, emanates from the brain of the +Parisian, but the women of the French capital no longer have any +monopoly in the wearing of clothes that give charm to the wearer. + +Then as to French cooking. The day has not long passed when to breathe +a syllable against the cooking of the French would be to proclaim +oneself a savage, but what does one hear to-day? Openly in London +drawing-rooms people are heard expressing their preference for the +food supplied in English homes and hotels. They dare to state that +many of the courses provided in French hotels and restaurants are +highly flavoured, but uneatable; that the meat provided is nearly +always unaccountably tough and full of strange sinews and muscles that +give one's teeth much inconvenience; that the clear soup is commonly +little more than greasy hot water containing floating scraps of bread +and vegetables; that the sweet course is incomparably inferior to that +of the English table. + +The difficulties confronting those who attempt to describe the Gallic +people are only realised when one grasps the fact that almost anything +one writes is true or untrue of a fragment of the nation. Who could +suppose that the inhabitants of soil facing the North Sea would have +similar virtues and faults to those who dwell on the shores of the +Mediterranean? They seem of a different race, and yet a curious unity +pervades the Norman, the Breton, and the Burgundian, the Provencal, +the dwellers on the great wheat plain, and the Iberians of Basses +Pyrenees. One is tempted to deal with each portion of the country +separately, but to do so would make it necessary to produce a library +of books, and in trying to pick out qualities common to the whole +nation one is checked at every turn by the contradictions that present +themselves continually. With the mind resting for a time on one part +of France, it would be easy to describe the people as very clean, but +mental visions of other parts arrest the pen, and a qualified +statement is alone possible. Then the mind hungers for an opportunity +of preparing a series of maps, showing by various colours where the +people live who possess this or that salient quality. If such maps +were presented to the reader, and supposing that districts in which +the inhabitants were inclined towards thriftiness were shown red, the +whole country would be of the same glowing colour, and therefore this +map need not be drawn, but the same does not apply to wages and +prosperity, nor to religious fervour, nor to the social manners of the +people, and on these and a very large number of subjects the +variations are so great that what the writer has ventured to condense +in the chapters which follow may be open to much limitation, and even +to contradiction. He has always felt a very deep appreciation of the +country and the people, and the joy of arriving in France is one of +the pleasantest things in his experience. The curious smells that are +wafted to the deck of the steamer as it is tied up by the quayside +bring to him in one breath the essence, as it were, of the life of +France, which has for him so great an attractive force. In that first +breath of France, the faint suggestion of coffee brings to mind the +pleasant associations of meals in picturesque inns or in the cafes of +Paris in sight of the amazing movement of the city; the suspicion of +vegetables recalls the colour and human interest of countless +market-places and chequered patches of cultivation on wide hedgeless +landscapes; and that indefinable suggestion of incense and a dozen +other impalpable things brings with it the whole pageant of French +life, its colour and gaiety, its movement, its pathos, and its grand +moments, all of which act as a magnet and irresistibly attract him to +the southern shores of the Channel. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE GENESIS AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE FRENCH + + +In fairly clear weather the strip of salt water cleaving England from +France seems so narrow, that to a Brazilian familiar with the Amazon +it might be taken for nothing more than a great river. To a geologist +the English Channel is a recent feature in the formation of Europe of +to-day, while the modern aeronaut regards it as a blue mark on the +landscape as he wings his way from London to Paris. Turbine steamers +plough from shore to shore in less than an hour, so that on a windless +day the crossing is a mere incident in the journey between the +capitals; yet the race which dwells on the chalk uplands terminating +precipitously at Cape Gris Nez is so entirely different from the +people who have for the last thousand years made their homes on the +Kentish Downs, that the twenty miles of sea seem scarcely adequate to +explain the complete severance. The intercourse between the +inhabitants of Gaul and Britain must have been both considerable and +constant for some time before the domination of Rome had swept up to +the Channel, for it is known from Caesar's records that the +Armoricans, who extended from Cape Finisterre to the Straits of Dover, +were able to send 220 large oak built vessels against his galleys. +From the same source one is aware of the large trade carried on across +the narrow sea, and there were Celtic tribes in the south of England +colonised from the Belgae of the Continent. Further than this, the +megalithic remains of Wiltshire and Brittany suggest a very real and +remarkable link between the peoples of Britain and Gaul. Caesar and +Strabo are both very definite in their statements that the people of +Kent were similar to the Gaulish tribes, not only in the way they +built their houses, but also in their appearance and their manners. +The coming of Roman civilisation tended to restrict racial +intermingling, and from the beginning of the Christian era the Channel +became more and more a real frontier. When Norsemen had settled both +in England and in the north of France, this frontier again weakened +and vanished with the Norman Conquest of England, but racially there +was practically no sympathy across the water beyond what might have +been felt for the Welsh and the Britons in Cornwall. Thus, from the +Romanising of Britain onwards, the similarity between the peoples who +faced one another across the Channel waned. It is quite probable that +in neither country was there any appreciable infusion of Italian-Roman +blood among the Celtic populations, for the conquering legions were +composed of troops raised from all parts of the Empire, but in Britain +the Romanised population was swept westwards by new invaders from +northern Europe, while the Romanised Gauls were never ousted from the +territory they had held east of the Rhone and the Rhine. The Latin +tongue had probably made very little headway in Britain, while in Gaul +the Romans had thrust their language upon the Gallic tribes. It was +not, however, the classical Latin of Livy and Virgil, but most +probably the colloquial Latin of the common soldier and camp-follower. +This debased Latin formed the solid foundation of the literary +language of France of to-day. + + [Illustration: COMBOURG. A TYPICAL CHATEAU OF THE MEDIAEVAL TYPE.] + +The English Channel is therefore a very effective dividing line +between two peoples completely different in every characteristic. But +who were these people whom the Romans called Galli? + +Their coming was possibly not earlier than 600 or 700 B.C., and by 300 +B.C. they occupied that part of Europe now covered by France, Belgium, +Holland, Rhenish Germany to the Rhine, with Switzerland and northern +Italy. No doubt they had moved westward from southern Russia in that +Aryan stream of which they had formed a part. In the south they +intermingled with the ancient Iberian population; they appear to have +remained fairly pure in the centre, while in the north they became +more or less mixed with Teutonic elements pressing forward across the +Rhine. Besides occupying what is now known as France, these Celts +settled or squatted all over northern Italy, and drove a very +considerable wedge into central Spain, where they formed the fierce +warrior people called Celtiberians, who served in masses in the +Carthaginian and Greek armies, and held out against the Romans until +about 100 B.C. Further than this a wing of these Gaulish Celts made +their way along the Danube, wasted Greece in about 270 B.C., and +formed an important settlement in Asia Minor which was called Galatia +up to about A.D. 500. + +The Celts in Italy were the first to come under the heel of Rome +between 300 and 190 B.C. Gaul itself followed, and a Roman province, +named Narbonensis after its chief city Narbo Martius (now Narbonne), +was formed along the Mediterranean coast. All the rest of Gaul was +added between 58 and 50 B.C. by Gaius Julius Caesar, and from that +time until the disruption of the Roman Empire was one of its greatest +and richest provinces. + +With the weakening of Roman domination in the 4th century A.D. a +fierce German race or confederacy, calling themselves "Franks" (_i.e._ +Freemen), flooded into northern Gaul. They gave their name to the +country they had subjected, and for some five centuries their +Merovingian and Carolingian kings ruled without interruption. The +Franks were numerically a small proportion of the population of France +during this period, and they and other tribes which had irrupted into +Gaul during the same period gradually became completely absorbed by +the stubborn Celto-Roman people, and their language was to a great +extent lost owing, perhaps, to the fascination the splendour of Latin +would exert upon the users of an uncouth tongue. The Franks had +disappeared as a race by the year 1000, but their name had become +permanently attached to the land and the people in whose midst they +had settled--a phenomenon repeated in the case of Bulgaria. + +Towards the north and east of France there is a very considerable +Germanic strain, although entirely French in language, customs, and +sympathy. In the south-east the people have much Italic blood in their +veins, while in the extreme south-west the Gascons and the Landais +(the people of Les Landes near Bordeaux) are probably of Iberian +stock, nearly related to the Basques who belong to the pre-Celtic +inhabitants of France, and are therefore more or less distinct from +the main mass of the population who remained Gallic with a Romanised +language. Although it is true that, with one exception, all the +different elements have been quite assimilated, the _patois_ spoken in +some districts is barely comprehensible to the ordinary Parisian. The +exception is Brittany, where the people are an admixture of the +primitive inhabitants with Gauls and Celts from Britain who migrated +to the peninsula during the 4th and 5th centuries, their language +being pure Celtic to this day, and so similar to Welsh that a Breton +onion-seller in Wales can make himself understood without much +difficulty. The seamen Brittany provides for the French navy are +undoubtedly the finest sailors the country possesses, and they have +for some time past formed a very real portion of French sea power. + +The people of Normandy have a strong infusion of Scandinavian blood +and certain peculiarities of speech, but they are scarcely greater +than the difference between that of the Londoner and the Yorkshireman. +Whatever has been the stock from which the inhabitants of modern +France has sprung, their extraordinary capacity of assimilation seems +to have endowed them generally with those national characteristics +popularly labelled the genius of the French. This process, discernible +all through the pages of history, seems as vital to-day as ever. + +To any one familiar with the French people, it is a matter for +astonishment that the average Briton fails in the most profound +fashion to realise the most obvious of the national characteristics +of his neighbours across the Channel. The popular notion is that the +French are a frivolous people, devoted to pleasure; they are supposed +to be veritable Miss Mowchers for volatility; to speak with extreme +rapidity; to have a taste for queer dishes which the same Briton +regards with abhorrence; and are, generally speaking, a people with +the lowest of morals. All these ideas are more or less erroneous, and +only as the average Englishman comes to learn the truth can the French +character be better understood. In the first place, the French, far +from being a mass of frivolity, are one of the most serious peoples in +the world. They have to such an extent woven a care for the future +into the fabric of the nation, that the humblest _bonne-a-tout-faire_, +the underfed _midinette_, and simplest son of the soil, aim at and +generally succeed in becoming modest holders of State _rentes_. +Instead of the happy-go-lucky methods of the middle and lower class +Anglo-Saxon, who will turn a family of sons and daughters loose upon +the world with very little thought as to their future beyond the bare +necessities of food, clothing, and shelter, the French parent regards +it as his duty to see that each daughter is provided with a _dot_ +suitable to her position, and the Civil Code requires a parent to +leave a proportion of his property to each member of his family. +French men and women work out their incomes with such exactness that +they know to a _sou_ what they have to spare for pleasure, and with a +very large mass of the people in town and country that margin is so +microscopically small, that pleasure in the sense of a commodity that +is bought is often only obtainable at long intervals. In Paris, where +the inaccurate ideas of French life are generally gathered, it is the +almost universal custom for a family to dine at a restaurant on +Sundays, in order that the _bonne-a-tout-faire_, who cooks the meals +and waits at table in the average flat, may have most of the day off. +Thus the week-end visitor to the capital sees in every cafe and +restaurant families dining in public, and gathers the impression that +all these people are spending their money on an evening's amusement. +Probably, if the flats to which these people return a little later +were examined, it would be found that there was practically nothing in +the tiny larders, for it is the French custom to buy daily at the +markets in small quantities at the lowest prices, and the meals taken +at a restaurant on Sunday do not entail any loss through deterioration +of food at home. + +It is wrong, too, to suppose that the average French people speak more +rapidly than the Anglo-Saxon. They are more vivacious, and they often +put more emphasis and gesticulation into their conversation than their +island neighbours; but there are Englishmen who have a right to speak, +who will affirm with the greatest assurance that the French are the +slower and more deliberate speakers of the two! No doubt it will take +a long time to entirely eradicate from among ill-informed Anglo-Saxons +the notion that a French menu is largely composed of strange creatures +not usually regarded as edible, but the excellence of French food and +cooking is getting so widely known and appreciated that this ancient +misconception is being steadily dissipated. + +Perhaps it is because no sooner does the visitor land at Calais or +Boulogne, or step out of the railway terminus in Paris, than he sees a +kiosk where comic papers full of improper drawings are boldly +exhibited, that he comes to the conclusion that the French are an +entirely immoral people. But painful as it is to witness this +flaunting of vulgar suggestion before the casual passer-by, it is not +quite a fair gauge by which to take the standard of morals in France. +There was no wave of Puritanism in France as in England, and the +standard of public decency is therefore lower, but French home life is +probably nearly as moral as in England, and it is a well-known fact +that girls belonging to the middle classes live irreproachable lives +in the almost unnatural seclusion maintained by their parents. The +attitude of the young man towards the other sex before he marries is +certainly lamentably inferior to that of the Anglo-Saxon who may fall +from the ideal to which he has been trained, but nevertheless regards +his failure as a disaster, while the French youth looks upon such +matters as a recognised feature of his adolescence. + +Justification for the idea prevalent in Anglo-Saxon countries that the +French are exceptionally lax in their morals, can be found in the fact +that in all ranks of French society there is no secrecy maintained +when irregular relations have been established, and also in the fact +that the illegitimate births are considerably more than twice as +numerous as those of Great Britain and Ireland. It should be +remembered, however, that Germany stands only a trifle better than +France in this matter, while six other European countries are +infinitely worse. + + [Illustration: IN THE CAFE ARMENONVILLE IN THE BOIS DE BOULOGNE, + PARIS.] + +What are to the man in the street the characteristics of the French +race are, therefore, so wide of the truth, that until simple and +accurate books on this great and talented people are used in all +British schools it will take a considerable time to put matters +straight. In the meantime an opportunity occurs here to do something +in this direction. + +More than any other nation on the whole face of the earth the French +are a people of great ideas. They frequently leave their neighbours to +carry out the conceptions with which they enrich the world, but they +think on a great scale, and produce men and women whose agility of +mind is often hugely in advance of the age in which they live. It was +a Frenchman who first thought it feasible to sever Africa from Asia, +and made the first attempt to cut the cord that unites North and South +America; it was the French who led the way in applying the internal +combustion engine to locomotion, and they have dazzled the world with +the brilliant performances of their flying men. A Frenchman was the +pioneer in tunnel boring, and his son Isambard Brunel devised a +railway on such a magnificent scale that it still remains an ideal +which engineers regard with admiration. Another Frenchman, Charles +Bourseul, invented the telephone, and yet another led the way in the +science of bacteriology. As conscious empire-builders on a world-wide +scale the French were also putting their ideas into practice when +England was still thinking commercially in such matters. England as a +whole always does think in pounds, shillings, and pence, and in +empire-building possessions have mainly been added to the British +Empire with the idea of increasing its trade. In naval developments +France recently led the way with the submarine and submersible, +setting an example to the rest of the world which has been followed so +thoroughly that the lead in this arm of sea-power is no longer with +the pioneer country. Innumerable instances could be given of the +initiative in big ideas being taken by Frenchmen, and of other nations +taking them up and developing, perfecting, and sometimes consummating +for the first time projects devised in France. + +Mr. C. F. G. Masterman has laid stress on the patience of the British +working man, but that willingness to endure hard circumstance is not +so pronounced in England as in France. There endurance continues too +long, so that when harsh treatment becomes absolutely intolerable +there is not a fraction of patience left, with the inevitable result +that explosions of varying degrees of violence take place. British +workers bestir themselves and demand redress of grievances before they +are at the end of their patience, and can therefore wait while the +country becomes familiar with their new needs. England has thus known +no "Reign of Terror," nor does the Government of the day suddenly +collapse before some public outburst of passionate feeling. The people +who can endure the inconvenience of a Government monopoly in matches, +which makes that commodity vile in quality while costing a penny a +box, must indeed be patient. + +The average Frenchman desires to live a quiet and peaceful life +without hurry or bustle. He is content with long hours of work if he +can carry on that occupation at an easy pace, for he is steadily +industrious, and his easy-going nature lets him disregard +misgovernment too long for safety, for when at last he is roused out +of the ambling pace of his normal life, underground elements of +cruelty and bloodthirstiness may come to the surface with sudden and +terrible swiftness. If fair and honest government and tolerable +conditions of labour could be perpetually guaranteed to France, there +is scarcely a people in the world who would live more peaceable and +uneventful lives, for the British relish for adventure and the +enthusiasm for hustle to be found in the United States finds no echo +in the average French mind. Alongside this disinclination to go +helter-skelter through life is the fact that in certain ways the +French people are all artists, and that they have the critical faculty +developed to a most remarkable degree; their capacity for +discrimination and criticism might indeed be singled out as the most +salient characteristic of the whole people. Even the humblest citizen +is seldom prepared to express unqualified admiration for any piece of +handicraft or painting, but will look with thoughtful care on the +object of consideration, and probably supply an intelligent reason for +only giving it partial approval. + +On the other hand there is a great tendency to over fondness for +generalising without sufficient data; there is a delight in reasoning +and logic which often leads to false conclusions owing to a want of +real knowledge. This love of reasoning and the capacity for criticism +seem to have given the nation a regard for consequences and a care to +avoid the more or less inevitable economic day of adverse reckoning +which comes to those who are careless and indefinite in their +arrangements. It is the general thriftiness found all through the +peasant and bourgeois class of France that has, to such a great +extent, saved the various grades in the social scale from emulating +the ways of those above them. The disgrace of insolvency is so +terrifying to a French household that a thousand economies are +practised to keep such a contingency afar off, and in following this +rule of life much social intercourse, and nearly all effort to seem +more opulent than the family purse will permit, go overboard. Thus it +has become a characteristic of a most definite order that a +Frenchman's home is his castle in a fashion far more real to the +stranger than is the case in Anglo-Saxon countries. + +Briefly it may be stated that the French are a serious, cautious, +patient, and exceedingly industrious and home-loving race, enjoying +their hardly earned hours of pleasure in a more demonstrative fashion +than do the nations whose climates are less sunny. They are critical +and fond of generalisation, are capable of large and splendid moments +of inspiration, and have on the whole feminine rather than masculine +characteristics. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +FAMILY LIFE--MARRIAGE AND THE BIRTH-RATE + + +For an English resident in France to become an intimate in the home of +a French family is a rare enough occurrence, and for a visitor to +attempt to discover anything as to French family life first hand is +generally a quest doomed to failure. In the vast mass of the middle +classes the habit of mind is to remain as far as possible on the +estate of one's ancestors or in the place in which one is known. There +is no wish to live in foreign lands; those who are obliged to do so +are pitied, and foreigners who come to take up permanent residence in +France are in most instances regarded as people who, for some +regrettable reason, are obliged to live outside their native land. +This idea prevents the foreigner from receiving a cordial welcome, and +he generally labels the people of his adopted land as inhospitable. +On the other hand, it must be remembered that Belgians and Italians +belonging to a common stock are assimilated with extreme rapidity into +the great body of the nation. + +The hospitality of the average French household of the middle classes +is, owing to the need for great thrift, narrowed down to the +necessarily limited circle of the family. No sooner is the aforetime +stranger joined to a family by the tie of marriage than the doors of +the homes of all the relations are thrown wide open to receive him. It +is this custom which makes it so essential for the prospective +parents-in-law to ascertain the antecedents, the status, and financial +prospects of a proposed husband for their daughter. Should some +disaster, monetary or otherwise, fall upon this new addition of the +family, the blow is inflicted upon all the members and all the +branches of that circle. Similar enquiries are put on foot by the +parents of a son who is intending to ally himself to another family. + + [Illustration: IN THE PLACE DU THEATRE FRANCAIS, PARIS.] + +Wherever the family tie is given undue importance there is inevitably +less willingness to entertain the stranger and to take the risks this +wider sociality involves. So English people, with Paris (which they +do not really know) as the basis of their observations, are too ready +to state with confidence that there is no real home life in France. It +may be that there is less in the capital than in the rest of the +country, but Paris is the least French portion of France. The English, +or more accurately the British, quarter of Paris remains outside the +closely guarded circles of Parisian family life, and large sections of +the city live in water-tight compartments even as they do in London. +What does the average middle-class family know of the French residents +in London? Probably the number of those of the upper classes who are +closely in touch with French residents of their own social rank is +very small, and the humble French population of Soho and Pimlico live +their hard-working lives almost as detached from the rest of the city +as though they were on the other side of the Channel. + +One of the most marked differences between the Anglo-Saxon and the +French home is the fact that in the latter the place of the housemaid +is to a very great extent taken by men. The sterner sex dust and sweep +and polish as a matter of course. There is little restriction on the +amount of noise made by the servants, male and female, while they are +about their work. It is quite usual to hear them laughing, talking, +singing, and even shouting to one another, where in an English +household there would scarcely be a sound above the quietest +conversation drowned by the noise of the broom. + +The ordinary house of the middle classes does not enjoy that +periodical refurbishing and redecorating accepted as necessary north +of the Channel. With a wife as keen as himself on living well within +their joint income the French head of the family is not urged to put +aside a certain annual sum for new curtains, carpets, chair and sofa +covers, and such expensive items. The initial outlay on the home is +generally considered to be almost sufficient for a lifetime if care is +used in maintaining what has been purchased. It is not necessary to +have entered many French homes to become familiar with the typical +bedroom which is reflected faithfully enough in the average hotel. One +essential feature of a bedroom as the Anglo-Saxon knows it is alone +allowed to form a feature of the furnishing of the apartment. It is +the bed, draped as a rule with elaborate curtains and coverings and +surmounted by some form of canopy. A massive feather-bed-like +eiderdown, covering about one-half of the necessary area of the bed, +reposes at the foot and leaves those unfamiliar with these nightmare +pillows wondering if the people who use them are a practical race. The +dressing-table and washstand are generally hard to find. If there is a +_cabinet de toilette_, these essentials of a bedroom will be stowed +away in what is often a roomy cupboard, and where the feature does not +exist, both pieces of furniture will be so modest in dimensions and +sufficiently well disguised to be almost unrecognisable at a casual +glance. Conspicuously placed, however, will be an ample sofa and a +writing-table not necessarily provided with adequate writing +materials. Every effort is made to give the sleeping apartment as much +the atmosphere of a reception-room as sofas and chairs and an absence +of toilet appliances will allow, for when, right away in the fifteenth +century, it became the custom for the sovereign to hold audiences in +the bed-chamber the rest of French society imitated the royal example, +until it became an established usage in _bourgeois_ circles as much as +in those of the class which enjoyed the direct influence of court +fashions. Democratic and Republican France has swept away the whole +edifice of the monarchy, but unconsciously perpetuates in a most +remarkable fashion the weakness of a sovereign to carry on the +business of the day from his bed! + +The average husband regards the _cabinet de toilette_ as the peculiar +possession of his wife, and would hesitate to enter that annexe to his +bedroom unbidden. Possibly to those who have been brought up with this +idea the English custom of providing a small dressing-room for the +husband and allowing _madame_ paramount rights over the whole bedroom +may seem unaccountably odd. + +Formality is generally the prevailing note of the reception-rooms. +Comfortable chairs have only lately begun to make their appearance at +all, and as a rule the middle-class household maintains a traditional +severity in the arrangements of its drawing-room. Straight uninviting +chairs and an absence of any indications of books, magazines or +papers, or anything in the way of a needlework bag or a writing-table +that is in regular use, deprive the room of any home-like +individuality. The extreme economy exercised in the use of fuel makes +the unnecessary lighting of a fire a wanton extravagance. Commodities +in Paris cost double or even more than double what they do in the +British Isles, and in the country generally one-third more; the +salaries of the civil and military officials, who form such a big +section of the middle-class population, are considerably less than +those enjoyed in England, and the incomes of the professional classes +are as a rule smaller than those of the Englishman. Add to this the +abnormally high rents of Paris and it will be understood that in the +capital there is always need for the most rigid economy. _Madame_ must +keep a watchful eye on the household store of coal, not only to see +that it is not wasted in her own fires, but to make sure that +pilfering is not carried on by her servants. Where in England a fire +is kept quietly smouldering, it will be raked out in France and +relighted when required a few hours later. In this way a good deal of +hardihood in the endurance of cold is developed, and contrivances in +the way of stoves that burn fuel with extreme economy are much in use. +This restraint in coal consumption reduces the quantity of carbon +particles discharged into the atmosphere of French cities, and +accounts to a great extent for the clearer air the inhabitants enjoy, +at the same time keeping the annual bill for coal and wood down to +very modest proportions. + +Economy must also be rigidly maintained in the purchase of food, and +this is generally accomplished by discreet buying in the markets. A +servant or a member of the household makes daily purchases in this +manner, and the middleman's profits on the chief part of the food +required are successfully avoided. In Paris the maid-of-all-work, who +is generally the only servant employed in a modest flat, makes these +daily purchases, out of which she obtains from those with whom she +deals a commission of a _sou_ in every _franc_ expended. This is a +universally recognised custom, but in addition there is a prevalent +but altogether reprehensible practice, known as _faire danser l'anse +du panier_. It is pure dishonesty, for the _bonne_ puts down in the +books a small overcharge on each item, and this with the market-man's +_sou du franc_ amounts to a considerable sum in the course of a year, +often nearly equal to her wage. It is an interesting fact that Breton +servants are generally quite guiltless of the overcharge system, for +the people of Brittany are of much the same stock as the Welsh, +concerning whom there is a proverb for which the writer fails to find +justification. + +_Dejeuner_ at 11.30 or 12 and dinner at 6.30 or 7 are the two +essential meals of the day. Breakfast, served in the bedroom, consists +of coffee or chocolate and small crisply baked rolls with butter and +perhaps honey, while the Anglo-Saxon meal called tea is only an +established feature among the upper classes, where English customs are +extremely fashionable. The two chief meals both consist of at least +four courses, with a cup of coffee added to give a finish to the +whole. It might be thought absurd for those who are poor or living +with great economy to begin their meals with an _hors-d'oeuvre_, but +Miss Betham-Edwards, whose knowledge of the French is sufficiently +wide to be an authority, asserts that a careful housekeeper will give +this preliminary course as an economy, for being great bread-eaters a +little scrap of ham or sausage or herring eaten with several mouthfuls +of bread will take the edge off the appetite and enable her to be less +lavish with the other courses. Soup is very frequently made out of the +water in which vegetables have been stewed with a suspicion of +flavouring added, and the meat courses are provided not from large +joints, but from little scraps of meat which the French butcher +produces in astonishing quantities from the same animal as his English +neighbour handles in an entirely different and very much less +economical fashion. These methods of cutting with a view to quantity +rather than quality give much of the meat an unhappy toughness as +though it were cut across or against the grain. Even the +_bonne-a-tout-faire_ will prefer to make a sacrifice in the quantity +of food in each course of a meal if by so doing she can be quite sure +of finishing with a cup of coffee. + +The contrast of the mid-day meal, consisting of a chop and bread and +cheese, supplied by the small provincial hotel to the commercial +traveller in England, with that provided or obtainable in France, is +astonishing. It is true that the knife and fork given for the first +course must be retained for those that follow, but this little +labour-saving custom can be overlooked in the presence of the savoury +dishes that follow. Still more pronounced is the contrast when +dinner-time arrives, for a very large majority of country hostelries +in England will offer nothing more varied than a large plate of ham +and eggs or cold meat, followed by bread and cheese and perhaps +apple or plum tart. It is the universal demand for appetising and +well-cooked meals throughout France that ensures for the wayfarer +wherever he goes an excellent dinner of several courses. It would, +however, be unfair not to mention that a very great improvement has +been taking place in the hotels of England in the last few years owing +to the demand for well-cooked meals caused by motorists. The +pre-eminence of France in this matter will cease to be remarkable +before long if the present rapid progress is maintained. If one +enquires still further into the reasons for French folk being dainty +in the way their food is prepared, the explanation given by Mr. T. +Rice Holmes that Celtic peoples as a rule have weak stomachs may +perhaps be the correct answer. + + [Illustration: EVENING IN THE PLACE D'IENA, PARIS.] + +If wall-papers are not often renewed in French houses, there is a +delight in clean raiment which is most commendable. Clothes which are +not washable are frequently sent to the cleaner, and as the most +poorly paid _midinette_ generally buys good materials for her clothes +they last some time, and will stand cleaning and refurbishing better +than the average clothes worn by her equals in England. This is +typical of the inborn thrift of the whole nation. Personal ablutions +are, on the other hand, not so frequent or so thorough as among +Anglo-Saxons, the supply of water for this purpose being generally +very meagre and the basin for washing the face and hands awkwardly +small. The itinerant bath is still to be found in country towns. It is +brought to the house of those who desire to indulge in this luxury, +and the water at the required temperature is provided also. The +rinsing out of a bath with a little clean water after it has been used +is not considered a sufficiently thorough method of satisfying +individual fastidiousness, and a cotton covering large enough to +entirely line the bath is therefore usually provided for each person. +If one adds to this the difficulties confronting those for whom it is +considered scarcely within the limits of propriety that they should be +entirely unhampered by garments while in the bath, this simple +operation of the toilet becomes a somewhat laborious undertaking! + +It has been already stated how great is the reverence of the French +for the family. It is certainly fostered by that wonderful institution +the Family Council, a form of highly developed autonomy dating from +the far-away days when France was a Romanised province. The council +is formed to look after the welfare of orphans and weak-minded and +ne'er-do-weel minors. It consists of six members--three from among the +relatives of each parent--and is presided over by a local _juge de +paix_, who is attended by his clerk. + +For those sons of wealthy parents who are developing into incorrigible +idlers and a source of perpetual anxiety to their parents, owing too +often to the excess of ill-judged kindness lavished on only sons by +widowed mothers, there has been instituted in France what is known as +_la maison paternelle_. If sent to this establishment the boy +generally threatens to commit suicide or some other desperate act. He +is at first placed in a solitary cell, where he is under the constant +supervision and the special care of a "professor," who is appointed to +deal with the particular case. By salutary talk, the most inflexible +discipline, and regular studies, accompanied by a judicial kindliness, +the refractory youths are almost invariably brought to their senses +after a few months, and retain the warmest affection for the +professors in after years. + +As a rule the French child of almost every class except the very +lowest comes into the world with the prospect of some future +inheritance of land or capital. The first infant in a very large +proportion of families is both alpha and omega, and it is very +exceptional for parents not to restrict their offspring to two or +perhaps three, which is almost counted as a large family. For some +time past census figures reveal the very remarkable fact that +considerably over 1-3/4 millions of married couples are childless. +Rather more than a quarter of the marriages result in one child; +another quarter has two children, and 17 per cent are childless. Thus +the duty of making up the deficiency of one large section and the +total failure of another falls upon one-third of the married couples, +and the latest returns show that this task is only just accomplished, +the average number of births for each family hovering about the +bed-rock figure 2. The year 1907 was altogether alarming, for the +figures showed 19,890 more deaths than births for the twelve months, +and it has been with considerable relief that the civilised world has +seen the surplus turned over to the more healthy direction in +subsequent years. With a population that does not increase there is +less and less danger of overcrowding or of extreme poverty, and +therefore France houses her citizens better than Germany, England, or +the United States. The individual child arrives in the world with his +or her place more or less made in advance, and as the years pass by +the son or daughter steps into the vacancy caused by the departure to +"the land o' the leal" of a parent or relation. Such an even balance +of vacancies and new arrivals tends to make livelihoods more stable in +France than in the countries where the number of persons to the square +mile is steadily increasing; it robs the whole nation of any desire to +find homes outside the limits of the fatherland, and makes it +practically impossible to make any real use of colonial possessions. +Until civilised countries come to settle their differences without the +senseless and futile appeals to brute force, by which they have +unsuccessfully striven to do so in the past, this static condition of +the population of France can only be looked upon as a calamity, but +the growing strength of commercial ties is weakening bellicist +prejudices and national antipathies every day, and the fact that the +nations are now asking themselves whether any advantage is gained by +fighting a civilised people shows that the world is on the threshold +of emancipation from what is most truly a great illusion. + +Being so often the only child or one of two, the infant enters on life +as the ruler of the household. The devoted parents, instead of +following the golden maxim, which says "Apply the rod early enough and +there will be no need to use it at all," give way to every passing +mood or whim of their offspring, and insist that the nurse shall +follow the same foolish course. If the infant cries it obviously needs +something, and this must be supplied regardless of character-building. +No wonder that _la maison paternelle_ has been found a needful +institution in the land! Maternal duties are not as a rule undertaken +by the mother, and in a very large number of instances this is +necessitated or at least encouraged by the large share in the +maintenance of the household taken by the wife. In Parisian flats the +_concierge_, owing to the smallness of his wage, is generally obliged +to go out to work and depute his wife to undertake his duties during +his absence. A mewling and puking infant under these conditions is a +nuisance and must be brought up elsewhere. + +In the average middle-class home the children are not given their +meals in the nursery, but at a very early age eat at the same table +as their parents, and enjoy a varied menu including wine when English +children are still having little besides milk puddings and mince. + +Much more is concentrated into the earlier years of life in France +than across the Channel. This is particularly so in regard to the +_jeune fille_, who ceases to come under that title as soon as she has +reached the age of twenty-five. The business of getting married must +be achieved by that time, or else there is nothing for it but +acquiescence in the popular judgment that the young girl has become an +old girl--is on the shelf--and to preserve her self-respect must +retire either to a convent or a conventual boarding-house. This custom +is, like many others, as undesirably mediaeval, gradually breaking +down owing to the strongly intellectual training now given to the +_jeune fille_ at state _lycees_. No religious instruction is given in +these schools, and the girls are therefore developing a new +independence. A change, too, is taking place in the extremely secluded +life that girls of the middle and upper classes have hitherto led. +They are not invariably taken to school and fetched by a maid, and it +is quite possible that this emancipation from continual supervision +may lead to a considerable modification in the present method of +arranging marriages. The existing system of the choice of a husband +for their daughter being made by the devoted parents has a striking +similarity to the customs of the Far East. The young men the _jeune +fille_ is allowed to see are only those who are eminently eligible, +that is, whose financial position is sound and whose family +connections are not likely to cause anxiety when brought into the +family circle by the union of the two young people. + + [Illustration: THE CENTRE OF PARIS.] + +To the French mind the idea of the betrothal of a man and a girl +without the necessary means for immediately entering the state of +matrimony is looked at with the most extreme disfavour. "Falling in +love" might lead to most undesirable family ties, for each of the two +parties concerned marries a family as well as a husband and wife +respectively. No, the _mariage d'inclination_ is a danger, and the +young people must learn to fall in love during the honeymoon, a task +the French girl seems to find less impossible than it sounds. The +Anglo-Saxon method of a growing and entirely non-committal intimacy +followed by a period of betrothal scarcely exists in France. Having +little knowledge or experience of men, the girl accepts the suitor +proposed by her parents because, as a rule, she has not much choice +and the time is short before she has reached the old-maidish age of +twenty-five. Then beyond this there is all the thrill and romance of +some new and strange life in which she may succeed in falling +desperately in love with her husband. If not, the situation has +occurred before, and the average married woman seems to find some +solace in other interests; there will perhaps be a son or a daughter, +or possibly both, and on them it will be easy for her to expend her +pent-up feelings of love, and later on there will perchance come what +is an ideal with the average Frenchwoman--the satisfaction of being a +grandmother. + +During the short time between the formal acceptance of her proposed +husband and the wedding ceremony the affianced pair are not as a rule +allowed to be together alone. No doubt in many instances this harsh +ruling of long-established custom is broken through, but it would be +done surreptitiously unless the parties concerned were exceptionally +emancipated from the great body of French tradition. It is also quite +unusual for the mother to speak of love when discussing with her +daughter a man who has offered himself as a husband; it is merely +understood that he is pleased with the girl's general appearance and +not dissatisfied with her _dot_. + +Strict Roman Catholics do not recognise the civil contract beyond +going through the required legal ceremony. The banns, stating several +personal particulars regarding the parents as well as the contracting +parties, are put up at the _mairie_ ten days before the marriage can +be performed. If the betrothed pair have not reached the age of +thirty, they must have the consent of their parents, but over +twenty-one they are able to obtain that consent through a legal +process at the office of a certified notary. Even extreme action of +this character does not entail total loss of a certain portion of the +parental inheritance, for the Civil Code does not permit parents to +leave more than a proportion to strangers. One-half must fall to the +children's share. Quite recently an example of the small satisfaction +this may cause to the recipients came to light. An aged grandparent's +estate produced a sum of 100 francs, to be divided equally between +four legatees. The legal expenses entailed in certifying the status of +each party and other matters ran up to such a large sum that the +surplus divisible was barely 20 francs. + +On the appointed day the wedding party assembles at the _mairie_, +where the mayor, after reading to the couple that portion of the Civil +Code relating to the duties of the married state, hears their +declaration and the permission of the parents, after which both +parties exchange wedding rings and are pronounced man and wife. The +register having been signed, first by the wife and then by the +husband, the civil ceremony is complete, and in Republican society the +wedded pair as a rule trouble themselves not at all about the attitude +of the Church to the contract they have made. Many, however, as +already stated, do not regard this as the real wedding, and the bride +and bridegroom remain apart until the next day, or perhaps two or +three days later, when the religious ceremony is performed in a +church. There the wedding rings are blessed before being put on, and +the completion of the religious ceremony is marked by the presentation +of a tray for offerings. One cannot be very long in a French church +without this opportunity presenting itself. The writer has vivid +recollections of his almost precipitate retreat from the Madeleine +after he had been present for a short time at a service in that +classic church on the occasion of his first visit to Paris. His memory +recalls how cheerfully he paid for his seat for the first time, how he +produced another coin when, with a charming smile, a young woman +applied for a second alms, and how, when a third bag was placed before +him with the words _pour les pauvres_, he found a sou, and in a few +moments had, with a sigh of relief, exchanged the Gregorian +solemnities of the great church for the rattle and stir of the +_Boulevard des Capucines_. + +But to return to the wedding ceremony. The young couple having been +now made man and wife in the sight of Church as well as the State, +they start on their voyage together into the unknown, to discover one +another and, if possible, after what answers to a time of courting, to +fall in love with each other. Should this time of exploration into +each other's characters and temperaments, likes and dislikes, prove +entirely unsatisfactory, it becomes a matter of acute interest to +enquire how the knot may be loosened or untied. Until 1883 divorce was +not legal, but since that year of emancipation the Civil Code permits +it for several reasons. These are divided under three headings: +first, unfaithfulness or desertion on either side; second, acts of +violence and _injures graves_, which covers the great area of +incompatibility of temperament; and third, penal sentences passed on +the man or woman. It is fairly obvious that this wide doorway will +permit the entrance of a great majority of those who wish for freedom +from an ill-chosen partner, and the result has been a steady increase +in the number of divorces in recent years. The figures were 10,573 in +1906 and 13,049 in 1910. Even the Church of Rome will allow the +marriage tie to be severed under certain conditions not perhaps open +to a poor couple. + +There can be little doubt that divorce in France is facilitated by the +fact that the wife has in most cases an independent source of income, +and is therefore economically on her feet in the event of a +termination of her wedded state. She is, generally speaking, looked +upon with less favour as a divorced woman than is a man. No doubt this +is due to slow-dying prejudice in favour of the man in these +circumstances. Changes are, however, coming with such accelerating +speed in these matters that anything written to-day is more or less +out of date by the time it is printed. + +To come back to the normal condition of married persons in France, +there is no doubt that, surprising as it may seem, the _jeune fille_ +does in a very large majority of cases settle down contentedly with +the husband chosen by her parents. She blossoms with the speed of an +Indian juggler's magic plant into a woman of affairs, and in a very +short time is taken into the fullest confidence in monetary matters by +her husband. Many develop such a capacity for business that they +rapidly out-distance their men folk in such matters, and if, as is +very often the case in middle-class life, they are obliged to +contribute towards the family budget, their earnings will frequently +exceed those of the easy-going husband. Any one at all intimate with +France knows the keenness and capacity of the woman in business, +whether as a shopkeeper, a manageress, or a hotel proprietor. They can +drive a hard bargain and are less easy to deal with than men, although +the writer is inclined to think that he has met quite as many men as +women who are difficult or unpleasant in a financial matter. + +In spite of this frequently existing superior ability in dealing with +money matters, a wife must obtain her husband's written consent before +she touches her capital! And further than this, the Civil Code +requires that the husband must make good any deficiency from his +wife's original _dot_ should he wish to obtain a divorce, +notwithstanding the fact that the diminution had taken place with her +consent; and it is a curious and interesting fact that in the case of +disagreement the husband finds the Code ignores the perchance superior +wisdom of the wife. + +As a rule it is _madame_ who rules the household, while "_mon mari_" +is a worshipper who obeys willingly, both being the slaves of their +child or children, to whom within the strict boundaries of _comme il +faut_ nothing must be denied. How, with such spoiling as children, the +French man and woman grow up to do their share in the world's work it +is hard to understand. Possibly the dislike evinced by the race as a +whole to undertake an adventurous career entailing risk, the lack of +some of the luxuries which have been long enjoyed, and an element of +uncertainty may be in part ascribed to the lack of discipline in the +nursery. An explanation for this characteristic might be given by +merely pointing to the figures of population, which, as just +mentioned, remain almost stationary, and do not provide that driving +force which sends other peoples out into new lands in great numbers; +but this condition of a static population has been brought about +voluntarily by the people themselves, through their desire to be sure +of a safe and prearranged career for their offspring. And so it is the +family life of the French, the predominance of the weaker partner, and +the craving after those conditions of existence generally regarded as +feminine, which result in a weakening of France as a colonising +nation, and often cause misgivings in the minds of those who are her +well-wishers. + + [Illustration: THE MARKET PLACE AND CATHEDRAL AT ABBEVILLE.] + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +HOW THE FRENCH GOVERN THEMSELVES + + +It may be broadly stated that the French people are content to be +governed and to feel a controlling authority in operation in all +departments of their lives. This results in a silent acquiescence +under long-endured grievances which could easily be redressed by a +little ventilation of public opinion. Where the Anglo-Saxon uses his +newspapers to make known his attitude towards various matters +requiring new legislation, where he takes advantage of an election, +parliamentary or municipal, to obtain undertakings from candidates, +the average Frenchman will neither write nor speak, so that editors +and deputies, and the great public as well, remain generally ignorant +of a widespread area of smouldering resentment. Like the burning +coal-beds not unfrequently discovered in Central Europe, the +underground combustion, which has perhaps been continuing for many +years, is only brought to light by accident. + +When legislation takes place on some important economic issue it will +be framed, as a rule, on abstract lines disregarding the past, and in +many ways ignoring general convenience. There is in this way little +evolution in the growth of the French constitution, and an old law may +exist unmodified so long that when change comes it is so out of date +that it must be swept away. The Revolution cut down to the roots the +rotten tree of unregenerate feudalism, and planted in its place a +sapling which has to conform to the essential requirements of +progress; it must be trimmed and lopped, and must put forth new growth +in order that it too, in the effluxion of time, may not become as +unsuited to modern needs as its predecessor. + +In August 1789 the first Republican Parliament wrote down certain +cardinal matters relating to the welfare and freedom of the individual +and called it the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. +Thirteen years before this the United States of North America had +drawn up their Declaration of Independence, and no doubt this +inspired those who framed the more compactly worded document. In their +seventeen brief articles French Republicans, in an age when ideas of +freedom had fertilised both sides of the Atlantic, boldly and simply +stated their new-born beliefs, commencing with the assertion that "All +men are born and remain free and have equal rights." In _Article 2_ +they stated that "the object of all political groupings is the +preservation of the natural, inalienable, and sacred rights of man," +those rights being "liberty, property, security, and the right to +resist oppression." Although possessing the last-mentioned power, it +has already been pointed out that the people are slow to make use of +it. The nation likewise fails to carry out the spirit of _Article 9_, +which says, "As a man is deemed innocent until he shall have been +declared guilty should it be necessary to arrest him no rigour that is +not essential for the securing of his person shall be tolerated by the +law." In the final--the 17th--Article there is food for thought for +the Socialist, for it is there stated that property is "an inviolable +and sacred right," followed by the qualifying sentence, "No man may be +deprived of it, unless public interest demand it evidently and +according to the Law, provided, moreover, that a fair indemnity be +first paid to him." Even the most civilised of peoples are still a +good deal short of that high degree of wisdom and goodness which will +make every man competent and willing to be his brother's keeper, and +it is therefore probable that for some time to come _Article 17_ will +stand as a living part of the French Constitution. It is interesting +to remember that in the Declaration of 1789 the right of Habeas Corpus +was first established in France, while it had been on the statute book +of England for over a century, and would have been there some time +before but for repeated rejections by the House of Lords. + +Upon the splendid substructure of the Declaration of the Rights of Man +the first French Constitution was reared. It was framed with care, +took two years in the making, and was finally accepted by Louis in +1791. Since then there have been many constitutions, but, omitting the +Napoleonic interlude, the principles of the Declaration show +themselves with triumphant ascendency as the foundation of each +reconstruction. Like all written constitutions, modifications are +frequently found necessary. There is none of the elasticity of the +unwritten constitution which exists only in the land of the people who +are said to have a genius for governing themselves, and perhaps it is +that endowment with the capacity for self-government which makes the +nebulous character of the British Constitution so valuable. It is true +that a very great majority of well-educated British people could not +give any clear idea of the nature of the constitution of their +country, and when any constitutional point arises only a handful of +experts can state how far the precedents of the past, by which the +constitution is modified, affect the immediate issue; and yet there +would be a considerable feeling of alarm if it were seriously proposed +to make the whole situation plain by producing a modern written +constitution, however much based on all that has gone before. + +Britons, as a rule, do not even trouble to acquaint themselves with +the survival of many ancient royal prerogatives. Walter Bagehot[1] +puts into one pregnant paragraph what Queen Victoria could do without +consulting Parliament. "Not to mention other things," he writes, "she +could disband the army (by law she cannot engage more than a certain +number of men, but she is not obliged to engage any men); she could +dismiss all the officers, from the General Commanding-in-Chief +downwards; she could dismiss all the sailors too; she could sell off +all our ships of war and all our naval stores; she could make a peace +by the sacrifice of Cornwall, and begin a war for the conquest of +Brittany. She could make every citizen in the United Kingdom, male or +female, a peer; she could make every parish in the United Kingdom a +'university'; she could dismiss most of the civil servants; she could +pardon all offenders." The present sovereign could do the same, but +safeguards in the form of impeachment of Ministers and change of a +Ministry preserve the country from proceedings of this nature; but in +a country with a written constitution such legacies from the days when +the head of the State was a military dictator exist no longer. + + [1] _The English Constitution_, Introduction to 1872 Edition. + +While the British law-makers and administrators bear on their backs +the whole weight of centuries of laborious constitution-building, the +French work with the light equipment of a constitution framed in 1875, +everything prior to that date being null and void.[2] No French +politician is therefore required at any time to be aware of a usage of +the reign of Louis XI., or any curtailment of the royal authority +which may have taken place when Philippe Auguste occupied the throne. +The throne itself has ceased to exist since the fall of Napoleon III. +in 1870, and France since that year has remained under its third +Republic. + + [2] The Constitution was slightly revised in 1879 and 1884. + +The laws passed in 1875 provide that the legislative power shall be in +the hands of two assemblies--the Chamber of Deputies and the +Senate--and the executive in those of an elected President and the +Ministry. The Upper House or Senate is composed of 300 members, now +entirely elected by the Departments or Senate. They must be over forty +years of age. In England, if the Prime Minister is a commoner he can +only go into the Upper House as a listener, and all the Cabinet are +under the same restriction, but in France Ministers can sit in both +Chambers and can speak in either place as occasion requires or the +spirit moves. Voting, however, is restricted to the Chamber to which +the Minister belongs. One is inclined to wonder whether eloquence +that stirs the hearts and sways the voting in the British House of +Commons would be as productive if addressed to the hereditary body. +There is no separate Minister for the Post Office, that office being +included in the Ministry of Commerce, and there are only twelve +Ministers against the twenty or twenty-one of the British Cabinet. The +Ministry of Labour and Public Thrift appears almost quaint to the much +less thrifty people of England. + +The Lower Chamber consists of 584 deputies, and is elected every four +years by universal suffrage. On coming of age, every citizen not in +military service and having a residential qualification of six months +may exercise the franchise. Women have not yet achieved the right to +vote. Perhaps the majority of French married women exercise already as +much power as they care to possess, for even peasant women are quite +familiar with the method of voting through their docile husbands. Only +in 1897 were women entitled by law to act as witnesses in civil +transactions; prior to that date a woman came under the same category +as a minor or the insane! + +That the Frenchwoman is beginning to wake up to the possibilities of +her twentieth-century emancipation is shown in a hundred directions. +In January 1913 a woman came forward as a candidate for the French +presidential chair, the first in the history of the Republic. When +questioned as to the seriousness of her purpose she asked, "And why +not a woman head of the State? People may regard it as a joke; but +what about Catherine the Great and Queen Victoria?" When one +remembers, too, the astonishing business capacity of the average +Frenchwoman, one is inclined to echo the question, "Why not?" There +are already more than a dozen women barristers in Paris, besides +seventy doctors, eighteen dentists, ten oculists, and six chemists! +Women, too, have for many years occupied on the railways of France +positions which are exclusively in the hands of the stronger sex in +England. Who is not familiar with the hard-faced woman who with a horn +at her lips controls the level crossings? + +The only restriction among French citizens to becoming President is +that which rules out any member of a royal family which has reigned in +France. He is elected for seven years and the salary is L48,000 a +year, one half of which is received as salary, the other being for +travelling and official expenses connected with office. This sum +appears generous when contrasted with the L5000 paid to the British +First Lord of the Treasury and his unpaid services as Prime Minister +of the Crown. The President appoints all the Ministers and heads of +the civil and military departments. He declares war with the consent +of both Houses, and a Minister counter-signs every act. + +The national desire for security prompts the men folk of a large +proportion of the upper middle classes to aim towards the pleasantly +safe pigeon-holes in the State dovecot. In order to attain these +places of refuge from commercial or professional struggle, every +public official who has reached the desired haven of his ambition, or +at least one of the assured steps that will surely lead him thither, +is the subject of endless demands for aid in the same direction from +his remotest relatives and acquaintances. Upon this system of +_pistonnage_ the aspirant to an official position must lean, for if he +does not the crowd ready to fill each vacancy will all have superior +chances on account of the word here and there spoken on their behalf +in the right quarter. _Pistonnage_ does not, however, apply to those +who aspire to a seat in either the Senate or the Chamber of Deputies, +where a salary of 15,000 fr. a year and free travelling relieves the +representative of financial anxiety, so long as he is devoting his +time to his country's service. + +By direct and semi-direct taxation about L25,000,000 was produced in +1912. These taxes include a levy on windows and doors, varying +according to the density of the population, the more closely inhabited +areas paying more than the less populous. There is a tax on land not +built upon, assessed in accordance with its net yearly revenue based +on the register of property drawn up in the earlier half of last +century and kept up to date. The Building tax is 3.2 per cent on the +rental value, and is paid by the owner. The Personal tax places a +fixed capitation on every citizen, varying from 1s. 3d. to 3s. 9d. +according to the department. The Habitation tax is paid by every one +occupying a house or apartments in proportion to the rent. The Trade +License tax embraces all trades, and consists of a fixed duty levied +on the extent of business as revealed by the number of employes, and +population, and the locality, and so on, and also an assessment on +the letting value of the premises. + +By indirect taxation a little over L100,000,000 was raised in 1912. +The sum was realised by stamps of all sorts (excluding postage), by +registration duties on the transfer of property in business ways and +general changes of ownership, and by customs, including a tax on Stock +Exchange transactions, a tax of 4 per cent on dividends from stocks +and shares, taxes on alcohol, wine, beer, cider, and alcoholic liquors +generally, on home-produced salt and sugar, and on railway passenger +and goods traffic. The State monopolies of tobacco, matches, and +gunpowder produced the large sum of L38,000,000, but even this did not +meet the charges for interest on the National Debt, which were about +51-1/2 millions, the accumulated sum for which this is required being +(1912) L1,301,718,302. This is almost double as great as the British +national indebtedness. + +Over each of the 86 Departments is a prefect chosen by the Minister of +the Interior, and through him the minor officials are kept in touch +with the Government. The arrondissement and the canton are +administrative divisions into which each Department is divided, each +canton including about a dozen communes. The commune is controlled by +the mayor, who is chief magistrate and, as in England, is the head of +the municipal body. According to the size of the commune deputy mayors +are elected. The great city of Lyons requires 17 of these officials, +and when one remembers that the presence of the mayor or a deputy +mayor is required at every marriage in order that it may become legal, +the number does not seem excessive. + +Every canton has its _juge de paix_, who is in a general sense a +police court judge. He tries small cases, but his responsibilities are +carefully limited, and he may not inflict a fine exceeding 200 francs. +Any offence requiring a heavier hand must go up to the _Tribunal +correctionnel de l'arrondissement_ or the court of _Premiere +Instance_. The _juge de paix_ wears a tall hat encircled with a broad +silver band, and although, as a rule, a man who has received a fairly +good education, his salary averages between L120 and L160 per annum. +On such an income there is no opportunity for pretentious living! The +wife of a _juge de paix_ cannot, as a rule, afford to keep a +nursemaid, and one maid-of-all-work is as much as the _menage_ can +afford to maintain. Nevertheless the position is an honourable one, +there is a pension at sixty years, and the hours of labour are, to the +man with a sense of humour, often brightened by the absurdity of the +cases that are brought into court. There is generally much fun for the +court in the frequent cases of _diffamation_, in which citizens drag +one another into the presence of the _juge de paix_ for calling each +other names. The court allows noisy altercation in a fashion unknown +in England, and the task of the magistrate is, to the Anglo-Saxon +mind, almost beyond belief. The breezy outpourings of plaintiff and +defendant are ended with the _juge de paix's_ words, "You can retire," +and, as a rule, some sound and friendly advice has been offered to the +unneighbourly neighbours. A very considerable amount of litigation +arises through the possession of land or houses, for the thriftiness +of the French has always inclined the people towards the ownership of +their farms or the land they till. In the old days before the +Revolution, all such disputes came before courts in which the +unprivileged and poor might be fairly sure of losing the day. The +scandal of those venal courts was so great that nothing short of a +clean sweep could effectually rid the land of the curse they +inflicted, and the overthrow of the monarchy was followed by the +establishment of administrators of justice who were servants of the +State and none other. + +The correctional courts mentioned deal with the graver offences which +are outside the ambit of the _juge de paix_. As a rule there are three +judges and no jury. These courts are empowered to inflict punishment +up to imprisonment for five years. The Courts of Assize are held every +three months in each Department. They are presided over by a +councillor of the Court of Appeal with two assistants and a jury of +twelve, but a unanimous verdict is not required, the fate of the +accused hanging on a majority only. Another feature of these courts is +the _juge d'instruction's_ secret preliminary investigation into each +case. + +Superior to the Courts of Assize are those of Appeal and the _Cour de +Cassation_, which became so well known to the English public during +the famous trial of Dreyfus. This court, as its name implies, can +abrogate the ruling of any other tribunal, with the exception of the +administrative courts. This high authority decides on matters of +legal principle or whether the court from which appeal has been made +was competent to make the decision in question. It does not concern +itself primarily with the facts of the case, and if it should annul +any finding the case is sent to a fresh hearing of a court of the same +authority. + +The administrative police, or _gardiens de la paix_, are approximately +equivalent to British police constables, and must not be confused with +the _gendarmerie_, which is a military body carrying out civil duties +in times of peace. The _gendarmerie_ are recruited from the army, +there being one legion in each army corps district. Their strength is +roughly 22,000 men, equally divided between cavalry and infantry. In +Paris there is a separate force known as the _Garde republicaine_, +which carries out police duties very much the same as the +_gendarmerie_ in the Departments. They number about 3000, of whom 800 +are mounted. The French prison system was in a very antiquated state +in 1874, when a commission on prison discipline issued its report in +favour of cellular confinements. Prisons were therefore reconstructed, +and after many years had elapsed some of the older ones were +demolished, the prisoners thereafter being removed from the +disadvantages they encountered in association. The system of +isolation required the construction of a huge new prison at +Fresnes-les-Rungis. It contains 1500 cells, and when it was completed +in 1898 the historic Paris prisons of Grande-Roquette, St. Pelagie, +and Mazas were swept away. + + [Illustration: FIVE O'CLOCK TEA IN PARIS.] + +Taken as a whole, one can scarcely endorse Taine's utterance that +modern France is the work of Napoleon. The present organisation of the +nation is undoubtedly due to the masterly brain and tireless energy of +Napoleon, but the national characteristics of the French people have +shown little change. The existence of a constitution, the even-handed +administration of justice, and the opening of the highest offices in +the State to the citizen of the humblest origin, do not yet seem to +have affected the nature of the people. Laughter, tears, and anger are +still near the surface; love of adventure in thought, word, and deed +does not yet lead the French into the acquisition of the solid +advantages their enterprise would bring did they only persevere on the +lines of their initial enterprise. In spite of the almost frantic +desire for liberty there is no doubt that the French tamely submit to +a regime which Englishmen would find in some matters quite +intolerable. If suspicion of smuggling falls upon a house the police +can make domiciliary visits of a quite arbitrary character. The Civil +Code, too, must be regarded as oppressive so long as it retains its +attitude of looking upon the untried person as guilty until such time +as his trial establishes his innocence, and the Anglo-Saxon mind is +revolted at the practice of endeavouring to extort a confession from a +prisoner. The Napoleonic mould did not alter these qualities, and even +in the matter of religious tolerance the French have still much to +learn. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +ON EDUCATION AND RELIGION + + +The annual sum of 4250 francs (L170) was considered by Napoleon--in so +far as he had opportunity for considering the subject--a sufficient +amount of money to devote directly to the education of the people! But +the rulers of States a brief century ago were, as a whole, inclined to +leave educational matters in clerical hands, and the nineteenth +century will stand out in the world's history as the dawn of State +responsibility in regard to the education of the people. + +At the Restoration in 1814 more than twelve times as great a sum as +that expended by Napoleon was being devoted to education, and the +amount rose to 3,000,000 francs in 1830, to 12,000,000 during the +Second Empire, and to 160,000,000 under the Third Republic. To the +last sum must be added another 100,000,000 francs (excluding the +money devoted to the erection of schools) spent by the municipalities +and communes, making a total of about L11,400,000. In 1912 the State +alone was spending about L12,000,000 on national education. + +At the head of this great spending department of the State is the +Minister of Public Instruction. He controls not only the whole of the +primary schools, but to some extent the entire educational machinery +of the country, private schools being subjected to State inspection +and supervision. Between 1901 and 1907 some 3000 public clerical +schools, and more than 13,000 private clerical schools, were +suppressed by law. The law passed in 1904 required that all schools +controlled by religious bodies should be closed within the next ten +years, which period is just about to elapse. Since the State awoke to +its responsibilities in educational matters, it has taken roughly a +century finally to extinguish clerical control. The schools are +divided into the three grades of Primary, Secondary, and Higher, and +the State admits into any of these pupils of any grade of society. In +the rooms of _lycee_ or college the classes meet in a truly democratic +fashion. The college, which is controlled by the commune under the +State, is considered inferior to the _lycee_, which is entirely in the +hands of the central authority. While the primary schools are +compulsory and gratuitous between the ages of six and thirteen, the +secondary schools charge small fees ranging from L2 a year up to L16. +But parents with bright children can often avoid this expenditure +through the lavish system of scholarships offered by the State. + +_Lycees_ were first established for girls in 1880, and there are now +several in existence, one of them having 700 students. The hours of +the classes are from 8.30 to 11.30, and from 1.30 to 3.30, and the aim +has been to run them on the same lines as those of the boys. Since +clericalism was removed from the education of girls, there has no +doubt been a very considerable change in the scholastic environment of +the _jeune fille_, but until a long period has elapsed it will be +difficult for any but those in the closest touch with educational life +in France to point out how far the advantages outweigh the +disadvantages or _vice versa_. The lay schoolmistress may be in +essentials as religiously-minded as any convent-trained type of woman. +Her influence on her pupils may produce as moral and as religious +types of women in the coming generation as those of the immediate +past, but in such a change in the training of the girls of a race not +fond of moral discipline who can foresee the results? + +The general tendency of the training given in the _lycee_ has been +towards the suppression of originality. There seems to have grown up +in the mind of the authorities an impression that the only means of +keeping the youth of France under proper control is by holding them +down with an iron grip, not merely during the hours of work but during +recreation also. This may have been necessitated by a certain lack of +discipline in the earliest years of life, young children being allowed +to have their own way to an altogether undesirable extent. As soon as +they are old enough the boys, having, as a rule, begun to be a source +of much trouble in the home, are sent to school. If their parents are +able to afford the fees, the gates of the _lycee_ soon close upon +their days of wilfulness and disobedience. In place of the home life +and the feminine influence with which they have been familiar, they +are confronted with a discipline of semi-military severity. Games are +not allowed, and in the hours of recreation in walled playgrounds of a +generally forbidding order, walking and talking alone are permitted. +Here, as in the class-room, the boys are perpetually under the eyes of +the _pion_, whose duties are restricted entirely to the maintenance of +order. Owing to suppression in natural directions, it is not +surprising if the minds of the boys should turn into the unhealthy +directions of intrigue and pernicious literature. + +M. Demolins, who a few years ago tried the experiment of running his +school on English lines, has found the results excellent. So greatly +appreciated are his efforts to abolish the bad features of the _lycee_ +that he is unable to meet the demand on the capacity of his buildings. +He is of opinion that the Anglo-Saxon is superior to the French +because of the better training given at school, discouragement of +initiative and suppression of independence being the chief features of +the schools of his own country, while the Anglo-Saxon allows boys a +freedom which develops self-reliance and individuality. + +"Every one knows our dreadful college," writes M. Demolins, "with its +much too long classes and studies, its recreations far too short and +without exercise, its prison walks a monotonous going and coming +between high heart-breaking walls, and then every Sunday and Thursday +the military promenade in rank, the exercise of old men, not of +youth." + +The boarder at the _lycee_, of course, feels the harshness of the +regime to a degree that the day-boy never experiences, home hours +mitigating the severity of the long working day. + +As a whole, it may be said that the ideal of the educational system +has been intellectuality rather than that of character building, and +in the former France is superior to England, the system producing a +higher average of intellectual capacity. If both countries could take +to themselves the strong features that each possesses it would be very +materially to their advantage. Changes in the right direction are +already taking place in France. It is quite probable that the _pion_ +will be suppressed before long, and cricket, football, and other manly +and health-giving games are beginning to take the place of the old +man's stroll under supervision. The fact that the Boy Scout is +appearing all over France seems to herald the dawn of a growing +sturdiness and manliness in the youth of the nation. At the present +day the average boy has an undoubtedly girlish softness in his dress +and general appearance. He wears sailor suits at an age which would +produce laughter amongst Anglo-Saxon boys. He appears in white socks +for several years longer than the English boy would tolerate, and his +thinly-soled boots suggest the promenade rather than any form of +strenuous game. His clothes do not appear to have been made for any +hard wear, and as a rule the knickerbockers of soft thin grey material +so generally to be seen are unfit for any rough use whatever. Even the +large black leather portfolios in which books and papers are carried +to and from school seem to receive as careful handling as though they +belonged to a Government official rather than that most destructive of +creatures--the schoolboy. In England one is familiar with the sight of +four or five books dangling at the end of the strap which secures +them, enabling the owner to convert his home-work into a handy weapon +of offence, but the soft leather case of French boys and girls, which +must be carefully carried under one arm, offers no such fascinating +by-purpose. + + [Illustration: CHILDREN OF PARIS IN THE LUXEMBOURG GARDENS.] + +If parents keep their boys in socks for a longer period than seems +rational to the Anglo-Saxon, they frequently go farther with their +girls, who often enough may be seen with bare legs until they are +nearly as tall as their mothers. + +Very much stress is laid on the examinations, which commence at the +age of fifteen or sixteen, when the _lycee_ and college training +terminates. The system since 1902 has consisted of a period of seven +years divided into two parts. At the expiry of the first, which +consists of four years, the pupil can choose one of four courses. The +first is Latin and Greek, the second Latin and sciences, the third +Latin and modern languages, and the fourth sciences and modern +languages. Having passed three years on one of these courses, he +should be ready for the two examinations by which he can obtain the +degree known as the _Baccalaureat de l'enseignement_. This is the +outer gateway to be passed through before the scholar can enter the +citadels of any of the great professions, such as law, letters, +medicine, or Protestant theology. + +The State provides the higher education in its universities and in its +specialised higher schools, and since 1875 private individuals and +bodies, so long as they are not clerical, have been permitted to take +part in the advanced educational work of the country, but the State +faculties alone have the power to confer degrees. The five classes of +faculties associated with the various universities confer degrees in +law, science, medicine, letters, and Protestant theology. + + [Illustration: LE PUY-EN-VELAY IN THE AUVERGNE COUNTRY.] + +The keystone of the arch of learning in France is the _Institut de +France_. It embodies the five great academies of science and +literature, but omits that of medicine, which stands apart. + +In England some social importance attaches to a man on account of his +having been educated at Eton or Harrow and having afterwards taken a +degree at one of the two mother universities, irrespective of his +having shown himself an indifferent scholar, but south of the Channel +the scene of a man's education counts for naught in later life. The +moral and social sides of the English system would seem to have +crowded out to a great extent the intellectual side, which, with the +essentially practical people of France, forms the whole structure. +From the teacher in the primary school to the heads of the +universities no effort is made to influence character: "As soon as the +student leaves the lecture hall he is free to return to the niche he +has constituted for himself, to its probable triviality and its +possible grossness, or to the vulgar pleasures of the town.... We lose +the advantage of that peculiar monastic, thoughtful life which is +offered to the young Englishman."[3] + + [3] W. L. George. + +An almost childlike simplicity seems to be the keynote of the religion +of that portion of the French people which still adheres to the +observances of the Roman Church. The nation, until recent years, +professed the Catholic faith and worshipped the Virgin as the mother +of the Saviour of the world. In her honour, and to keep her presence +ever in mind, to envisage her to mortal eyes, they erected statues and +placed little figures at street-corners, by the road-side, and upon +the altars of churches, and these are still objects of veneration +among the people. One of the largest and most imposing representations +of the Virgin is Notre Dame de France, a colossal figure cast from +guns captured in the Crimean War, which is erected on the summit of +the basaltic cliff which towers above the ancient town of Le +Puy-en-Velay (Haute Loire). The figure is so gigantic--it stands forth +gilded by the rising or the setting sun high above one's head, even +when standing on the top of the rock upon which it has been +erected--that one can scarce forbear to look upon it without some +admiration, irrespective of its merits as a work of art. The features +are of a sweet and simple beauty, although of a stereotyped order, and +even to those whose religious ideas do not lean in the direction of +the veneration of representations of deities it is easy to see how a +simple peasant, trained in the religious system which erects such +images, can fall into the attitude of prayer by merely looking on such +an achievement.... Gazing at the figure standing high in the midst of +an amphitheatre of picturesque mountains, one feels some explanation +for the attitude of the religious towards the immense figure; ... and +then one turns away to descend from the rock, and passing behind the +pedestal of the effigy one observes a door, and above it a notice to +the effect that on payment of ten centimes one may ascend within the +_Vierge_, and when the maximum fee has been paid one may actually +place oneself within the head and gaze out upon an immense panorama +from a position of wonderful novelty.... Where is the vision, where +the sense of fitness, where any atmosphere of sanctity? Does the +incongruity of such an arrangement strike no one among the +religiously-minded people who visit Le Puy? + +It would appear that the French prefer to have all that is outward in +their religion as much a part of their daily lives as any other +objects of common use. Thus the coverings of the inner doors of a +French church are almost invariably worn into holes or discoloured +with the frequent handling of those who every day spend a few minutes +in the incense-laden atmosphere of their parish church. The floors are +dirty with the constant coming and going from the streets, and the +need for doormats does not appear to be observed. On week-days, apart +from the clergy, it is exceptional to see a man in a church unless he +is there in some official capacity. One will find men carrying out +repairs, and it does not seem to occur to them to remove their hats; +one will see them as tourists with guide-books in their hands, or, as +at St. Denis in the suburbs of Paris, a man in uniform will conduct +visitors through the choir and crypt, and he too finds it unnecessary +to uncover his head; but one goes far to find any other than women and +children kneeling in prayer before the altars or stations of the cross +on any other day than Sunday. It is the women whose religious needs +bring them into places of worship in the midst of the working hours of +the weekday, men rarely coming unless their steps are directed thither +for a wedding or a funeral. And on Sundays few churches would be +required if the women ceased to attend. + + [Illustration: LA ROCHE, A VILLAGE OF HAUTE SAVOIE.] + +Funerals have not yet lost their impressive trappings as is the case +in England, where even the poor are beginning to find it less a +necessity to have the hearse drawn by horses adorned with immense +black plumes and long black cloths coming down almost to the ground. +In France these things are still much in evidence, and imposing black +and purple hangings studded with immense silver tear-drops are put up +in the church if the estate or the relatives of the deceased can +afford such melancholy splendour. Before leaving the church after the +funeral service, friends and relatives pass one by one to the bier, +and there each takes a crucifix and makes the sign of the cross. + +The interior of a French church is, as a rule, so dark and shadowy +that the clusters of candles burning before the shrines sparkle +brilliantly in the cavernous gloom of its apsidal chapels, casting an +uncertain and mystic light on pictures and effigies of saints and +apostles, on shining objects of silver and gold, and on gaudy ornament +and tinsel. Looming out of the obscurity, the ghostly representation +of the crucified Christ is faintly illuminated; a few inky figures are +grouped before the altars, their blackness relieved only by the white +caps of the peasants--for it is the custom for women to wear black +when they go to church; the air is heavy with incense, and one feels +that superficial glamour which makes its strong appeal to those who +find satisfaction in the mainly sensuous emotions caused by these +surroundings. When an organ pours forth its sonorous and mellow notes +and men's voices chant Gregorian music before the brilliantly lighted +altar sparkling with golden ornament, when the solemn Latin liturgy is +recited and the consecrated elements are raised by the priest, the +average religious requirements of the French would seem to be +satisfied. Those who do not find any satisfaction in watching and +listening to these offices of the Roman Church as a rule drop into a +state of agnosticism, if not of complete irreligion. To be logical one +must do so, and a growing majority of Frenchmen seem to find no other +course unless they belong to the comparatively small body of +Protestants or the Jewish communities.[4] There can be no doubt at all +that the Roman Church has lost its hold on a vast proportion of its +adherents, and those who are still numbered among the "faithful" are +every year shrinking in numbers. + + [4] The Protestants number about 600,000, the Jews 70,000, and the + nominal Catholics 39,000,000. + +"French Protestants," writes Mr. W. L. George,[5] "and French Jews are +as devout, as clean-living, as spiritually minded as our most +enlightened Churchmen and Nonconformists; a visit to any Parisian +synagogue or to the Oratory will demonstrate in a moment that the +French have not forgotten how to pray. The congregations are as large +as ever they were, and they contain as great a proportion of men as in +England." And he adds: "This distinction of sex must everywhere be +made, and particularly in France, where Roman Catholicism flaunts a +sumptuous aestheticism, voluptuous and worldly, capable of appealing +both to the refined and to the sensuous." Mr. George believes that +French Catholics have not turned against Christ, but against the +ministers of the Christian religion in his land because they have +been discovered to be unfaithful servants. It is his belief that the +Church is dying--"dying hard but surely"; and who can quarrel with his +statement that the people have turned their backs on its ministers, +that they are on the threshold of agnosticism, and that the Church is +putting forth no hand to stay them? The next two or three generations +can scarcely fail to witness the death by atrophy of the Roman faith +in France; but the French are not an irreligious people, and perhaps a +wider faith may spring up from the ashes of the creed which is so fast +growing cold. + + [5] _France in the Twentieth Century_--an admirable work. + +One might compare religious systems to the unresponsive edifices in +which public worship is conducted, for they seem equally incapable of +spontaneous adaptability to the needs of the people, and only the +stress and labour of the laity ever produces any adaptation to the +changing needs of those for whom the structure exists. + +Because the accumulated resentment of the French people as a whole +against the shortcomings of their national Church has resulted in a +complete divorce from the State, and because the clergy have rebelled +against the laws which have recently been passed, and have therefore +become in a certain sense outlaws--servants, as it were, of a +discredited section of the community--it has been easy for superficial +observers to come to the conclusion that the French nation has +virtually assumed the garb of atheism. This is always the arrow which +strikes the legislative body determined to dissociate itself with any +form of religion, but as in England, where devoted Churchmen are +ranged on the side of disestablishment, so in France the national +voice that spoke for a severance between Church and State was not that +of a people without religion, but rather that of a people unwilling to +maintain a system which had fallen away from its duty and its ideals. +Atheism and agnosticism would appear to be phases in the religious +development of the human race, the positions into which various types +of mind are driven when dissatisfied with the explanation of the +purpose, duty, and future of the individual as set forth by a +particular Church. That some new development of the truth will +supersede that which has been cast aside seems inevitable. + +In this period of upheaval what is the attitude of the people, of the +peasant, to _M. le Cure_? Social intimacy between priest and +parishioners is very great, and the _cure_ is often a very good +fellow whose practical religion is much broader than the +ecclesiasticism he represents. He is, roughly speaking, of the peasant +class and is regarded as socially inferior by the equivalent to the +"county" circle of his neighbourhood. Unlike the English clergy, who +are often distinguishable from the laity by little besides a +distinctive collar and hat, he is always to be seen in his _soutane_ +and with white-bordered black lappets beneath his chin. He is, as a +rule, anti-Republican, and is therefore out of sympathy with the +people and the whole apparatus of the government of to-day. To a huge +mass of the people he is nicknamed the _calotin_. + +Paul Sabatier explains how the association of the Church with politics +affects the relations of priest and parishioner:-- + + At election times, especially, how great an impression is made on + the mind of the simple by the defeat of one who has been put + forward as the candidate of _le bon Dieu_, and the triumph of the + candidate of "the satanic sect"! When such coincidences recur + over forty years with increasing frequency, the most pious + countryman begins to ask if Satan be not stronger than the + Almighty. The artisan, meeting his parish priest, speaks in a + tone at once commiserating and mocking of God's business, which + is not going well. Blasphemy! thinks our good priest. But no; + they have only blasphemed who taught him to identify a political + party with religion. His rudeness is not very different from that + of Elijah, chiding on Carmel's summit the priests of Baal.... But + this rudeness, like that of the prophet, disguises an outburst of + religious feeling, still awkward in its manifestation, and even, + perhaps, expressing itself by deplorable means----....[6] + + [6] _France To-day: its Religious Orientation._ M. Sabatier + proclaims himself a Protestant who has sought to love both + Catholicism and Free Thought. + +Since 1882, when the undenominational schools were established, there +has been a fierce battle between Church and State, which has scarcely +come to a close at the present hour; but emerging from the din and +dust of the prolonged warfare there is one salient fact, namely, a +growing desire among the great mass of teachers for increasing the +undenominational moral teaching in the schools. A compelling force is +obliging the school to build up a strong moral training for the young, +entirely independent of clerical influence. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +SOME ASPECTS OF PARIS AND OF TOWN LIFE IN GENERAL + + +The reckless driving and the wonderful lack of regulation in the +streets of the capital and the majority of the cities of France do not +prevent the streets from possessing a character encouraging sociality +and relaxation. This is due to a great extent to the ever-inviting +cafe, which contrives to keep clean table-cloths and the opportunity +of a comfortable meal in the open air within six feet of a rushing and +tempestuous stream of wheeled traffic. In addition there is much +marketing in France, which adds colour and human interest to what +might otherwise be a featureless street or square. In walking as a +mere visitor through the streets of a French town, one seems to +witness more of the intimate life of the place in a few hours than one +would do in England in a week. From the baking of bread to +haircutting and shaving and the eating of food, there is much more of +work and play visible from the curb-stone. In England the staff of +life seems to reach the dining-room table by invisible means, so +seldom does one see bread carried through the streets, but among the +French--a nation of bread-eaters--long loaves as well as circular ones +are to be seen tucked under the arm of almost every tenth person one +meets. The working classes seem to be continually buying bread freshly +baked, and one loaf at a time! And those who may be seen carrying +bread or vegetables, or whatever they have just purchased at the +market, are more at home in the street than are Anglo-Saxons, who are +apt to regard the common highways of their towns as channels for +coming and going to and from business or pleasure whereon lingering or +conversation is undesirable, indiscreet, and not without danger, for +it is generally recognised that those who pass hours of rest or +idleness in the streets are persons without homes or of undesirable +reputation. But in a French city one is invited at every turn to buy a +newspaper or periodical at a kiosk and to take a seat at a table close +by, where, having ordered a bock or a cup of coffee, one is free to +read undisturbed for hours. + +In Paris the gossip of the _boulevards_ is part of the life of a big +section of the people, and yet to the casual and superficial observer +it might be thought that there was less opportunity for chatting in +the streets than is offered in London. The French _boulevard_ is in +reality no more free from danger than the English street, but the +people have accustomed themselves to the conditions. Among Latin +peoples there is a time-honoured weakness for throwing out of the +window all sorts and conditions of rubbish, and those who are chatting +in a patch of shade in some quiet corner of a street may be rudely +disturbed by the fall of a basinful of old cabbage leaves or other +kitchen ejecta. Worse than this are the strange and often offensive +odours that assail one in the streets. Imperfect sanitation is +commonly the cause of the noxious atmosphere of so many streets in +French towns. The artist sometimes pays a heavy price for the picture +he obtains of some picturesque quarter on account of the contaminated +air he is obliged to breathe. In Caen, where splendid Norman and +Gothic churches thrill those who appreciate mediaeval architecture, +the malodorous streets often frighten one away. + +Sanitation has improved enormously in recent years, and is still +making great strides forward, but the people have a great deal to +learn in the use of the new appliances that are provided. This leeway +is less easy to make up than that of mechanical contrivance, and much +time will no doubt elapse before every one is educated up to the +proper appreciation and use of sanitary arrangements. Municipal +authorities have also much to learn. There should not exist the +smallest loophole for an architect to erect a modern building without +providing a direct outlet to the open air to all the sanitary +quarters, and yet in a recently erected hotel in the Etoile district +of Paris, such a cardinal requirement of health is ignored, the only +ventilation being a window that lights a cupboard for hot-water cans, +and that in turn is the sole ventilation of a bathroom, outside air +reaching neither the first nor the last! London, which before the +Great Fire was a city whose smells had become proverbial, is now the +cleanest and healthiest city in the world, its sanitary by-laws +leaving no loopholes for slipshod work; but Paris, the world centre +for the choicest and most exquisite of perfumery, has still much +progress to make before complete enjoyment of its cheerful, busy, +richly coloured street life can be experienced. + +Every one knows the difficulties of looking at and observing with +seeing eyes the everyday objects with which one is surrounded. A +little girl paying a visit to London from the country once pointed out +to the writer what a number of blind horses there were to be seen in +the streets, and he was obliged to confess that he had never noticed +any. Such limitations seem to debar one from making comparisons +between one's own form of urban civilisation and another, but allowing +for a certain lack of observation in the land of one's upbringing, +there are some features of French town life to which one may draw +attention. + + [Illustration: A TYPICAL COCHER OF PARIS.] + +Very early in his first experiences of Paris the visitor discovers +that the rule of the road is to keep to the right, and that there is +little certainty of what may happen where the great streams of traffic +meet. The policeman of Paris may hold up his baton, but it is not in +the least likely that a complete check to the traffic behind him will +result. After an exhaustive study of London methods the Parisian +authorities have come to the conclusion that it is the French +character which prevents their officers from carrying out the same +methods in Paris. Notwithstanding the quiet way in which the French +submit to certain laws which would not be tolerated in England, they +appear to resent control in this department of life. The police of +Britain are a bigger, more solid and imperturbable type than those of +their neighbours across the Channel, but an east-ender might make +impertinent comments if the policeman who held up his donkey-cart had +patent leather toe-caps to his boots--a by-no-means unusual sight in +Paris! + +The quaint, noisy omnibuses pulled by three horses abreast have been +replaced by heavy motor-propelled vehicles which still, however, +preserve the old features of first-and second-class sections, and the +standing accommodation for eight or ten persons. One mounts and +alights from the middle of the rear of the vehicle, the opening being +guarded by a chain controlled by the conductor--a method offering less +opportunity for dropping off before the 'bus has come to a standstill. +Although the motor-cab is present in considerable numbers, the +horse-drawn taxi still holds its own. It is cheap, and although, +through the close coupling of the front pair of wheels, it can be +overturned quite easily, it is a decidedly pleasant means of +conveyance, with less anxiety for the fare than the auto-taxi, but the +drivers seem to desire to out-do the chauffeurs in giving as much +thrill and sensation as skilful and often reckless driving will +provide. + + His hatred of the _bourgeois_--the "man in the street"--in spite + of, and indeed because of, his being a potential client, is + expressed at every yard. He constantly tries to run them down, + which makes strangers to Paris accuse the Paris cabman of driving + badly, while in point of fact he is not driving at all, but + playing with miraculous skill a game of his own.... The cabman's + wild career through the streets, the constant waving and slashing + of his pitiless whip, his madcap _hurtlements_ and collisions, + the frenzied gesticulations which he exchanges with his "fare," + the panic-stricken flight of the agonized women whose lives he + has endangered; the ugly rushes which the public occasionally + make at him with a view to lynching him, the sprawlings and + fallings of his maddened, hysterical, starving horse, contribute + as much as anything to the spasmodic intensity, the electric + blue-fire diablerie, which are characteristic of the general + movement of Paris.[7] + + [7] Rowland Strong, _The Sensations of Paris_. + +No doubt the hansom-cab--the gondola of London as some one termed +it--would have survived if it had accepted the limitations of the +taximeter, but refusing to adjust itself to circumstance its numbers +steadily diminished. + +Among the omnibuses and taxis of both types and the numerous private +motor-cars there passes at all times of the day a wonderful stream of +country vehicles. Vegetables are conspicuous, but these might be +overlooked, whereas the hay and straw carts assail the eye by their +immense proportions. They might almost be dubbed lazy men's loads, for +they have the appearance of moving hay-stacks and require the most +skilful manoeuvring in the midst of so much impetuously driven +traffic. These country carts almost give the streets of Paris a +provincial flavour, their horses and drivers being more essentially +rural than anything one sees in London, even in the neighbourhood of +Covent Garden. Riding quietly through the wheeled traffic the sight of +half a dozen members of the semi-military _Garde republicaine_ is a +very familiar one. Their uniforms are so military in character that +visitors to Paris generally mistake them for soldiers. + +On the pavements of the streets a striking feature is the number of +women who go about their business without wearing hats. In the dinner +hour of the _midinette_, between twelve and one (from which she +derives her name), this is particularly noticeable, the streets and +public gardens overflowing with this hard-worked and underpaid class +of _Parisienne_. These girls and women are the "labour" of the +dressmaking establishments wherein is produced all that is most +admired by the well-dressed women of the world. The majority are very +underpaid, the young and inexperienced earning about 1 fr. 50 a day, +the _petites couturieres_, as a rule, having a wage between 1 and 3 +francs a day, which does not go far in Paris, where the cost of living +is roughly double that of London. In the leading establishments the +_midinette_ may earn from L35 to over L50 a year, but these are the +highly skilled _ouvrieres_ and do not represent a very large +proportion of the whole, whose incomes have been roughly estimated in +three divisions, each representing one-third of the whole number. The +most poorly paid third receives less than 5 francs a day, the +intermediate section attains the 5-franc level, and the most +prosperous third exceeds it to the amount already mentioned. A small +number of women become what is known as _premieres_ in famous +houses in the Rue de la Paix, the classic street from which the +fashions in woman's attire for the whole of the civilised world are +believed to emanate. These clever French women are endowed with a very +high degree of taste and skill, and their gifts reach a comparatively +high market value, bringing in an annual income of about L150. + + [Illustration: AUTUMN IN THE CHAMPS ELYSEES, PARIS.] + +The work-girls who take sewing to their homes can earn from 75 +centimes to 2 francs a day. In her interesting book on Paris life +Mlle. de Pratz gives the following two budgets of _midinettes_ +receiving L34 and L48 per annum:-- + + 850 fr. per annum 1200 fr. per annum + (L34). (L48). + Lodging 100 L4 150 L6 + Food 550 L22 750 L30 + Clothes 100 L4 150 L6 + Heat, light, washing, and 100 L4 150 L6 + recreation ____ ____ + 850 1200 + +The struggle to make ends meet on the smaller incomes is no doubt +great, for Paris, it must always be remembered, does not provide cheap +living for any one, not even in its poorest quarters. As a whole the +_midinette_ class is badly fed and therefore delicate and too often a +prey to consumption. It does not produce a high average of +good-looking girls, for, being fond of amusement, late hours are +indulged in very generally, with the result that when the hour for +work arrives insufficient rest has been obtained. No doubt in so large +a class--they are computed to number about 110,000--there is a wide +range of character and morals, but there seems little doubt that, as a +class, the chastity of the most poorly paid does not rank high. In a +moral atmosphere such as that breathed by Parisians as a whole, it +would be almost impossible for girls subjected to so much temptation +on account of poverty to resist. And there is commonly no loss of +self-respect when the downward step has been taken, for even when a +girl convicted of such moral laxity is blamed, she merely replies with +calmness that it is quite natural. + +The Apache class lives in its own particular quarter of the city, and +its members are not easily recognisable by the general public. The +fraternity tattoo a certain arrangement of dots on the forearm by +which recognition is instantly obtained. These dots indicate the motto +of the Apache, _Mort aux vaches!_ by which is intended their perpetual +warfare with the police. This strange class of anti-social beings is +recruited from many grades of Parisian life, all suffering from some +abnormal mental condition unless drawn into the grip of the strange +brotherhood by mischance when very young, as will sometimes happen +with girls at an immature age. In spite of the national training in +arms of the young men of France, this incredible class continues to +exist and to perpetrate outrage, murder, and robbery. How many of +these outlaws of society have experienced military service, and to +what extent it has modified or accentuated their abnormality, are +questions to which one would like to have answers. + +Probably the average Parisian of the middle classes is more aware of +the enormities of the _concierge_ than of the Apache. The one is an +ever-present annoyance, and the other a thing read about in the +evening newspapers, but not encountered personally. Not so _La +Concierge_. This individual is employed by a landlord to act as his +watchdog in a block of flats. His duties are connected with showing +the flats to prospective tenants, collecting rent, keeping the +staircases clean, and delivering letters, the last being required +because the Paris postman does not climb the stairs in flat +buildings--all the letters for the building being delivered into the +hands of the _concierge_. It is this matter of one's letters which +gives the caretaker his power. He uses it to extort liberal gratuities +for every small service, as well as a handsome _etrenne_ on New Year's +Day. It is the landlord who is at the fountain-head of the trouble. +How seldom is it otherwise! He pays the _concierge_ an entirely +inadequate sum for his services, and as he has to supplement his +income in some other way he, as a rule, leaves his wife in charge for +a large part of the day and earns a supplemental sum elsewhere. The +Frenchwoman is too often inclined to avarice, and it seems to be the +exception to find in Paris a _concierge's_ wife who will not levy a +form of blackmail on the tenants whose letters come into her hands. +She will make herself familiar with the character of the +correspondence that each tenant receives, and if insufficiently tipped +will not hesitate to hold up any letters that she believes are of +importance. The opening of letters with steam is not beneath the moral +plane of _Madame la Concierge_, and by various means she obtains such +an intimate knowledge of the concerns of each tenant that peace and +freedom from endless petty annoyances can only be bought at the price +which she deems satisfactory. Mlle. de Pratz gives a vigorous picture +of this bugbear of flat life in Paris, telling of the scandals that +are circulated concerning entirely innocent people who have failed in +the liberality of their _etrennes_, and how the residents of +ill-reputation buy immunity from these baneful attentions by their +liberal tips. How long, it may reasonably be asked, will Paris consent +to this iniquity, which could be remedied by the delivery of letters +direct to the door of each flat? + +It is often a matter of discussion how far the proverbial politeness +of the French goes beneath the surface. Generalising on such a topic +is hedged about with pitfalls, and the wary are disinclined to +enter such debatable ground. Compared to the British, whose +self-consciousness or shyness too often leads to awkwardness in those +moments of social intercourse when dexterity is needful, the French +are undoubtedly ages ahead. The right phrase exactly fitting the +requirements of the moment comes easily to their lips, and with it, as +a rule, the right expression and attitude; and yet one must travel +often in the underground railways of Paris to see a man give up his +seat to a woman who is standing. It is understood that a young man +cannot offer his place to a young woman, because it would suggest +_arriere-pensees_; but if this regrettable state of affairs does +exist, the restriction to such action does not apply when an old woman +carrying a bundle is standing beside a youth, who could not be accused +of anything but courtesy if he rose to save her the discomfort of +standing. But no one seems to think such action a requirement of +common politeness. While one finds great charm and civility among the +assistants in shops, which often add very much to the pleasure of +shopping, a disagreement on a business matter may be handled with much +less courtesy than in a British shop. A hard, almost angry expression +will come upon _madame_ or _mademoiselle's_ face, where over the +Channel one would meet a look of mere anxiety. But Paris shopkeepers +no doubt have a very cosmopolitan world to attend to, and they perhaps +encounter many rogues. There is unevenness in manners everywhere, and +while one class of workers may be soured by adverse conditions and +lose their natural charm in the economic struggle, another will expand +in the sun of easy and pleasant conditions. The Parisian horse +taxi-cab driver with his picturesque shiny tall hat and crimson +waistcoat is not conspicuous for his politeness unless his +_pour-boire_ is very liberal, and the railway porter can easily be +insulting if he is dissatisfied with a tip. In London there is much +unmannerly pushing on to trams and omnibuses during the morning and +evening hours, restricted here and there by the method of the queue, +but in Paris all the chief stopping-places of the omnibuses are +provided with publicly exposed bunches of numbered tickets. On a wet +day a little girl or a cripple has merely to tear off one of these +slips of paper, and when the 'bus arrives the conductor takes up his +passengers in the numerical order of their tickets--all unfair +hustling being thus eliminated. + +The Parisian _bonne a tout faire_ has been diminishing in numbers for +many years. In the thirty years between 1866 and 1896 the total was +nearly halved, leaving about 700,000 of this overworked and underpaid +class. The day of frilled caps has gone, and even a bib to the apron +is considered an out-of-date demand. It is no doubt the need for +stringent economy in the flats constituting the greatest part of home +life in Paris, which is responsible for the dislike to domestic +service on the part of the young women of the capital. + +An undesirable arrangement in flat buildings is the housing of all the +maids of the building in very small bedrooms on the top floor. In the +hours in which the girls are free from duty they are able to do more +or less as they please on their floor, and the result is that the +natural protection of the home is missing in the hours of rest and +leisure, when their need is most pressing. The average _bonne a tout +faire_ is not disinclined to hard work, and she is clever and willing +to put herself to any trouble in an emergency or when there are guests +to be entertained. Boredom however, seems to settle upon her during +the normal routine of life, and her buoyant nature makes her inclined +to sing and talk loudly about her work. She is in a great proportion +of cases more intimate with the family than the servants in London +flats, and on this account her manner assumes a familiarity that in +the circumstances is fairly inevitable. A man visitor will commonly +raise his hat to the maid and call her "Mademoiselle." + +Probably the Paris maid-of-all-work is not worked any harder than the +single servant in London--the only real difference being the morning +marketing, which she regularly undertakes. There is attractiveness in +the life she sees in the streets and markets, and in addition there is +the tradesman's _sou_ which finds its way into her pocket for every +_franc's_ worth of goods purchased. If honest the girl's commission +begins and ends with the _sou du franc_, but if she is otherwise she +will make little alterations to the amounts in the household books, +and thus add by these petty but perpetual thefts a considerable sum to +her annual wages. How far such dishonesty is practised it is +impossible to say, and in the absence of any figures one may hope that +a few cases are the cause of much talk. + +Rents in Paris are high, and the tendency is to mount still higher. +Blocks of flats that have been let at a quite reasonable rent are +frequently "modernised" with a few superficial improvements and +renovations and relet at vastly increased prices. This is much the +case with those formerly let at from L60 to L100 a year, and the +restriction in the number of cheaper homes available for the poor has +been going on so steadily that the problem has become one which it +will be necessary for the State to tackle. The increase in rents has, +in some instances, been only 10 per cent, but in many instances it is +more than that, and here and there the upward bound has reached three +or four times that amount. + +One is sometimes puzzled to know how the Parisian struggles along, for +besides his ascending rent he has to pay much more for all household +stuff, whether it is curtains for his windows (which are taxed), a +cake of soap, or an enamelled iron can. No wonder that the best +sitting-room is kept shut up on certain days of the week, and that +polished wooden floors are so frequently seen in place of carpeted +ones. + +Tenants having large families are in a most awkward predicament, for +landlords on all hands discourage them, and if the Government wish to +go to one of the root causes of the diminishing birth-rate, they must +see to it that the housing of the middle and lower middle classes is a +less difficult and precarious feature of their struggle for existence. +Perhaps, now that the United States has set the example of lowering +and in some instances sweeping away the protective tariffs on certain +articles, France may follow suit. If the heavy duties on cotton goods +were removed there is no doubt whatever that the burden of +housekeeping in France would be instantly relieved. But the relief in +this respect would be trifling compared to that which would be felt in +the food bill. Tea costs from 4s. to 6s. per pound. Sugar averages +5d., rice 6d., and jam 10d. per pound. A remarkable instance of the +working of the tariff is given by Mlle. de Pratz in her interesting +work already quoted. "In a small village I know near Paris," she +writes, "thousands of pounds worth of fresh fruit and beet-sugar are +exported each year to England. But this village uses English-made jam +made from their own fruit and sugar, which, after being exported and +reimported, costs half the price of home-made French jam." + +As recently as March 1910 the protective system of 1892 was +strengthened, duties being raised all round. In support of the changes +it was argued that foreign countries were adopting similar measures, +and that fiscal and social legislation were laying new burdens upon +home industries. With Great Britain still maintaining its system of +free imports and the United States moving in the direction of Free +Trade, the first argument begins to lose its force. + +These questions of rent and the cost of food do not, of course, press +upon the very considerable numbers of wealthy residents in Paris, but +they are not on this account less vital to the well-being of the +mighty cosmopolitan city. And if these features of urban existence +were overlooked in any book, however slight, which aims at putting +before the reader some salient aspects of French life, the blank would +leave much unexplained. Bearing in mind the expense of living in the +large towns a thousand little things are at once interpreted. + +It has been said of Paris that the population belongs less to France +than that of any other city in the country, for the proportion of +residents of other nationalities has gone up prodigiously in the last +half century. There is a glamour about the city which seems to act as +a magnet among all the civilised nations of the world. "The +aristocratic class," says Mr. E. H. Barker,[8] "nominally so much +associated with Paris life, is becoming less and less French. The old +Legitimist families, so intimately connected with the Faubourg St. +Germain under the Second Empire and a good while afterwards, who at +one time held so aloof even from the Bonapartist nobility, have +greatly changed their habits and views of social intercourse. The two +nobilities now intermarry without apparent hindrance on the score of +prejudices, and mingle without any suspicion of class divisions. But +all this society helps to form what is called _Le Tout Paris_, which +is almost as cosmopolitan as French." + + [8] _France of the French._ + +When one stands before the great Byzantine Church of the _Sacre +Coeur_, that holds aloft its white domes against the sky up above +Paris on the hill of Montmartre, and looks down on the multiplicity of +roofs, there is always a film of smoke obscuring detail and softening +the outlines of some portions of the city. Yet when one walks through +the streets the clean creamy whiteness of the buildings would almost +give the stranger the impression that he had reached a city that had +no use for coal. Even in the older streets where renovation and +repairs are very infrequent there is never a suspicion of that uniform +greyness that the big cities of Britain produce. In all the great +boulevards in the whole of the Etoile district and wherever the houses +are well built and of modern construction, the bright clean stone-work +is so free from the effects of smoke that a Dutch housewife would +fail to see the need for external cleaning. The facades of nearly all +the houses in the newly reconstructed streets have a certain monotony +about them which has been inherited from the days of Hausmann's great +rebuilding. There is seldom any colour except in the windows of shops, +for the universal shutters, which in Italy are brilliantly painted +bright green, brown, blue, or even pink, are here uniformly white or +the palest of greys. So many of the new streets are, however, planted +with trees that the colour scheme resolves itself into green and pale +cream, except in winter, when the blackish stems of the trees add +nothing to the gaiety of the streets. + +Contrasting the streets in the neighbourhood of the Parc Monceaux with +those of Mayfair, London has the advantage for variety of +architectural styles and for complete changes of atmosphere; but for +spacious splendour, for what can properly be termed elegance, Paris +stands on a vastly higher plane. The dreary stucco pomposity of +Kensington and Belgravia fortunately cannot be discovered in Paris, +and it is well for the world that few cities indulged in this +architectural make-believe. While Belgravia can only keep her +self-respect by continually covering herself with fresh coats of +paint, the honest stone-work of Paris lets the years pass without +showing any appreciable signs of deterioration. Unlike London, where +there are seemingly endless streets of two and three storeys, Paris +has developed the tall building of five or six floors. The girdle of +fortification has no doubt directed this tendency. Where the streets +are not wide the lofty houses increase the effect of narrowness, and +many of the side streets in the St. Antoine district have, with their +innumerable shutters, a very close resemblance to some Italian cities. + +It is a mistake to suppose that the whole of Paris has been rebuilt; +for, apart from Notre Dame and such well-known Romanesque and Gothic +churches as St. Etienne-du-Mont, St. Germain, the tower of St. +Jacques, and the Sainte Chapelle, there are gabled houses of +considerable age in many of the by-ways. These are almost invariably +covered with a mask of stucco that does its best to hide up their +seventeenth-century or earlier characteristics. The beautiful and +dignified quadrangular building that is now called the Musee +Carnavalet, was the residence of the Marquise de Sevigne and was +built in the sixteenth century, although altered and added to in 1660. +Earlier than this is the fascinating Hotel Cluny, a late Gothic house +built as the town residence of the abbots of Cluny. This building even +links up modern Paris with the Roman _Lutetia Parisiorum_. Another +interesting architectural survival is the Hotel de Lauzan, a typical +residence of a great aristocrat of the days of _Le Roi soleil_. The +Palais du Louvre, dating in part from the days of Francois I., the +Tuileries, begun in 1564 and finished by Louis XIV., and the +Conciergerie wherein Marie Antoinette and Robespierre were confined, +are buildings of such world-renown that it is scarcely necessary to +mention them. + +In many ways Paris is similar in arrangement to London. It is divided +in two by its river, which cuts it from east to west, and the more +important half is on the northern bank. The wealthy quarters are on +the west and the poorer to the east. The great park, the Bois de +Boulogne, is also on the west side of the city. In Paris, the ancient +nucleus of the city was an island in the river, but London, although +it originated on a patch of land raised high above the surrounding +marshes, was never truly insulated. The Bastille, which may be +compared with the Tower of London, occupied a very similar position +not far from the north bank of the river and at the eastern side of +the mediaeval city. All the chief theatres and places of amusement are +on the north side of the river, and, as in London, so are all the +Royal Palaces; but here the parallels between the cities appear to +end, and one observes endless notable differences. + +The Seine divides the city much more fairly than does the Thames. +London has no opulent quarter south of its river, but Paris has the +Faubourg St. Germain, where her oldest and most distinguished +residents have their residences--houses possessing solemnly majestic +courtyards guarded by stupendous gateways. In the same quarter are +some of the more important foreign embassies. And the river of Paris +being scarcely half the width of that of London has made bridging +comparatively cheap and resulted in more than double the number of +such links. There is no marine flavour in Paris. No vessels of any +size reach it, and its banks are not therefore made ugly by tall and +hideous wharf buildings. It is a walled city, being encompassed by a +circle of very formidable fortifications, still capable of resisting +attack by modern military methods. Its broad avenues and boulevards, +tree-planted and perfectly straight, give the whole city an atmosphere +of spaciousness and of dignity that is lacking in London, if one +excepts the vicinity of Regent Street and Piccadilly, and a few other +west-end thoroughfares. + +Wherever one goes in France among the cities and larger towns the +ideas of big and eye-filling perspectives are aimed at by the +municipal authorities and architects. Lyons, Nice, Orleans, Tours, +Havre, Montpellier, Nimes, Marseilles, to mention places that come +readily into the mind, have all achieved something of the Parisian +ideal, and even the more mediaeval towns, whenever an opportunity +presents itself, expand into tree-shaded boulevards of widths that +would make an English municipal councillor rub his eyes and gasp. It +is curious to witness how, in many of the older towns, the narrow and +cramped quarters, necessitated in the days when city walls existed, +are continuing their existence in wonderful contrast to spacious +suburbs. The glamour of these narrow ways is so entrancing to the +visitor and the lover of history that he trembles to think that a day +may come when all these romantic nuclei of French cities have been +rebuilt on the ideals of Hausmann. + +Wherever one wanders in France, even in mere villages, one can +scarcely find a place that has not at least one cafe with inviting +little tables on the pavement, giving that subtle Latin atmosphere so +refreshing to the Anglo-Saxon (who, however, would never dream of +wishing to imitate the custom in his own country), and so full of that +curiously fascinating Bohemianism which Mr. Locke has caught in the +pages of _The Beloved Vagabond_. Could Britain exchange the +public-house for the cafe half the temperance reformer's task would be +done, but one can scarcely contemplate without a shiver the prospect +of eating and drinking in the open air anywhere north of the Thames +for more than a few weeks of summer. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +OF RURAL LIFE IN FRANCE + + +Peasant ownership of land does not always imply prosperity, and +because such a vast majority of French peasants possess their own few +acres, one must not jump to the conclusion that all these little +farmers live comfortable and prosperous lives. In very large tracts of +what has so often been called "the most fertile country in Europe,"[9] +the peasant is only able to tear from the soil he owns the barest +existence. By unremitting toil he makes his land produce enough to +give him and his family a diet mainly composed of bread and +vegetables. Meat, coffee, and wine come under the heading of luxuries, +and so much that is nutritious is missing from the normal dietary that +it would seem as though the minimum requirements of health were not +met. Long hours of steady toil, and food which the Parisian would +consider insufficient to make life tolerable, is the lot of the +peasant proprietors of France wherever the soil is ungenerous or +distance from railways and markets keeps prices low. + + [9] The same claim is frequently made for England. + +In the unprofitable soils of the Cevennes, and in certain parts of the +province of Correze, the peasants can cultivate little besides +buckwheat and potatoes. The latter, with chestnuts which are also +produced in these mountainous districts, form the staple food of the +agricultural population, and their drink is water, which they +sometimes enliven with the berries of the juniper. This is the simple +and hard-working life of those whose lot is cast in what may be called +the stony places. Quite different are the conditions of life in +Normandy or the wonderfully fertile plain of La Beauce, where is grown +the greatest part of the wheat produced in France. Here the generous +return for the labour expended on the soil brings such prosperity to +the peasant owner that he often turns his eyes to higher rungs in the +social ladder than that of husbandry, offering his land for sale, and +so giving opportunities for the capitalist to invest in a profitable +industry. + +Success may be said to bring with it dangers to which the peasant of +the poorer soils is not subjected. Writing of the farmers of La Beauce +and of parts of Normandy, Mr. Barker says: "Too often are they found +to be high feeders, copious drinkers, keenly, if not sordidly, +acquisitive, unimaginative, and coarse in their ideas and tastes. +Material prosperity, when its effects are not corrected by mental, and +especially by moral, culture, has an almost fatal tendency to develop +habits that are degrading and qualities that repel.... It is to be +noted as a social symptom that among the class of prosperous +agriculturalists in France, the birth-rate is exceptionally low." + +Of the 17,000,000 of the population who are more or less dependent +upon agriculture for their livelihood, only about 6,500,000 actually +work on the soil. Those who own holdings of less than twenty-five +acres number nearly 3,000,000, and the total area of land held in this +way is something between 15 and 20 per cent of the whole cultivated +area. About three-quarters of a million persons possess the balance. +The sizes of the holdings, of course, vary enormously. Besides those +who own their land, there is the large class of _metayers_, who are +part of a complicated system which persists in spite of its +theoretical impossibility of smooth working. Where a landowner is a +_gentilhomme campagnard_, he will in most cases have a few farms +attached to his residence, which is always _le chateau_ to the +peasant, however difficult to discover its old-time manorial +splendours may have become. The farmers who work for the landowner are +not rent-payers: they merely share with him in the results of their +labour, a system of co-operation which results in very close relations +between landlord and farmer. No hard and fast rules are followed as to +the proportion of the crops which falls to the landlord, or what share +he has of the cattle. It is common for him to furnish draught animals +as well as seed and implements. This system is limited very much to +those districts where agriculture has stood still for a very long +period, such as the Limousin, and the total of the land worked on the +_metayage_ system is only 7 per cent of the whole of the cultivated +land. + +To this day the methods of husbandry maintained in the less accessible +departments are scarcely ahead of the Romans, and on the slopes of +the Pyrenees one may still see the flail in use for threshing +purposes, while the plough with a wooden share, which seems likely to +hold its own for a long time to come in certain of the mountainous +districts, is the same as those depicted by prehistoric sculptors high +on the rock-faces of Monte Bego on the Franco-Italian frontier. + +In the greatest part of France oxen are used for draught purposes, and +these picturesque, cream-coloured beasts, yoked to curious big-wheeled +country carts, are always an added charm to the country road. Whether +they are seen patiently plodding along a white and dusty perspective +of tree-bordered road, or are standing quietly in a farmyard with +lowered heads while the queer tumbril behind them is being loaded, +they have picture-making qualities which the horse lacks. + +The carts are wonderfully primitive, two wheels being favoured for +purposes which in England are always considered to require four. In +fact the four-wheeled cart is difficult to discover anywhere in rural +France. Even the giant tuns containing the cider they brew in +Normandy, or those that are filled with wine in the Midi and other +grape-producing districts of the land, are borne on two great wheels, +and a pair of clumsy poles that, when horses are used, are tapered +down to form shafts. + +Farms differ in character and attractiveness according to local +conditions in every country, but France shows an astonishing range of +styles. In the north one finds the timber-framed barn and outhouse +delightfully prevalent, and in Normandy the farm often possesses the +character of those to be seen in Kent and Sussex, although south of +the Channel the compact, rectangular arrangement of barns is perhaps +more noticeable than to the north. Between the Seine and the Loire, +the timber-framed structures are very extensively replaced by those of +stone; but although lacking in the interest of detail, their colour is +exceedingly rich, for the thatched roofs are very frequently thick +with velvety moss, and the cream-coloured walls are adorned by patches +of orange and silvery-grey lichen. Wooden windmills are conspicuous on +the shallow undulations of the plain of La Beauce. Where roofs are +tiled, they too have become green with moss, giving a wonderful +mellowness to the groups of buildings. Farther south the farms are +still of stone, and some of them have an atmosphere of romance about +them in their circular towers with high conical roofs, and with even +the added picturesqueness of a turret or two. + +South of Poitiers the roofs of nearly all the houses take on the low +pitch and the curved tile which belong to the whole of the southern +zone of the country, and prevent one from noticing any marked +architectural change in crossing the frontiers into Spain or Italy. + +Taken as a whole, the villages are without any of the tidy charm to be +found in nearly every part of England. A hamlet gives the road that +passes through it the appearance of a farmyard. Hay, straw, and manure +are allowed to accumulate to such an extent that in the twilight a +stranger might think he had inadvertently left the road and strayed +into a farm. And whereas in England the rural hamlet does not usually +crowd up to the thoroughfare, it is often very much the reverse in +France. The writer has traversed thousands of miles of French roads, +has wandered with a bicycle in the byways, but has not yet seen a +village green with a pond and ducks, or even a churchyard with a +suspicion of that garden-like finish which makes England unique. The +velvety turf that grows on Britain's sheep-cropped commons does not +exist outside that land, and one never even expects to find the French +wayside relieved by such features. + +Economy in using every inch of soil, in avoiding the waste of sunshine +on arable lands, and in preventing the waste of timber caused by +letting trees grow untrimmed, has given the French landscape its most +characteristic features. Hedges which the Englishman has learnt to +love from his childhood, first because of the wild life they shelter +and the blackberries and nuts they provide, and later on account of +the beauty they add to every cultivated landscape, are an exceptional +feature in France. In immense areas such a dividing line is never to +be seen, and saving perhaps for a small tree that is scarcely more +than an overgrown bush, there is little to break the horizon line +except the tall poplars, birches, and other trees that line the main +roads. These are not allowed to live idle, ornamental lives: they, +like the toiling peasant, must work for their living by providing as +many branches as possible for the periodical lopping. In this way wood +for the oven and for the kitchen fire is supplied in nearly every +department of the country. + +In the fat and prosperous districts of Normandy, where rich grazing +lands produce the butter for which the province is famed, hedges are +as common as in England, and where mop-headed trees are not in sight, +it is not easy to notice any marked difference between the two +countries. + +Brittany is the province where the wayside cross is most in evidence, +but in every part of the country these symbols of the Christian faith +are to be found. Outside Brittany it is rare to-day to see any one +taking any notice of them, and no doubt the spread of education and +the consequent shrinking of the superstitions of the peasantry, make +the crucifix less and less a need on dark and misty nights. Offerings +of wild flowers are still tied to the shaft of the wayside cross, +where they rapidly turn brown, and resemble a handful of hay. The +well-head is a feature of the farm and cottage which varies in every +part of the land. It is frequently a picturesque object, having in +many localities a wrought-iron framework for supporting the +pulley-wheel. + + [Illustration: A BRETON CALVAIRE. THE ORATORY OF JACQUES CARTIER.] + +Horses and mules are seldom to be seen without some touch of colour or +curious detail in their harness. It may be a piece of sheep-skin dyed +blue and fixed to the top of the collar, or that part of the harness +will be of wood, quaintly devised, and studded with brass nails and +other ornament. Red woollen tassels are much in favour in some +districts. + +The breeding of horses in great numbers takes place in the north coast +regions of Brittany, Normandy, and between the mouth of the Seine and +the Belgian frontier. Using cattle for draught purposes so very +extensively no doubt keeps down the number of the horses in the +country, but in 1905 the total had risen to considerably over three +millions. Tarbes, a town near the Pyrenees, gives its name to the +Tarbais breed of light cavalry and saddle-horses, and the chief +northern classes are the Percheron, the Boulonnais for heavy draught +work, and the Anglo-Norman for heavy cavalry and light draught +purposes. Cattle, pigs, and asses have been increasing in numbers in +recent years, but sheep and lambs have shown a very decided falling +off, 22-1/2 millions in 1885 having dropped to 17-3/4 in 1905. Sheep +are raised on all the poorer grazing lands of the Alps, the Jura, the +Vosges, the Cevennes, and the Pyrenees, and also on the sandy district +of Les Landes on the Bay of Biscay. South-western France in general, +and the plain of Toulouse in particular, produce a fine class of +draught oxen. In the northern districts they are stall-fed on the +waste material of the beet-sugar and oil-works, and of the +distilleries. + +It is a popular error to imagine that the State owns all the forests +of France and even the wayside trees. This is due no doubt to the fact +that certain governmental restrictions do apply to the owners of +growing timber. The total of forest land amounts to only 36,700 square +miles, or about 18 per cent of the whole country, and of this about a +third belongs to the State or the communes. Fontainebleau has 66 +square miles of forest, but although the best known, it is not by any +means the largest, the Foret d'Orleans having an area of 145 square +miles. Much planting of pines has taken place in Les Landes, and that +marshy district, famed for its shepherds who use stilts for crossing +the wet places and water-courses, has by this means altered its +character very considerably. Reafforestation is taking place on the +slopes of the Pyrenees and the Alps which have been laid bare by the +woodman's axe. + +Standing quite apart from the rest of the agriculture of the country +is the wine-grower. His industry requires very specialised knowledge, +and his dangers and difficulties are in some ways greater than those +of the farmer. It may be the terrible insect called the phylloxera +that destroys the growth of the vine, it may be mildew, or it may be +over-production, but any of these troubles bear hardly upon the +vine-grower, who is, broadly speaking, a humble type of peasant with +very little capital. Before the war with Germany these people were a +fairly prosperous and contented class, but since that time formidable +troubles have smitten them very heavily. The awful visitation of the +phylloxera is said to have cost as much as the war indemnity paid to +Germany, _i.e._ L200,000,000, and when it was discovered that certain +American vines were not subjected to the ravages of the pest, and +feverish planting had established the new varieties in the land, a new +trouble, in the form of over-production, presented itself to the +unfortunate growers. More land had been converted into vineyards than +had ever produced such crops in the past, and a large production of +wine in Algeria so lowered prices that in 1907 affairs in the Midi +reached a critical state. Riots occurred at Beziers and Narbonne, +incendiarism and pillage took place at Epernay and Ay, and for a time +the Government found itself confronted with an infuriated mass of +peasants, who blamed it for the disastrously low prices then +prevailing. They also attributed the stagnation in the trade to the +fraudulent methods of sale that had become common. They were not very +far from the truth in stating that they did not reap so much advantage +as those who grew cereals and beetroot, while paying for the +protective policy in the high prices of food and all other +commodities. + +The peasant might almost be said to wear a uniform, so universal in +France is the soft black felt hat and the dark-blue cotton smock in +which he appears in the market-place. In this garb one sees a wide +variety of national types, from the English-looking men of Normandy to +the dark-complexioned, black-haired, and lithe race of the south. +Often the latter have an almost wild appearance, terrifying to the +British or American girl who strays any distance from the modern types +of palatial hotel which can now be found in regions of medicinal +springs in the Pyrenees. He is, however, a much less formidable +person when he enters into conversation, and, taken as a whole, the +agriculturalist is a very pleasant-mannered, hospitable, and dignified +person. He possesses in a marked degree the domestic virtues, the +level-headed shrewdness, the patience, thrift, and foresight which +give steadiness to his nation. In small towns in the south he can be a +person of immense sociality. The _place_ during the warmer months of +the year, after the work of the day is done, buzzes with conversation, +the steady hum of which would puzzle a stranger until he saw its +cause. In the strange little walled town of Aigues-Mortes, the entire +male population seems to congregate in the central square, and there +passes the evening at the tables of the three or four cafes. So much +conversation as that indulged in by these peasants of the Rhone delta +would seem sufficient to produce solutions for all the problems of the +wine industry, as well as those of rural populations in general. + + [Illustration: A PEASANT CHILD OF NORMANDY.] + +Care for the future makes the peasant toil and save for his children. +Husband and wife will keep their children's future in view in a most +self-effacing fashion, and if their shrewdness in business may go +rather beyond the mark, it is in the interests of their family that +they are working. The reward is too often that which comes to the +old--the sense of being a burden to their offspring when rheumatism +and kindred ills have robbed them of further capability for toil. + +In the country districts that are out of touch with modern influence, +the peasant keeps his womenkind in a state of subservience that is +almost mediaeval, and the custom of keeping the wife and daughters +standing while the father and sons are at meals is still said to be +maintained in some parts of the country.[10] The peasant is often a +tyrant in his family. In some districts he is in the habit of calling +his sons and daughters "my sons and the creatures." He is sometimes +quite without any interest in politics. The various types are, +however, so marked that the impossibility of labelling the peasantry +of such a large slice of Europe with any one set of characteristics is +obvious. By reading Zola or George Sand, one gets an insight into the +peasant life which little else can give. + + [10] Hannah Lynch, _French Life in Town and Country_. + +One of George Sand's descriptions of the peasantry of the Cevennes is +vigorous and vivid. She writes of it as a race "meagre, gloomy, +rough, and angular in its forms and in its instincts. At the tavern +every one has his knife in his belt, and he drives the point into the +lower face of the table, between his legs; after that they talk, they +drink, they contradict one another, they become excited, and they +fight. The houses are of an incredible dirtiness. The ceiling, made up +of a number of strips of wood, serves as a receptacle for all their +food and for all their rags. Alongside with their faults I cannot but +recognise some great qualities. They are honest and proud. There is +nothing servile in the manner in which they receive you, with an air +of frankness and genuine hospitality. In their innermost soul they +partake of the beauties and the asperities of their climate and their +soil. The women have all an air of cordiality and daring. I hold them +to be good at heart, but violent in character. They do not lack beauty +so much as charm. Their heads, capped with a little hat of black felt, +decked out with jet and feathers, give to them, when young, a certain +fascination, and in old age a look of dignified austerity. But it is +all too masculine, and the lack of cleanliness makes their toilette +disagreeable. It is an exhibition of discoloured rags above legs long +and stained with mud, that makes one totally disregard their +jewellery of gold, and even the rock crystals about their necks." This +description is growing out of date in regard to the hats and knives, +but the picturesque white cap, with its broad band of brightly +coloured ribbon, worn by nearly all the women over a certain age, +which George Sand does not mention, seems likely to persist. + +The peasant women of France are too often extremely plain and built on +clumsy lines. Exceptional districts, such as Arles and other parts of +Provence, may produce beautiful types, but the average is not +pleasing. This, at least, is the consensus of opinion of those who +profess to know France well. The writer would not venture on such a +statement on his own authority, although his knowledge of a very +considerable number of the departments entirely endorses their +opinion. But the more one knows of provincial France the more prepared +does one become for surprises, and the less ready to generalise. + +Between the educated and uneducated there is less of a gulf than in +other countries, on account of the very high average of good manners +to be found throughout the whole country, and because of the quick +intelligence that is common to the whole people. The almost pathetic +awkwardness of the old-fashioned English hodge scarcely exists in +France. + +Superstitions among the peasantry are steadily dying out, even in +Brittany. The rising tide of knowledge is finding its way into every +creek and inlet, and is steadily submerging beliefs in supernatural +influences. At one time the rustics lived in the greatest fear of a +rain-producing demon who was called the _Aversier_, but the science of +meteorology has reduced his personality to a condition as nebulous as +the clouds that heralded his approach. + +Until quite recent times a very large proportion of the medical work +in rural districts was carried out by the nuns of the numerous +convents, and the preference for the free services of the kindly +Sisters, however limited their knowledge, to those of the fully +qualified doctor of the locality is easily explained. The rural +practitioner's usual fee has only lately been raised from two francs +to three, but on driving any distance an additional charge of one +franc for every _kilometre_ is made. The fee of the town doctor, if he +is a general practitioner with a good practice, is from five to ten +francs a visit. If he belongs to the type of second-class specialist +not common in England but numerous in the cities of France, his fee is +from ten to twenty francs a visit. The first-class specialist charges +fifty francs, and sometimes seventy-five francs, for a visit. In the +country the medical man is often content with a bicycle as the means +of reaching his patients, for his income is not very often above L500 +a year. No doubt the suppression of the monastic orders in France has +improved the position of the doctors, who found few patients in +certain parts of the country, especially the north-west, where the +fervour of religious belief inclined the rustic to put the most +complete faith in the prescriptions of the nuns. No doubt their ample +experience in the treatment of small ailments (which the average +practitioner so often finds tiresome) gave the Sisters considerable +success in their medical work. Women doctors in every country could +enormously supplement the work of the men, and perhaps the day will +come when the general practitioner has a lady assistant to look after +the minor ailments which so often become serious through lack of +sufficient attention. How relieved would numbers of men doctors be if +they could turn over to a lady assistant the visiting of all cases of +chronic colds, dyspepsia, and the like! + +Whole books have been devoted to the _chateau_ life of France, and it +would be easy to overstep the limits of this chapter in writing on +this interesting subject. The wayfarer in France who knows nothing, or +next to nothing, of the interiors of the large houses he sees +scattered over the country would probably say that they all looked as +though shut up and for sale. He sees in his mind the weed-grown main +avenue and the ill-kept pathways. Visions come to him of lawns that +have grown into hay-fields, of formal gardens converted into vegetable +gardens, of terrace balustrades falling into decay, of walls whose +plaster has fallen away in patches like those of a Venetian _palazzo_, +of closed shutters, and a look of splendours that have passed. Those +who have seen a little more than the mere outsides of the great houses +will tell of occupants whose incomes have shrunk to such small sums +that they are reduced to living in a few rooms of their ancestral +homes, with insufficient servants to do more than keep the place +habitable, and to maintain the output of the kitchen garden and a few +flowers for the house. That there are many such _chateaux_ is +perfectly true. The occupants are mainly anti-Republican in their +views. They belong to other days, and are too proud to enter any +profession which would bring them into jarring contact with the big +majority who are without Royalist leanings. This obliges them to live +in threadbare simplicity on the small income their shrunken fortunes +provide. Two or three old servants, a few dogs, a horse or two, and a +few other luxuries surround them. Formal visits at long intervals are +paid to neighbours, who often live at some distance. The _cure_ and +perchance the doctor are intimate visitors; there may be a few +relations who come for visits, but this is often the whole of the +social intercourse of M. and Mme. X., who reside in a portion of a +_chateau_ of the time of Louis XV. which stands surrounded by a large +tract of woodland. But ample incomes, and here and there great wealth, +maintain many of the great houses of the countryside with modern +luxury in every department. Changes have come in the _chateaux_ in +recent years which have made breaches in the wall of old-fashioned +formality that was so universal until quite lately. Instead of sweet +wine and little hard sponge fingers, tea and _brioches_ appear at _le +five o'clock_, as it is often called. Where the old-fashioned ideas of +faithful servants will allow it, and the masters and mistresses have +felt the influences that flow from Paris, changes in furnishing appear +in the abandonment of the bareness and austerity of the +reception-rooms. Where such influences have not penetrated, one may be +quite sure to find all the furniture in the rooms ranged against the +walls, and a complete absence of flowers, books, or the smaller odds +and ends of convenience or ornament common to most Anglo-Saxon homes. +There may be fine tapestries, numerous family portraits and other +pictures, elaborate pieces of Boule and ormolu furniture, ornate +clocks, and many other beautiful objects, but restraint and constraint +are the prevalent notes. Bare polished floors and staircases with only +small mats or rugs here and there remain characteristic of the +_chateau_ interior. Too often there is no more individuality in a +house than would exist were it thrown open to the public as a +show-place or museum. + +In many of the _chateaux_ of the wealthy the charm of what is +essentially French is linked with modifications in the directions of +Anglo-Saxon convenience and comfort, producing much the same result +as is found in those English homes wherein an affection for a Louis +XV. atmosphere has introduced the tall silken or tapestried panels and +the stilted and elaborate furniture of the eighteenth century. + +Surrounded by extensive forests containing wonderful green +perspectives, the _chateau_ is often quite cut off from the sights and +sounds of the outer world. When the time of the _chasse_ comes round, +the woods may perhaps be enlivened by visions of the _chasseurs_ in +pink or green coats, three-cornered hats, and tall boots, and the +sound of their big circular horns may be heard. The silence is more +effectually broken when shooting parties meet and the _battue_ takes +place. + + [Illustration: THE CATHEDRAL AND PART OF THE OLD CITY OF CHARTRES.] + +Motor-cars have made neighbours more accessible, and changes are +taking place on this account. In pre-motor days the mistress of a +_chateau_ was often quite unprepared for visitors. Madame Waddington, +the American wife of a senator, who has put some of her experiences of +social intercourse in the country into a charming volume,[11] +describes a visit paid to a _chateau_ that was half manor, half farm. + + [11] _Chateau and Country Life in France_, Mary K. Waddington, 1908. + + We drove into a large courtyard, or rather farmyard, quite + deserted; no one visible anywhere; the door of the house was + open, but there was no bell nor apparently any means of + communicating with any one. Hubert cracked his whip noisily + several times without any result, and we were just wondering what + we should do (perhaps put our cards under a stone on the steps) + when a man appeared, said Mme. B. was at home, but she was in the + stable looking after a sick cow--he would go and tell her we were + there. In a few minutes she appeared, attired in a short, + rusty-black skirt, sabots on her feet, and a black woollen shawl + over her head and shoulders. She seemed quite pleased to see us, + was not at all put out at being caught in such very simple + attire, begged us to come in, and ushered us through a long, + narrow hall and several cold, comfortless rooms, the shutters not + open, and no fires anywhere, into her bedroom. All the + furniture--chairs, tables, and bed--was covered with linen. She + explained that it was her _lessive_ (general wash) she had just + made, that all the linen was _dry_, but she had not had time to + put it away, and she called a maid, and they cleared off two + chairs--she sat on the bed. It was frightfully cold. We were + thankful we had kept our wraps on. She said she supposed we would + like a fire after our long cold drive, and rang for a man to + bring some wood. He (in his shirt-sleeves) appeared with two or + three logs of wood, and was preparing to make a fire with them + _all_, but she stopped him, said one log was enough, the ladies + were not going to stay long; so, naturally, we had no fire and + clouds of smoke. She was very talkative, never stopped, told us + all about her servants, her husband's political campaigns.... She + asked a great many questions, answering them all herself; then + said, 'I don't offer you any tea, as I know you always go back + to have your tea at home, and I am quite sure you don't want any + wine.' + +Washing days only occur in large French households once a quarter, or +at the most monthly, so when the moment arrives the whole +establishment is in a ferment. An orgy of soap-suds takes place, and +coaling ship in the Navy is scarcely more disturbing to the even flow +of daily affairs. + +Conversation, where people seldom paid a visit to Paris, ran always in +a groove in the _chateaux_ and lesser houses described by the young +American. The subjects were the woods, the hunting, the schoolmaster, +the _cure_, local gossip, and much about the iniquities of the +Republic. + +_Chateau_ life is too frequently dull. It as often as not is as out of +touch with the realities of modern life as many English country houses +where there are no young folk, and where there is no active connection +with London and the busy world. The hunting season and shooting +parties bring life and activity for a time, but "twice-told tales of +foxes killed" do not carry any fertilising intellectual ideas into the +byways of upper-class life. An excess of formality pervades every +portion of the day, from the conversation on a new novel to the +afternoon drive or the solemn game of _bezique_ after dinner. There is +a tendency for politics to bulk largely in conversation, even among +women, while among men heat is easily generated on this topic, the +French being naturally bellicose. Subjects outside France, and matters +that do not directly concern the French, rarely come up for +discussion, unless the occupants of the _chateau_ are _intellectuels_. +It is mainly due to political controversy that duels arise, nearly all +the recent encounters having been between journalists and politicians. +At the present day, honour is commonly satisfied when the first blood +has been drawn, and when pistols are used, hits are infrequent. To +show how lightly he took the matter, Ste. Beuve fought under an +umbrella. Thiers fought a duel, and so also did the elder Dumas, +Lamartine, Veuillot, Rochefort, and Boulanger. Even to-day (1913) +septuagenarian generals are not too old to challenge one another, +General Bosc (seventy-two) having sent his second to demand +satisfaction of General Florentin (seventy-seven) for an unfounded +charge of encouraging the use of illegal badges in societies formed +for the training of boys in military duties! It is astonishing that +the French should maintain duelling when it is well known how opposed +was Napoleon to the absurd practice. "Bon duelliste mauvais soldat," +he used to say, and when challenged by the King of Sweden, his reply +was that he would order a fencing-master to attend him as +plenipotentiary. But the French have a keen sense of personal honour, +and one remembers that Montaigne said, "Put three Frenchmen together +on the plains of Libya, and they will not be a month in company +without scratching each other's eyes out." + +A poor man can hardly afford the luxury of a duel, for in Paris it +costs about 300 francs, and if one has no friend who is a doctor +willing to attend without a fee, the disbursements will even exceed +this amount! The first expenses are the taxis for your seconds when +they go to meet the other fellow's supporters. These meetings take +place at cafes, and their bills have to be met by the duellists. +Pistols, if they are used, are hired from Gastine Renette, who +inflicts a scorching charge of about 100 francs for the loan. If +swords are used they are bought, and the outlay is less, but not every +one who is challenged is sufficiently expert to run the chances of +using white weapons. Further expenses are incurred in the hiring of a +vehicle in which to drive to the spot selected for the honourable +encounter. The drive is punctuated by halts for refreshment for the +doctor and the seconds, as well as the coachman. When the conflict has +taken place there is often much more than "coffee for one" to be paid +for by the duellist. Not only does custom require him to invite doctor +and seconds to lunch at an expensive restaurant, but if the duel has +re-established amicable relations, there is a double party to be +entertained. To find a quiet and suitable spot for the meeting is +often exceedingly difficult, the _gendarmerie_ in such convenient +places as the Meudon Woods being perpetually on the alert, and having +offered rewards to any who warned them of the arrival of "a double set +of four serious-looking gentlemen in black frock-coats arriving in +landaus, with one gentleman in each set with his _gueule de travers_." + +Mr. Robert Sherard has described the preliminaries to a duel forced +upon him a few years ago. + + "... My fencing had grown very rusty," he wrote, "so ... I went + to a fencing school to be coached. The master ... had the + reputation of being able to teach a man in two lessons how not to + get killed in a sword duel. I was not anxious to get killed, so I + availed myself of his instructions. These mainly consisted in + showing one how to hold one's point always towards one's + adversary with extended arm. When a man so holds his weapon it + is, it appears, impossible for the other man to wound him. At the + same time it is said to be advisable to develop great suppleness + of leg and ankle so as to be able to leap back, still holding + one's point extended, in the event of the other man's rushing + forward with such impetuosity as possibly to break down one's + guard. It was further explained to me, that if whilst leaping + back I could also dig forward with my sword, most satisfactory + results might be hoped for (for me, _not_ for the other man)." + +It was disappointing to Mr. Sherard, after gaining much proficiency in +leaping backwards while digging forward with his point, to find that +his antagonist would only fight with pistols. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE RIVERS OF FRANCE + + +Broadly speaking, one half of France is mountainous, and the other +flat or undulating. All the mountains are on the eastern half, the +high grounds of Normandy and Brittany being scarcely more than hills. +The whole country might, for some purposes, be considered as an +inclined plane, for in travelling from the Alps on the eastern +frontiers to the Atlantic coast the altitudes (omitting the valley of +the Rhone) are constantly decreasing. Thus, with the exception of the +Rhone, which carries the snow-waters of the Bernese and Pennine Alps, +the Vosges and the Jura chains, into the Mediterranean, the waters of +nearly the whole of the more habitable three-quarters of the country +drain westwards to the Bay of Biscay and the English Channel. Most of +this immense reticulation of river and stream is included in the +three great systems of the Seine, the Loire, and the Garonne. The +Adour drains the triangle between the Pyrenees and the Garonne; the +Charente waters the Plain of Poitou between the Garonne and the Loire, +but both are of small account in comparison to the vast areas included +in the basins of the great rivers. + +Both the Rhone and the Garonne are of foreign birth, the first +beginning life at the foot of the great Rhone Glacier in Switzerland, +feeding on her snows and glaciers all the year round, and the second +rising in a Spanish valley of the Pyrenees. + + [Illustration: THE CHATEAU OF AMBOISE ON THE LOIRE.] + +The Loire, the longest of her rivers, is, however, entirely a +possession of France. It is, like the Seine, a cause of very much +anxiety on account of its inconstancy. At one season of the year it +inundates large areas with its superabundance, and at another it is +capable of running so low that only mere streams flow between the +sand-banks. So unfortunately situated is the city of Tours in times of +flood that it has found it necessary to surround itself with a +protective dyke. The chief cause of sudden inundations is when the +flood-waters of two or three tributaries conspire to pour in their +contributions to the main channel simultaneously, and only when these +headstrong young things are held in check will there be any hope of a +fairly regular level of water in the main course. Two centuries ago +(1711) the need for curbing the flood-waters was recognised so clearly +that a dam was constructed at Pinay, a village 18 miles above Roanne. +It held up 350 to 450 million cubic feet of water, and has been very +successful in maintaining the supply of water in the river-bed during +seasons of drought, as well as checking the violence of the floods. In +recent times three other dams have been built, two of them near the +busy industrial centre of St. Etienne, but until several others have +been constructed the flood-waters cannot be held in check. + +Its immense length of 625 miles takes the Loire through ten +departments, but the changes of scenery are not so remarkable as those +of the Rhone. The source is in the Cevennes, about 4500 feet above +sea-level, on the east side of the Gerbier de Jonc, and almost in +sight of the Rhone. Through Haute Loire in the marvellously +picturesque region of dead volcanoes near Le Puy-en-Velay it takes its +course northwards, flowing at the foot of basaltic cliffs and +chestnut-clad slopes. On commanding spurs ruined castles are perched +in most romantic fashion, and if it were not for their painful +inaccessibility, the demand among the wealthy for these little +strongholds of the Middle Ages would run up their value to astonishing +figures. + +The action of water in the past has been vastly more energetic in the +Auvergnes and the Cevennes in the ages since their masses of plutonic +rock were produced than at the present day, for the scoria and the +general debris of seismic disturbance has been so much eroded that the +throats of volcanoes filled with the last product of the immense heat +below here and there stand out stripped of their cones. One of the +most remarkable of these phenomena is to be seen at Le Puy. This +strange _aiguille_ has been crowned with a beautiful Romanesque chapel +for some nine centuries, and it is just possible that a Roman temple +stood there at an earlier date. + +In the neighbourhood of St. Etienne the Loire is considered to be +navigable. It traverses the alluvial plain of Forez, the mountains of +that name to the west separating it from the basin of its great +tributary the Allier, which takes a roughly parallel course and joins +it just below Nevers. If rivers could express their feeling by other +means than overproduction and strikes, the Allier would no doubt say +something forcible as to the ascendency of its neighbour, whose claims +to be the parent stream are open to question. + +Nearly all the way through this plain of Forez the Loire, in fine +weather, resembles a ribbon of fairest blue threaded through lace of +exquisite delicacy, for it is bordered by trees growing close to the +water-side, and only now and then does the band of blue show an +uninterrupted surface. Lower down bare red hills are encountered, +through which the river has forced its way to the plain in which +stands the town of Roanne, after which its course is less picturesque +for a time. This is perhaps a scarcely accurate statement, for +picture-making qualities with trees, cattle, and distant hills are +scarcely ever absent, but there is a certain monotony in the scenery +such as one can hardly find on the Thames or the Wye. From Nevers to +Orleans there are no towns on the river, which gradually turns its +course to the west, flowing exactly in that direction at Orleans, +where its ample width adds much interest and charm to a very much +modernised city. Its habit of flooding, and so causing immense damage +over large areas, has made it necessary to construct very formidable +dykes, which now protect the country it traverses between La +Martiniere and Nantes. Between Orleans and Tours, where embankments do +not exist, the writer has seen the cream-coloured flood-waters foaming +and swirling past trees, fences, and hay-stacks over large areas of +the Sologne. Here and there it has been almost impossible to see any +indications of the usual river-bed, and so level is the country to the +south in the neighbourhood of Beaugency that there seems nothing to +check the floods for several kilometres from the river. On these +occasions one trembles on account of the danger to which the +thirteenth-century bridge at Beaugency, patched, and in part rebuilt, +is hourly exposed. It is the oldest bridge on the Loire. + +Below Blois embankments contain the river, and the roadway on that +which defends the north side provides the charming riverside drive to +Amboise and Tours familiar to all who have visited the romantic +_chateaux_ of Touraine. The average rise of the river in flood is 14 +feet, and these dykes are quite equal to this task, but when, as in +1846 and 1856, the Loire raised its surface to over 22 feet, even +these banks were useless. With dredging, embanking, and dam +construction the river is being gradually harnessed, but there is +still much to be done before riverside towns can contemplate the rapid +melting of snow in the mountains without the gravest anxiety. + +An upper course in a country of impervious rock means that the volume +of water is not reduced by absorption, and the difficulties of the +river are increased when it encounters the tertiary beds of the +formation to which Paris gives its name. In this soft soil the Loire +gathers up great quantities of detritus, which it deposits farther +down, producing the sand-banks which cost the communities large sums +to remove. + +If the middle part of its course is not very interesting, the Loire +removes that reproach between Orleans and its mouth. Its waters, and +those of some of its shorter tributaries, reflect the towers and +crenellated walls of some of the most remarkable and interesting of +all the _chateaux_ of France. Blois, the scene of the murders of the +Duc de Guise (who had instigated the Massacre of St. Bartholomew) and +of his brother the Cardinal of Lorraine; Amboise, with its great +tower, containing a spiral roadway for carriages and the courtyard in +which Mary Stuart had, in 1560, been the swooning witness of a most +appalling massacre of 1200 Huguenot prisoners, the Duc de Guise +refusing to listen to her entreaties that they should be spared; +Chenonceaux, the scene of many a royal hunting party, and the +possession for a time of Diane de Poitiers, and Chaumont, which +Catherine de Medici obliged Diane to take in exchange; Langeais, where +rich furnishings of the Middle Ages and the early Renaissance bring +one into the very atmosphere of the poignard and of deadly intrigue; +and Angers, with its seventeen round towers, begun by Philippe +Auguste, are all eloquent of the romantic age of French history, of +human passion, of love, hate, and despair. + + [Illustration: CHATEAU GAILLARD AND A LOOP OF THE SEINE.] + +It would not be easy to think offhand of any river of similar length +and importance whose course shows such amazing dilatoriness as that of +the Seine. The statue of a nymph placed at its source by the city of +Paris is only 250 miles from the sea in a direct line, but the river +seems to have an unconquerable desire to postpone the hour when it is +swallowed up by the English Channel, and by turning out of its normal +direction, northwards or southwards, every few miles it has dug for +itself a channel 482 miles in length. Such sinuosities on the course +of a great river might be called undignified, if one could not point +to that part of the course of the Moselle that lies between Treves and +Coblentz, and to the Ebro in the middle part of its journey between +Saragossa and the sea. The increased friction at the numerous sharp +curves prevents the flood-waters from getting away with the rapidity +the Parisians sometimes desire, and this is partly responsible for the +serious damage done in the capital when circumstances combine to send +down an abnormal quantity of water from the higher tributaries. In +January 1910 the height of the river above the normal was 24 feet, and +the racing waters swirled against the keystones of the bridges. But if +the Seine misbehaves itself at intervals,[12] its average flow is so +steady that its navigability is greater than the other important +rivers. This excellent quality is due to the fact that about +three-quarters of the basin (an area of some 30,000 square miles) is +formed of permeable deposits, and consequently a vast absorption is +constantly taking place. The waters subtracted in this way are given +back by the perennial springs supplied by the saturation of different +strata. In rainless summer weather the first two or three dozen miles +of the river frequently dry up, and only from Chatillon is it a +permanent river. Tributaries of importance then begin to flow in. The +Aube and the Yonne are followed by the Loing and the Essonne, and just +before Paris the confluence with the Marne takes place. At the door of +the last-mentioned river, longer than the Seine by 31 miles, is laid +much of the blame for the volume of the floods. Its source is in the +Plateau de Langres not many miles to the north-east of the Seine. Rich +pasture-lands broken with long lines of tall-stemmed trees and +brown-roofed villages are typical of the scenery of the main river and +its tributaries above Paris. The painter who loves to be in the midst +of opulent nature is happy here. Quaint groups of tall trees, whose +foliage in the fall of the year turns to those delicate yellow greens +and subtle browns that are a never-failing joy to those with seeing +eyes, are everywhere arranged in some delightful scheme in which +reflections in smooth oily waters add a double charm to the scene. + + [12] Great risings of the Seine occurred in 1658, 1740, 1799, 1802, + 1876, and 1883. + +It is not until Paris has been left behind that the river begins to +wash the bold white ramparts of the cretaceous beds. In and out of the +deeply indented front the meandering river takes its way, on the right +bank a wall of gleaming white cliffs and on the left green savannahs +stretching to a far and level horizon. In many places the escarpments +of chalk have the characteristics of ruined drum towers, of barbicans, +and of broken curtains, so that when Richard Coeur-de-Lion's +"_fillette d'un an_," the Chateau Gaillard which he caused to be built +with such incredible speed, comes into view, it is at first difficult +to believe that it is anything more than a still more realistic +natural effect. From the high ground that commands the _chateau_ one +looks over one of the giant loops of the river, hemmed in by +green-topped cliffs of the same marine deposits that form Gris Nez and +the curious caves of Etretat, as well as the white cliffs of Albion. +At one's feet are the still very perfect ruins of a castle that stood +on the frontier of England's possessions in France seven centuries +ago, and lower still is the little town of Le Petit Andely huddled +for protection at the base of the castle cliff. + +Farther west, where the cliffs fall away, stands that historic city of +France--Rouen, the ancient capital of Normandy. It is a port, for the +Seine at this point becomes navigable for fair-sized sea-going +steamers, and one may watch the unloading of china clay from Cornwall +among the various imports carried directly to the quays. + +Possibly the waterway to the sea was looked upon with little joy by +the inhabitants of the city during the ninth and tenth centuries, when +at any time, and without much warning, the shallow-draught vessels of +the Vikings might appear on the river. How these bloodthirsty pirates +came and came again in spite of strenuous resistance, heavy losses, +and much Dane-geld, is a terrible chapter in the story of the Seine. +How the night sky became copper-coloured under the furnace glow of +burning houses, churches, and monasteries, is a picture which no +historian of the river can fail to put into vivid words. Long ago, +however, Rouen recovered from the disasters inflicted by the Northmen, +and those who wander through her picturesque streets can find traces +of buildings that came into existence not very long after this +period. + + [Illustration: MONT BLANC REFLECTING THE SUNSET GLOW.] + +A rare type of steel bridge spans the Seine at Rouen. It consists of a +travelling platform, large enough to take horses and carts, and all +the usual load of a ferry-boat, which is slung from a light framework +connecting two tall lattice steel towers. This curious achievement of +modern engineering and the very tall iron fleche of the cathedral form +the salient features of all distant views of the city. + +Some of the peninsulas carved by the vagaries of the river are +entirely given up to forest, and for many miles dark masses of trees +extend to the southern horizon. Dykes hold the river to its course +below Rouen. Before they were built it was impossible for vessels of +20-feet draught to navigate the river except under exceptional +conditions. A notable feature of the lower reaches is the bore which +occurs at every tide and reaches its maximum height of about 8 feet in +the neighbourhood of Caudebec, where enterprising watermen entice the +visitor into their boats to enjoy a natural water-show that quite +eclipses the artificial thrills of the "Earl's Court" order. + +Beautiful and historic buildings are thickly strewn along the lowest +reaches of the Seine. The ruined abbey of Jumieges, where Edward the +Confessor was educated, raises its lofty Norman towers high above the +trees at the southern end of a big loop; the monastery of St. +Wandrille, which is now converted into a private house and became the +home of Maeterlinck a few years ago, is in a pretty valley leading +from the river; Caudebec, with its glorious Gothic church and romantic +old streets, stands on the right bank and has a sunny quay, and an +open view across the sparkling waters, the opulent level pastures, and +the belts of forest beyond; Lillebonne is the _Julia Bona_ of Roman +times, and has important remains of a Roman theatre, besides the +castle, in whose great hall--alas! no longer existing--William the +Norman announced to a great gathering of leading men his project of +invading England; Tancarville Castle, with its prominent circular +tower, is reflected in the broadening waters nearer the estuary, where +Harfleur looks across to Honfleur, and both seem to dream of the days +when their great neighbour Le Havre was not. + +Being an entirely French river, the Loire has been described first in +this chapter; the Seine followed, being a smaller river, although of +more commercial importance. Its basin, it should be mentioned, is not +entirely French, some of its water being taken from Belgium. Of the +two great rivers of foreign birth the Rhone is of the greater +importance. It has a drainage area of close upon 38,000 square miles, +and is the greatest river of all those that pour their waters directly +into the Mediterranean. Besides this the Rhone is numbered in that +distinguished group composed of the greatest of the rivers of Europe. +More than any of the rivers of France it stands out as a big factor in +history. One thinks of Hannibal with his host and his elephants faced +by the swiftness and breadth of its flow; of the terrible struggle of +the Romans with the Cimbri and Teutones on its banks; of St. Benezet +in the twelfth century copying the methods of the Roman architect of +the Pont du Gard, and accomplishing what had never been done before, +_i.e._ the construction of a stone bridge that could resist the +onslaught of the flood-waters for centuries. Four of the big +elliptical arches still stand, seemingly as strong as the day they +were erected, and above one of the piers rises the little Romanesque +bridge chapel where the body of the good builder was buried. + +The source of the Rhone is fitting for such a mighty waterway. It +begins life as a torrent that pours from the foot of the great Rhone +Glacier, 5909 feet above sea-level. It is now ascertained that it is +the glacier itself from under which it emerges which gives birth to +the river, and not the warm springs which issue from the ground at the +point formerly reached by the glacier. Very early on its course +another glacier-fed torrent adds its waters to the Rhone, which foams +and rages through a gorge of typical Alpine grandeur. The exuberance +of its youth is maintained by the torrents that feed its adolescent +stages. It falls more than 3600 feet in less than thirty miles from +its source, joined at frequent intervals by companions born of ice and +snow, such as the Eginen, the Binna, and the Massa, a child of the +Aletsch Glaciers. Below Brieg comes the Saltine, and then follows a +quiet stretch, when the growing river passes through a stretch of +alluvium--a dull period, a first governess, as it were, to a +high-spirited youth--where floods are frequent. Below the old town of +St. Maurice the river is confined within the narrow gorge that +forms the western entrance of the Vallais, and it emerges from this +gateway to Switzerland to flow across the marshy plain that was +formerly the south-eastern end of the Lake of Geneva. Year by year the +debris of the Bernese and the Pennine Alps is washed down by the +tireless waters, and the date is approximately ascertainable when the +lake will have ceased to exist. That will be a sad day for the Rhone, +for it is through the filter-like action of the lake that the river +flows forth freed from its burden of detritus, and Byron's "blue +rushing of the arrowy Rhone" will describe a river whose character has +changed for ever, unless the hand of man erects barriers in its +course, and so introduces periods of artificial repose. But France +to-day does not receive from Switzerland the gift of a river in its +unsullied youth, for not long after it has passed from the lake it is +contaminated by an untutored glacier-bred youth fresh from the Mont +Blanc range, whence it has carried down much solid matter. For a +certain distance the two rivers do not recognise one another, the +waters refusing to mix, but propinquity brings its familiar result and +justifies the copy-book maxim concerning evil companionship. + + [Illustration: EVIAN LES BAINS. ON LAKE GENEVA.] + +All through the long journey to Lyons the Rhone preserves the +character of an uncivilised mountain-bred river, of small service to +commerce or communication, although it is termed "navigable" from a +point between Le Parc and Pyrimont. It must be said in defence of the +river that the circumstances of its path in life do not tend towards +the restful stability beloved of commerce. No sooner does it enter +France than it is obliged to fight its way through a constricted +channel between the Credo and the Vuache, and gorge succeeds gorge for +the greatest part of the distance between Geneva and Lyons. And who is +there possessing any love for untrammelled nature who does not love +the river's wild moods, its impetuosity, its generosity, and its +reckless enthusiasm. By the time it has reached the great city of +Lyons it has, however, subdued its wild ways, for having come within +sight of the beautiful Saone it passes through the city on a sedately +parallel course, and very soon they are wedded. For the rest of its +life--a distance of 230 miles--the Rhone is a hard-working member of +society, carrying day by day the manufactures of Central France down +to the ancient "middle sea." It was the little time of engagement, +the brief interval before the marriage with the Saone was +consummated, that produced the peninsula whereon the second city of +France was founded, and gave it a situation of the greatest security +in unsettled times. No doubt the Segusiani, who are generally +mentioned as the earliest people to occupy the tongue of land, had had +predecessors on the same spot, but the fogs of prehistoric times +prevent one from knowing much of the settlement before the Roman had +reached the confluence of the rivers. Then the mists roll away, and +one has a vision of Agrippa making it the centre of four great roads; +Augustus is seen giving the city a senate and making it the place of +annual assembly of representatives from the sixty cities of Gallia +Comata. Besides conferring these distinctions, the reign of Augustus +saw the building of temples, aqueducts, and a theatre. In A.D. 59, +during the reign of the half-demented Nero, the city was burnt and +afterwards rebuilt on grander lines. Great buildings succeeded one +another until the two rivers must have reflected as fine a city as +could be found within the Roman Empire. But the unsettled centuries of +the Dark Age of Europe brought successive waves of destructive +invasion to _Lugdunum_, and for evidences of the Roman period of the +city it is necessary to go to the museum, where, however, the +Gallo-Roman objects are numerous and of the greatest importance. + + [Illustration: THE CHAPEL ON THE BRIDGE OF ST. BENEZET, AVIGNON.] + +Farther down its course the great river's swift-flowing flood has on +its banks the towns of Vienne, Valence, Avignon, Tarascon, and Arles, +all by a curious chance on the left bank, although at Avignon and +Tarascon there are sister towns on the opposite side, and Arles has a +suburb across the water. Vienne and Arles still boast notable Roman +structures, and Orange and Nimes, as well as the Gard, the last +tributary the river receives before entering the period of its dotage +in the Carmargue, preserve vast Roman buildings at no great distance +from the Rhone. It is just possible that the great part this river has +played in the making of France might have received a far less adequate +recognition had these visual tokens of the days of imperial Rome +vanished as did so many others. + +In its journey southwards from Lyons the character of the country +traversed by the Rhone undergoes remarkable changes, and after Valence +there is a decidedly southern aspect in the landscapes. The olive +begins to appear, the vine is cultivated on all sides, and dark lines +of cypresses become conspicuous. From Avignon the dusty limestone +country extends across Provence to the sea, and the arid sun-baked +hills terraced here and there for vineyards, the lines of sentinel +cypresses, and the constant presence of the olive are the chief +features of scenery that might be in Turkey, in Asia, or the Holy +Land. And yet this river began life in an Alpine glacier and passed +its middle age in the fertile lands of west-central France. The delta +of the Rhone is a huge triangular area enclosed between the Grand +Rhone and the smaller branch it throws off near Arles. It is called +the Carmargue, and is a flat waste only cultivated at the river sides, +and in certain patches helped by irrigation. Almost treeless in great +portions, and exposed to the fierce mistral that blows its cold Alpine +breath upon the delta whenever the mood arises, it is surprising to +find any towns or villages in the whole district. Yet Aigues Mortes +and St. Gilles, and a few villages, keep alive under the most adverse +conditions. Below Arles, to the east of the river, and extending to +the Etang de Berre, is the stony plain of La Crau, and there too, in +spite of the climatic discomforts and lack of soil, two or three +villages have come into existence along the main road between Arles +and Aix-en-Provence. The Crau is probably more the work of the Durance +than of the Rhone, which has deposited its burden of ice-carried +boulders in the Lake of Geneva for ages, while the Durance in its +comparatively short course from the Maritime Alps has no filtering +vat, and in its periods of flood has forced millions of large stones +down to the Rhone delta, gradually building up a barrier between +itself and the sea, and necessitating a junction with the Rhone just +below Avignon. When the sun beats down on the level waste of stones, +whose depth averages from 30 to 45 feet, such heat is produced that a +mirage is a not uncommon result. Any explanation for such a remarkable +number of stones accumulated in one place was so hard to be found in +early days that it was necessary to resort to the supernatural, and +Strabo records the legend that it was Zeus who bombarded with these +projectiles the Ligurian tribesmen who attacked the early Phoenician +traders and colonisers of the mouth of the Rhone. + + [Illustration: CAP MARTIN, NEAR MENTONE.] + +The Garonne, the last of the four great rivers of France, is the least +interesting. As already mentioned it is of foreign birth, its +head-waters being in the Maladetta chain of peaks in a Spanish portion +of the Pyrenees, and the river has traversed about 30 miles before it +enters France through the _cluse_ of the Pont du Roi. One of the two +torrents in which the river begins its life plunges into a cavity in +the rock, known as the Trou du Taureau, and does not appear again for +two and a half miles. The Rhone also had formerly a small subterranean +experience in its upper course, but the roof of rock has been +destroyed. + +The course of the river is roughly north-westward until it reaches the +formidable plateau of Lannemezan, where it is turned sharply to the +east, carrying with it the waters of the Neste, a considerable stream +fed by the snows of Mont Perdu and its big neighbours. In this part of +its course the scenery is exceedingly fine. Before the snows have +melted off the mountains there are always the pale blue-grey peaks +flecked with sunny patches, and slopes forming a magnificent +background to dark wooded hills full of purples and ambers, and in +spring the more subtle browns turning to yellow and the palest +suspicion of green. Immense views are obtained from the Lannemezan +plateau, the frontier mountain-range stretching away east and west in +a most imposing perspective of white peaks. + +On its eastward course the Garonne passes the little town of St. +Gaudens, whose name is derived from a Christian boy who was martyred +in 475 by Euric, king of the Visigoths. St. Martory, the next +town, spans the river with a bridge guarded by a formidable +eighteenth-century gateway which Arthur Young thought could have been +built for no other purpose than to please the eye of travellers. After +this the westward tilt of France begins to assert itself, and the +river works northwards to the city of Toulouse, where it gradually +turns towards the west. Toulouse, while owing much to its river, does +not forget the ill-turns it has received from its mountain-born +waterway, which carried away the suspension bridge of St. Pierre in +1855, and twenty years later, in a disastrous flood, demolished the +bridge of St. Michel and 7000 houses in the Faubourg St. Cyprien, +while about 300 people were drowned. This suburb is on the left bank, +and its situation on the inner side of the curve made by the river as +it passes through the city makes it peculiarly liable to suffer from +floods. The Pont Neuf, occupying a central position, was built about +the middle of the sixteenth century by the sculptor Nicholas +Bachelier, whose arches have proved capable of resisting the angry +moods of the Garonne until the present day. He adorned with his work +many of the churches and mansions of Toulouse. + +For the remainder of its course the river keeps to a north-westerly +direction, and passing along the northern edge of the plateau which +diverted its course, it absorbs all the rivers that flow from it. +There is no other town of any consequence until the great port of +Bordeaux is reached. This is not many miles from the mouth of the +Garonne, for when the Dordogne adds its flood to the longer river the +wide tidal estuary called the Gironde has been entered. It is scarcely +fair on the Dordogne to call it a tributary of the Garonne when it +does not join that river until it has entered the broad waterway +common to both, but it is undoubtedly a part of the Garonne system. +With the exception of the town of Bergerac--a place of no importance +and of less interest--the Dordogne has only one other town on its +banks, the little port of Libourne at its mouth where the wines of the +locality are shipped. + +The Adour and its important tributary the Gave de Pau figured +conspicuously in Wellington's successful operations against Marshal +Soult in the concluding period of the Peninsular War, and it was +during the siege of Bayonne by Sir John Hope, while the Duke was +following Soult towards Orthez, that the famous bridge of boats was +built across the river below the town. The construction of this bridge +entailed enormous risks in getting the boats across the bar at the +river's mouth, and its successful accomplishment was considered one of +the greatest engineering feats achieved by the British army during +this period. + + [Illustration: THE CHATEAU OF CHENONCEAUX. + _From a watercolour by Mr. A. H. Hallam Murray._] + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +OF THE WATERING-PLACES + + +French sea-coast watering-places fall easily into two groups--those of +the English Channel and those of the Mediterranean. The first may be +subdivided into the fashionable places between Deauville and the +Belgian frontier and the go-as-you-please resorts of Brittany. There +are long intervals between the different resorts, and few would dream +of wandering along the coast from one to another; but on the +Mediterranean the Riviera is almost one continuous chain of +watering-places from St. Raphael to Mentone. + +In the early days, when English doctors were beginning to recommend +their more wealthy patients to winter on the French Riviera, there was +little beyond the sunshine, the equable climate, the colour and the +loveliness of the scenery to attract the visitor, and what more, one +asks, could any rational being who has gone away with congenial +companions require? A visit to the Riviera amply answers such a +frivolous question. In the early days, visitors and tired politicians, +perhaps of the type of Lord Brougham, or less strenuous people to whom +the fogs of the northern winter were a periodic menace, found no +hotels much above the average of the country inn, and villas were not. +Obviously these things had to be provided, and now from Cannes to +Garavan, which is within a shout of the Italian frontier, there is a +very nearly continuous chain of villas and hotels. And where villas +are too close together to permit the erection of a newly projected +_Hotel Splendide_, a terrace is constructed a little higher up the +face of the sea-front, and the new building offers to its guests finer +views and less noise than those who stay lower down. Villas are +pleasant enough, but they can become dull to those with a passion for +amusement, a desire to escape from themselves or whatever one cares to +call the disease, and a hotel to such offers very little more. +Besides, one is practically driven to bed at a quarter to ten, so a +casino is a sheer necessity. Then no one who wishes to be healthy can +be so for long without exercise, and a golf-course must be +provided. This is a difficulty on the French Riviera only overcome at +Cannes, where the alluvial Plaine de Laval near La Napoule offers +suitable ground. Everywhere else the mountainous nature of the coast +vetoes the game. Lawn-tennis, however, is quite possible even where +steep slopes reach down to the sea. The race-course, too, has been +found a necessity for existence, and it has been provided. The casino +offers gambling and music and theatrical performances. But this is not +enough, there must be a theatre too. A Battle of Flowers is a relief +to the monotony of the days, and at Nice such an extravagance is +indulged during the Carnival, the climax of the season's manufactured +gaiety. Besides all this there are regattas, motor weeks, +pigeon-shootings, exhibitions of hydroplaning.... The list of +distractions is now so enormous that the visitor almost needs a visit +to one of the quiet spots beyond Genoa to rest before returning to the +gaieties of the season in Paris or London. + + [Illustration: ST. MALO FROM ST. SERVAN.] + +The English were the discoverers of the French Riviera from the +health-resort standpoint. They wrote books describing fine air and the +attractions of this wonderful coast, and the social distinction of +some of the writers assured an attentive audience. Lady Blessington +penned an account of her journey along the Riviera in 1823, which +reveals a condition of things as far removed from the luxury of to-day +as are the shores of Patagonia. To journey from Nice to Florence was +then more or less an adventure. "The usual route by land," she writes, +"is over the Col di Tenda, and via Turin, but this being impracticable +owing to the snow, and as we had a strong objection to a voyage in a +_felucca_, we determined to proceed to Genoa by the route of the +Cornice, which admits of but two modes of conveyance, a _chaise a +porteurs_, or on horseback, or rather on muleback." The Lady +Blessingtons of to-day travel on an excellently engineered and, for +the most part, a dust-free road, in the luxurious ease provided by the +builders of the modern motor-car _de luxe_. The six-cylindered engine +purrs so softly that the sound of the waves on the rocks beneath the +road is not lost, and even the faint smell of petrol is overcome by +the exquisite productions of Roget et Cie. + +Hyeres stands quite apart from the long chain of fashionable resorts. +It is a picturesque old town separated from the sea by two or three +miles of salt marshes, and only ranks as a watering-place on account +of the proximity of Costebelle, where modern hotels perched +picturesquely on the wooded hills known as the Montagnes des Oiseaux +look across the Iles d'Or to the beautiful Maure Mountains. The +villages perched on the face of the cliffs, and those standing on the +intervals of alluvial shore along the coast of Les Maures, are typical +of the whole Riviera before the leisured and wealthy classes of the +western nations began to make their annual incursions. East of the +valley at whose mouth stands Frejus, dozing in the midst of its +eye-filling evidences of importance in Roman times, is St. Raphael, +with its hotel quarter known as Valescure, high among the pines on the +first slopes of the densely wooded Esterel Mountains. Healthfulness is +still the main attraction here; but those who do not thirst for +distracting gaiety love the sweet-smelling solitudes and the bays +where the porphyry rocks, purple-red as the name implies, are overhung +by masses of dark pines, and bathed by waters that reflect sky, trees, +and rocks in a wonderful confusion of strong colour, reminiscent of +bays on the south Cornish coast. Hotels have appeared near the larger +villages on the littoral of the Esterels, but Nature is still free +down to the splashing waves, and it is only when Cannes is reached +that one is in the real Riviera atmosphere. + +The first view of the sweeping coast-line between Cannes and the +confines of Italy that suddenly unfolds itself as one goes eastwards +on the coast road is one of surpassing loveliness, provided that the +weather lives up to its honestly-earned reputation. A great sweep of +sea of an exquisite, a tender, a most lovely blue fills half the +scene. It is perhaps shaded here and there by clouds, and their +shadows turn the blue to amethyst. There is a fringe of white along +the low sandy shores of the Gulf of La Napoule. Farther off the coast +becomes steep and clothed with a mantle of dark green foliage, +speckled along its lower margin with creamy-white villas, while +higher, the horizon is serrated with snow-capped peaks. As the coast +recedes it becomes more lofty, the mountains coming to bathe their +feet in the blue sea. There are islands and promontories faintly +visible in the soft opalescent haze. Such is the first impression one +obtains of a fairyland coast-line, which owing to various +circumstances had to be discovered to the French people by foreigners. +With their inherited instinct towards roving the British have not +even been able to keep to their own land when merely taking a little +seaside holiday. + + [Illustration: MONTE CARLO AND MONACO FROM THE EAST.] + +It might be said of the French that, apart from their dozen or more +seaports, they were until recently in a state of comparative ignorance +as to the nature of the wonderful coast-line of their country. It was +only recently that any considerable proportion of the great French +middle-class population acquired the habit of taking an annual holiday +by the sea. The expense of such a migration is a big item in a small +budget, and when undertaken it is the need for economy which makes the +housekeeper prefer to take a house wherein she can provide for her own +_menage_, and avoid giving a landlady a living at her expense. + +At first the seaside visits were of a very adventurous character, and +little wooden chalets of a very temporary character were run up. They +were placed in a most haphazard fashion where land was available. +Gardens were not cultivated; and even when quite a number of these +meretricious little seaside homes had gathered together at one spot, +there was no attempt to produce the features regarded by the English +as essentials. Instead of the pier with its concert-room raised above +the waves on barnacle-swollen iron pillars, the French build a casino. +In it all forms of evening amusement are concentrated, and all the +holiday life is to be found there after sunset. The esplanade, that +most tiresome feature of all English seaside resorts, is only built +when the place has become so matured that it begins to yearn for +smartness. Possibly foreigners are the main cause of the promenade. On +the Riviera, where it has been the aim of the municipalities and the +hotel proprietors to study the habits of _les Anglais_, the esplanade +is to be found at every resort, and it is probably only the +overwhelming expense due to the precipitous nature of a very +considerable proportion of the coast that has saved the Riviera from +becoming one continuous promenade from Cannes to Mentone. Even if this +were ever accomplished the irregularities of the coast are so +pronounced that there would be few opportunities for those who +abominate the sea-front of the Brighton type to complain. At Cannes +the isolated mass of rock crowned by the picturesque "old town" +effectually cuts the frontage to the sea in two, and at Nice the +tabular rock in whose shadow ancient Nice grew, forms an abrupt +termination to the eastward end of the parade, the central portion of +which is called the Promenade des Anglais, and there is situated a +jetty to satisfy the tastes of the same patrons of "Paris by the Sea." +Villefranche does not give any opportunity for producing sterile +perspectives on account of the deep and narrow bay formed by the Cap +du Mont Boron and the St. Jean peninsula. Beaulieu is little more than +a fortuitous concourse of villas and hotels, and the only level ground +is that occupied by the Corniche road. + + [Illustration: MONT ST. MICHEL AT HIGH TIDE.] + +The promontory of Monaco is entirely precipitous, but gardens on its +outward side give shady walks and charming peeps of the distant coast. +One side of the bay of Monaco is formed by the curving northern face +of the tabular projection, and facing it are the creamy-white terraces +of Monte Carlo, rising up to the blocks of equally brilliant +red-roofed buildings terminating in the world-famed Casino, which +stands at the apex of a small projection of the rocky shelf. The +architecture of the Casino is of the commonplace "exhibition" type, +and the gardens surrounding it support the parallel. Only the +determination of man could have made the precipitous slopes of the +mountainous sea-front produce lawns and flowers and shady trees, for +the heat of summer would destroy all but the hardiest forms of +vegetation, unless artificial aids were employed. The colour of Monte +Carlo is intensely brilliant on account of the immense reflecting +surface of pinkish limestone rock that towers up some 1300 feet from +the sea, and makes the place quite unique among watering-places. +Strictly speaking one hardly has any right to include it in a +description of French watering-places, for Monaco is an independent +principality, and its area includes Monte Carlo and the intervening +township of Condamine, which is packed in between the gaming +metropolis and the _col_ that separates Monaco's peninsula from the +mainland. + +Until 1856 the principality had no gambling halls, and it was not +until 1858 that the Prince of Monaco laid the foundation stone of the +existing Casino, the gaming-tables having been first set up within the +walls of the old town. In a few years the annual income from the +Casino ran up to L1,000,000, a sum of L50,000 being the Prince's +share. So by playing down to the widespread instinct for gambling, one +of the most unprofitable patches of coast has become in proportion to +its area the most revenue-producing in the whole world. It is a +melancholy reflection that one of the most perfect spots on the +Mediterranean for enjoying all the warmth of the winter sun should be +so fatally contaminated by a cosmopolitan crowd of ne'er-do-weels of +every grade of society. One sees all the world at Monte Carlo, for no +one who passes along the Riviera can quite resist the desire to have a +peep at a place of such notoriety. And so many come to Monte Carlo for +this selfsame purpose that the real habitues, the professionals and +the "last-hopers," are rather lost sight of in the crowd of quite +irreproachable people who half fill the concert-hall, and drift +through the gaming-rooms throwing a few five-franc pieces on to the +roulette tables "just to see what happens," or to experience the very +edge of the strange fascination which leads men and women to fling +away a competency in a fevered desire for wealth. + +The two superimposed roads between Nice and Mentone known as the Upper +and the Lower Corniche, are both laboriously engineered highways, +possessing almost unrivalled charms. On the lower road there used to +be a most serious disadvantage to the enjoyment of the scenery in the +choking clouds of dust raised by every passing vehicle. Motor-cars +used to throw up such a smother of dust that it did not settle for +some minutes, and in the interval fresh clouds would be produced. Tar +has at last been brought to rescue the charms of the Lower Corniche +from being completely destroyed. Trams grind and scream as they follow +the constant curves of the road, and their presence robs it of any +sense of repose. It is therefore more possible to enjoy the changing +panorama of bay, cliff, and promontory, of brilliantly coloured waves +in shadow and in sunshine from a seat in a car than on foot. An +automobile, unless driven very slowly, is tiresome and tantalizing in +such scenery. One can only compare the sensation of being flung +through beautiful surroundings of this character at 30 miles an hour +to being obliged to go through the galleries of the Louvre at a trot. + +On the Upper Corniche the traffic is light, there are no trams, and +dust is scarcely noticeable. The scenery is altogether on a greater +scale. At certain spots one commands nearly the whole of the French +Riviera at once. The sea is far below, and its nearer shores are +almost invariably hidden. Whoever passes one on this lofty highway is +fairly sure to have come there for pleasure, business taking few +along the high "cornice." Energetic folk from all the resorts within +reach are to be found climbing up the steep zig-zag pathways to this +splendid vantage-ground. Frenchmen in clothes suited for _le sport_ or +perhaps wearing the dark city type of jacket suit which so many adhere +to even when holiday-making, Germans thoughtfully carrying their red +Baedekers with them, and Englishmen of the retired military officer or +I.S.O. type are all to be found enjoying or "doing" the Upper Corniche +in the various manners of their widely differing temperaments. At La +Turbie, where the remains of the huge monument to Caesar Augustus, the +conquering emperor, still bulk prominently in the midst of the +village, there is a funicular railway connecting the upper and lower +roads, bringing the splendid air and scenery of the heights within +reach of the infirm or the merely slack types of visitors. + +The long winding descent from La Turbie to Mentone brings the two +roads together opposite Cap Martin, a promontory densely grown with +old and gnarled olives and masses of dark pines that come down to the +water's edge. From beneath their shade one can look across the blue +waves breaking into white along the curving shore to Mentone's villas +and hotels overtopped by its old town on a spur of the mountain slopes +that rise sharply just behind. Although built at the mouth of two +torrents, Mentone is sheltered by an imposing amphitheatre of lofty +mountains, which very effectually screen it from the treacherous +mistral, and it is this fact which has made it the most popular place +for invalids on the whole of _la Cote d'Azur_. It is fortunate in +having been spared the inflictions of overpowering perspectives of the +Nice or Brighton order, and one can sit close to the shore under the +shade of great eucalyptus trees free from the glare and the traffic of +a big sea-front roadway of the stereotyped British pattern. + +The eastern extension of Mentone, known as Garavan, is within a few +minutes' walk of the Italian frontier, where the sea-coast resorts +become more brightly coloured and have more architectural interest in +their old quarters, the Ligurian type of compactly built walled town +being scarcely recognisable in what remains of old Mentone. + +Not only is the Riviera a land of winter sunshine, it is also one of +the most sweetly-scented coasts in the world. The delicious fragrance +of the lemon and the orange, when those trees are in blossom, is +often Nature's final lavish filling up of the cup of enjoyment to +overflowing. And in the spring, when the northern sea-coast resorts +are shivering before the icy winds that sweep down the Channel, this +favoured coast has nasturtiums and other flowers that England does not +see until late in summer, in their fullest blossom. France is indeed +fortunate in its Mediterranean shore, of which Plato must have been +thinking when he wrote: + + There the whole earth is made up of colours brighter far and + clearer than ours; there is a purple of wonderful lustre, also + the radiance of gold, and the white which is in the earth is + whiter than any chalk or snow. + +Among the watering-places on the Channel the twin towns of Deauville +and Trouville, separated only by the river Toques, are pre-eminent +among the wealthiest and most fashionable of Parisians. Trouville has +a longer season, but it is altogether outshone by its neighbour during +the fortnight of the races in August, and during the quieter weeks of +its season Deauville probably boasts more leaders of fashionable +French society than any other coast resort. It is popularly believed +that during the season one cannot smell the salt air off the sea at +either of these places on account of the scent used by its expensive +visitors. This is more or less true of Etretat also, and possibly of +Biarritz too, and no one who dreams of careless attire should come +near these places during the season. + +Both places possess splendid stretches of sand, and therefore bathing +is safe, and one of the greatest attractions to visitors. The casinos +are well adapted to the demands made upon them, and the villas +include, among the various more temporary old-fashioned types, many +that are quite charming. + +Westward from Deauville is pretty little Cabourg, just beyond the +mouth of the River Dive, where William the Norman assembled his army +for the invasion of England. Here also the beach is of excellent sand, +extending for four miles. The casino is, of course, a prominent +feature, and there is a broad terrace, not far short of a mile in +length, raised above the beach. Between Cabourg and the mouth of the +Orne one finds one of those embryo seaside places that are typical of +the haphazard fashion in which French watering-places grow. It bears +the curious name of Le Home-sur-Mer, and in its present stage of +development is little more than a railway-station and a collection of +widely scattered and hurriedly-built villas, dumped anywhere along a +sandy ridge. + +After Deauville the seaside resort most patronised by the opulent is +Etretat. It has none of the advantages of a sandy shore, and bathing +from the steep shingly beach is often so dangerous that the +authorities insist on securing intrepid bathers by rope around the +waist. Good swimmers enjoy the depth of water to be found close to the +shore, and have no fear of a buffeting by big rollers; but to the weak +or timid the conditions are often forbidding, and on such days there +are more early arrivals than usual at the first tee on the +golf-course. + +From the point of view of scenery Etretat holds a high position, its +bold chalk cliffs adding enormously to the picturesqueness of the +coast. Erosion produces very curious effects in the chalk, boring vast +cavities with wonderfully domed roofs, and leaving natural arches and +projecting ribs that sometimes suggest the colossal legs of a white +elephant. The arch springing from the central projection of the +cliffs, known as the Porte d'Aval, is approachable from the east at +low tide, and a nearer view can be obtained of an isolated pillar +called the Aiguille d'Etretat. + +There are lofty cliffs at Fecamp and a curving bay, with a casino in +the centre and the mouth of the Fecamp River to the east; but it +cannot claim to be so much the resort of fashion as its western +neighbour. The town has a busy port and all the picturesqueness +contributed by the fishing-boats that go to the cod or herring +fisheries. There is, as well, the abbey church and the Benedictine +distillery with its interesting museum, but such features do not +attract many holiday-makers, who are looking for amusement of the +entirely social order. + +St. Valery-en-Caux has a beach made up of both sand and shingle, the +upper portion of the bathing-ground being exceedingly stony. On the +lower level children bathe in safety, and the joy of shrimping is +indulged in by visitors of all ages. + +A little to the east is Veules, where the cliffs are low and of rather +loose earth, and the beach is not ideal for bathing. It is popular +with the people of Rouen, being conveniently placed and inexpensive. +The shrimp here too offers a fund of excitement to the families who +are usually content with the most simple of amusements, provided +they can drop into the casino after dinner. + + [Illustration: THE VEGETABLE MARKET, NICE.] + +Dieppe, owing to its connection with England by the Newhaven steamers, +is popular among English visitors, who can run over for a day or two +with the minimum of trouble and expense. The broad sunny Plage, the +casino to which one is free all day on payment of three francs, and +the Etablissement des Bains keep the place very full of life and +gaiety throughout the season; but one does not expect to find there +the people who may be seen at Etretat or Deauville. Possessing a busy +and not unpicturesque port, an historic fifteenth-century _chateau_, +and a beautiful Gothic church, it is surprising to find the sea-front +so entirely suggestive of one of the newly developed resorts. To the +north-east is Treport, an interesting and picturesque little coast +town, with the usual requirements for bathing and summer visitors. +Along the top of the great bank of shingle are the dressing-sheds, +with wooden steps at intervals leading down to the beach. Those who +have any interest in history find the proximity of the famous old town +of Eu a great attraction, but golf acts with such magnetic force over +the average Anglo-Saxon that such considerations do not often weigh +in the choice of a holiday resort. The French have only lately begun +to know the joys and the profound dejections of golf; it is not yet a +necessary adjunct to a seaside resort. Where there are golf-courses it +is mainly British capital that brings them on to the sand-dunes. Le +Touquet is very cosmopolitan, but it could hardly exist a month +without its English patrons. It is one of those places which come into +existence with the wave of the capitalist's wand. He says, in effect, +"Let us make on this waste an ideal health resort, let us erect +hotels, casinos, theatres, and to these add golf-courses, croquet +lawns, lawn-tennis courts, and polo grounds; we will have rides +through the forest and bathing facilities on this shore, and we will +advertise until the whole world knows that we have made this place." +And, having spoken, everything desired straightway comes to pass, so +that one reads on a leaflet concerning this newly arrived resort such +items as these:-- + + 10 hotels. 2 golf-courses. + 2 casinos. 3 croquet lawns. + 2 theatres. 17 lawn-tennis courts. + 10 miles of forest rides. 3 miles of sandy beach. + A polo ground. Drag-hounds. + +Paris Plage is the newly-built town, brought into existence through +the needs and attractions of Le Touquet, Etaples being a little too +far away to answer this purpose. + +Farther north is Boulogne, with its own casino and promenade and its +village resorts, such as Hardelot, close at hand. So numerous, indeed, +are the bathing-places of this type that it would be tiresome to even +attempt a list of them all, but they all have their own +devotees--French, English, and American--and any little villa along +the coast of Normandy or Picardy may during the hot months be the +temporary home of men and women whose names are household words on +either side of the Channel. + +Brittany is farther away from Paris and from England, and its charms +are only beginning to be appreciated. With the exception of Dinard, +there is no place that is expensive or smart in any sense. Some of the +villages on the long and deeply indented coast-line have at least one +good hotel, and if one is content with what the sea will provide in +the way of amusement, the happiest of holidays may be spent there. +Bathing, sailing, fishing, sketching, walking, exploring quaint +villages, and seeing the curious social customs that still live in +this very Celtic corner of France, fill up endless days, and only +those to whom none of these things appeal can be dull, provided the +weather is tolerably fine. + +Biarritz, down at the southern extremity of the French Atlantic coast, +in the innermost corner of the Bay of Biscay, with its neighbour St. +Jean de Luz, are far away from the two great groups of coast resorts. +The first was popularised among both French and English on account of +the frequent visits paid to it by King Edward VII. It was understood +when _Le Roi Edouard_ came to Biarritz that no one was to take any +notice whatsoever of his presence. Cameras were promptly confiscated +if any one attempted to snapshot the King or any of his friends, and +it was in this way possible for the sovereign who loved to step down +into the crowd, to forget the tedious functions of his office. After +Sunday morning service he would stroll along the promenade with one or +two friends in the most informal fashion, so that a chance British +visitor who did not dream that he might at any moment rub shoulders +with his sovereign would almost gasp with astonishment when he +suddenly discovered that he had actually done so! + + [Illustration: THE PYRENEES FROM NEAR PAMIERS.] + +Only at intervals does the sea give up its onslaught upon the rocks +that form the coast at Biarritz, and one of the charms of the place is +to be found in the magnificent displays given by the Atlantic. +Thundering waves rear themselves in great walls of green, +marble-veined with foam, which fling themselves in a chaos of white +upon the smooth, sandy shore of the Plage or the deeply indented +promontory which contains the fishing port. The town is very modern, +but is well built and extremely clean and pleasant in every way, the +new streets being full of good houses in gardens that are something +more than a patch of unmown grass. + +Besides bathing, for which there are three _etablissements_, there is +golf and lawn-tennis, while the proximity of the Pyrenees gives +opportunity for motor drives in the midst of deep valleys, whose vast +slopes clothed with pine or box fall precipitously to torrential +rivers. The whole country, too, is rich in memories of Wellington's +successful completion of the Peninsular War. St. Jean de Luz was for a +time his headquarters, the house he occupied being still in existence. +Nearly all who stay at Biarritz go on to Pau, the inland winter resort +close to, but not within the actual embrace of the Pyrenees. English +people visit both places mainly in the winter and spring. They make +the season at those times, while French and Spanish visitors flood +thither in the summer, putting up prices at that period of the year to +a height not reached during the zenith of the English season. Almost +every form of sport and open-air exercise can be enjoyed at Pau, and +foxhounds meet regularly throughout the winter. The town is +magnificently placed on the north side of the Gave de Pau, and the +view it commands of the snowy range of peaks, with the deep and +picturesque valleys leading up to them, is one of the finest +possessions of this character to be found in any town of France. + + [Illustration: THE GALERIE DES GLACES AT VERSAILLES.] + + + + +CHAPTER X + +ROMAN, ROMANESQUE, AND GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN FRANCE + + +In the wide range of its ancient and mediaeval architecture France +stands next to Italy. Its Roman buildings are almost as fine as +anything to be found in that country, its Gothic structures include +some of the world's masterpieces, while in examples of the Renaissance +only the country where the re-birth took place can rival her. England, +which competes closely in the Romanesque and Gothic periods, is out of +the running in the earlier epoch, and takes a very much lower position +in the works that succeeded the death of the pointed style. Italy, the +most formidable rival, is superior in its Roman remains, but inferior +in its Gothic work. In the Renaissance, Italy, its home, stands easily +first, and in works of the Byzantine period its possessions at Venice +and Ravenna leave the western nations far behind. + +Prehistoric architecture is well represented in Brittany, where the +vast scale of the Carnac lines--the Avenues of Kermario--dwarfs the +British survivals on Salisbury Plain and Dartmoor. There are numerous +dolmens and tumuli, containing chambers roughly constructed out of +unhewn stones of the New Grange (Ireland) type, but there is nothing +comparable to Stonehenge. + +When one comes to the Roman period the remains are so splendid that +many are satisfied with what they have seen in Provence, and do not +feel impelled to see Rome before they die. Nimes stands first among +the towns of Provence for the splendour of the Roman structures it has +preserved. Not only has it an amphitheatre which is more perfect than +any other in existence, but its temple, dedicated to Caius and Lucius +Caesar, adopted sons of the Emperor Augustus, between the first and +the fourteenth year of the Christian era, is also the best preserved +in the world. Having been used successively as a church, a municipal +hall, and a stable, it is now a museum of Roman objects, and seems +capable of standing for an unlimited time. Besides these most famous +structures there are two gateways, one of them bearing an inscription +stating that it was built in the year 16 B.C. To the north of the town +are Roman baths of wonderful completeness, and in their restored +condition of very considerable beauty. Over them on the hill-top rises +the Tour Magne, a Roman watch-tower which formed part of the defences +of the city. Stretching across the deep and rocky bed of the river +Gard, about 14 miles to the north, is the vast aqueduct which carried +the water-supply of Nimes across the obstruction caused by the river. +The three superimposed tiers of arches filling the wide space make one +of the most imposing of all the Roman works that have come down to the +present time. + + [Illustration: THE ROMAN TRIUMPHAL ARCH AT ORANGE.] + +Arles is a serious rival to Nimes. It has preserved its amphitheatre, +built about the first century A.D. and large enough to hold an +audience of 25,000 persons. The remains of its theatre, with two +marble columns of its proscenium, which were utilised as a gallows in +the Middle Ages, standing out among the fallen and dislodged stones, +has preserved just enough of its form to be exceedingly impressive. In +the disused church of St. Anne have been gathered a most remarkable +collection of Roman sarcophagi, altars, and many other objects of +richly sculptured stone, while in the Avenue des Alyscamps one may see +the cemetery of Roman Arles just outside the city walls, dating from +the reign of the Emperor Constantine. On the two sides of the avenue +there are many stone sarcophagi, the larger ones, of which there are +two or three dozen, having retained their lids. There are remains of +the forum and a tower of Constantine's palace, built early in the +fourth century. + +Orange has a theatre which, now that the upper tiers of seats have +been restored, has very much its original appearance. The immense +stone wall, forming the back of the semicircular stage, is 118 feet in +height and 13 feet thick. Stone was close at hand, making its +construction easy, and the auditorium was hewn out of the limestone +hill against which the theatre was built. There appears to have been a +permanent roof of timber--a unique feature--for there are structural +indications leading to such a conclusion, as well as signs of fire, +which no doubt was the cause of its disappearance. In about A.D. 21 a +very fine triumphal arch was erected at Orange, then known as +_Arausio_, and this still stands complete, save for the detrition on +its surface caused by the weather and perhaps some rough handling in +the Dark Ages. Very judicious restoration has given one a convincing +idea of what is missing where the structure has not been overlaid with +new work. St. Remy has contrived to preserve a considerable portion of +its triumphal arch, and close to it a remarkably perfect mausoleum, 50 +feet in height. It is adorned with much sculpture like the archway, +and both stand upon an exposed rocky plateau. There are, indeed, so +many survivals of this period which one would like to mention that +there would be no space to deal with any later age. Vienne, on the +extreme confines of Roman Provincia, has its temple, rebuilt in the +second century, converted into a Christian church in the fifth, and +made more famous during the Revolution by the celebrating within its +walls of the Festival of Reason. Remains of the city walls, of a +theatre, of the balustrade of a fine staircase, of a pantheon, an +amphitheatre, and a citadel are still to be seen. The Roman aqueduct, +which supplied the city, restored in 1822, is still to some extent in +use! + +Perigueux is full of indications of its Roman buildings. The Tour de +Vesone is in part a Gallo-Roman temple, dedicated to Vesuna; the +remains of the amphitheatre include much of the outer wall, in which +are staircases, vomitoria, and the lower vaulting now partially +exposed. At Lillebonne, mentioned in another chapter, are the +carefully excavated remains of a theatre; at Carcassonne, at Narbonne, +at Lyons, in Paris, and in other cities and towns, Roman foundations +and many sculptured stones are full of significance, and of absorbing +interest to the historian, the architect, and the archaeologist. + +Following the age of Roman domination came those strangely fascinating +centuries of disruption and destruction in which the outward +influences of Rome slowly gave way before the westward march of the +lower but healthier civilisation of the tribes of central and eastern +Europe. When these new peoples had settled down among the older +occupants of the country, they began to build permanent structures for +themselves, and although there may have been some craftsmanship among +them, they were unable to do more than make indifferent attempts to +copy the architecture of the Roman era. The dark shadow that the +irruptions caused to fall upon the face of Europe leaves the world in +ignorance as to the fate of the architects, and stone masons who +reared the noble works of Rome's supremacy in western Europe. It would +appear that in the two or three centuries of uncertainty, if not of +perpetual warfare and social chaos, no one had time or opportunity to +do more than erect hurried fortifications of the crude type one sees +in the Visigothic portions of town walls, such as those of +Carcassonne. No architect could flourish under such conditions, and +unless he migrated to the seat of the Eastern Empire opportunities for +applying his knowledge were no doubt impossible to find. And at +Constantinople a new development of architecture was taking place, in +which the exterior was disregarded to a very considerable extent while +internal decoration became extravagant, Byzantine art being +dissatisfied unless every portion of walls and roof was richly +ornamented and brilliant in colour. The profession of the architect +being useless, the dependent handicraftsmen would inevitably die out, +and thus from the sixth century, which is about the earliest date of +any Romanesque building in France, one sees the crude efforts of the +ill-trained sculptors to copy the ornament of the buildings that lay +around them ruined or gutted. In many of the capitals that were +carved in these early centuries of Christian times, the volutes are +half-hearted attempts to reproduce the Ionic order, with a tendency to +stray into Corinthian foliation. From such very early buildings as the +church of St. Pierre at Vienne, onwards to St. Trophime at Arles, the +crypts of Notre Dame du Port at Clermont-Ferrand and of St. Denis, +Paris, until one reaches the great churches of the eleventh and +twelfth centuries, such as the cathedral of Angouleme and the church +of Notre Dame la Grande at Poitiers, one can see the steady +development of a curious mixture of bastard Roman with the Byzantine +style, upon which was growing a new individuality which burst into +flower with the introduction of the pointed arch. In France this +abandonment of the Roman semicircular arch came very gradually. +Belonging to the transition stage are many fine buildings, in which +group are the fine church at Poitiers just mentioned and the cathedral +at Le Puy-en-Velay. The sculpture of this period reveals the very +strong Byzantine influence prevailing, and if no other evidence +existed this alone would demonstrate the debt western Europe owes to +the rearguard of its civilisation. + + [Illustration: FRENCH DESTROYERS.] + +The architecture of Normandy had its own peculiarities during the +Romanesque period, but while these differences have entitled it to a +separate name and classification, it is Romanesque influenced by the +Northmen, and all through England the strong Byzantine influence was +felt until the great expansion of new ideas began to outgrow the forms +and ornament of the preceding centuries. + +Two of the finest Norman Romanesque buildings are the great abbey +churches built at Caen by William the Conqueror and his queen Matilda. +The Abbaye aux Hommes, William's work, is not quite as it was when +consecrated, but it is almost entirely a work of the Norman period. +That there was a simplicity in the style at this period almost +amounting to plainness is shown in the west front of William's church; +while the Abbaye aux Dames, built about a quarter of a century later, +shows a very great advance in the distribution and application of +ornament both within and without. Another abbey church, that of St. +Georges de Boscherville, built in the eleventh century by Raoul de +Tancarville, is a more perfect and complete work of that period than +any other in Normandy. With the exception of the upper portions of +the western turrets and the broach spire, the whole church stands +to-day as it was originally erected. In these large and not always +very beautiful buildings, it is their association with a romantic +period and the evidences they show of architectural evolution that +provides the chief satisfaction to the informed visitor and the +student. + +A considerable portion of the abbey buildings that engirdle the summit +of the rocky islet of Mont St. Michel belong to the Norman period, +although much of the work is Gothic. + +At St. Denis, outside Paris, one sees the beginnings of French Gothic. +Clearly the builders regarded the new style as empirical, for there +was obvious hesitation to plunge too far into a field of such +considerable possibilities when the west front was designed. A little +later than St. Denis is the cathedral of Noyon, another extremely +interesting example of this period. Almost simultaneously came +Chartres, but a disastrous fire in 1194 left little besides the towers +and the west front. The rebuilding, however, which proceeded almost at +once, was to a considerable extent completed by 1210, and this later +work shows the Gothic style grown to all the splendour which has +perpetually satisfied and enthralled the minds of succeeding +generations. + +At this time building was proceeding all over Europe with wonderful +vigour. The new style gripped the imaginations of all the western +nations, and wherever sufficient funds were obtainable the monkish +architects were enthusiastically producing designs which were steadily +carried out in stone. In Paris Notre Dame was building all through the +closing years of the twelfth century and the opening of the next; at +Rouen, the cathedral having been burnt in 1200, half a century of +building followed; the glories of Rheims and Amiens were materialising +during the same period, and almost coeval is the vast cathedral of +Beauvais, which was planned to eclipse that of Amiens in every +respect. The ambitious intent of the designers of Beauvais was never +consummated, and in the unfinished pile standing to-day one sees the +failure to build a Titan among cathedrals. + +All through the period known in England as Early English there is much +similarity in design, as well as in ornament, on both sides of the +Channel, but signs of divergence begin to appear with the development +of decorative skill during the English Decorated Period, and when the +French architect had reached his highest achievement in the subtly +beautiful lines of the Flamboyant style, the English craftsmen, after +a few brief moments in the same direction, turned about and produced +their unique development in the style known as Perpendicular. Here and +there in France there are suggestions of the restraint of the last +phase of English Gothic, but they are almost as rare as the Flamboyant +style in England. At Evreux and at Gisors one sees remarkable examples +of the work of the Renaissance in the reconstruction of the west ends +of these Gothic churches. The contrast of styles is, however, too +marked to allow even the hand of Time to remove the challenge which +the two styles fling at one another. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE NATIONAL DEFENCES + + +About the year 1909 the administration of the French navy had fallen +into a scandalous state of chaos. Battleships were so long in building +that the type was beginning to be superseded before the vessels were +commissioned. There was a story circulated not long ago to the effect +that some one who enquired of the widow of a workman at Cherbourg what +her son was going to do for a livelihood received the reply that he +would work on the _Henri IV._ as his father had done. The story may +not be quite true, but it indicates what people were thinking at the +time. British ships are not infrequently completed within a year of +their launch, but the _Dupetit Thouars_ which took the water in 1901 +was only completed in 1905. + +It was during the period of office of M. Pelletan that the various +departments of the navy lost cohesion and their productive capacity +was greatly diminished. This minister was responsible for a species of +socialistic propaganda which brought about the most deplorable results +in so far as the efficiency of the navy was concerned. _Le Journal_, +in its summary of the conclusions of the commission of enquiry into +the state of naval administration, admitted that money had been wasted +in petty errors and foolish blunders, in orders and counter-orders, on +untried guns, on worthless boilers, on white powder which turned +green, on shells which destroyed the gunners, on 16-centimetre turrets +in which 19-centimetre guns had been placed. "The money," said this +newspaper, "has passed through ignorant hands, and slipped through +fools' fingers." + +Drastic changes were necessary to stop the alarming deterioration that +was taking place, for the nation had not, for fully ten years, been +getting anything near the full measure of sea-power to which it was +entitled by the annual sums voted. Between 1900 and 1909 France +expended 129 millions sterling on her navy, and in the same period +Germany devoted 121 millions to that branch of national defence, and +at the end of the decade it was found that the country spending the +larger sum had dropped down to a fifth place in the scale of world +sea-power, while with her smaller outlay Germany had risen to the +second place. In other words, the French had paid for the second place +and only realised the fifth! + +In this crisis Admiral Boue de Lapeyrere was appointed Minister of +Marine, and was provided with a civilian Under-Secretary of State to +act as assistant and be responsible with him for civil administration. +Since this appointment much leeway has been made up, although the +nation has had to mourn the loss of the _Liberte_, which blew up in +the crowded naval harbour of Toulon, and has been alarmed more than +once on account of the unstable quality of the powder with which the +ships have been supplied. At last this danger appears to have been +rectified. + +The French naval officer receives his training at the naval schools at +Brest and Toulon and is generally very keen and capable. He does not +enjoy hard conditions from the sporting instinct after the fashion so +usual in the British navy, but his devotion to his work produces very +efficient gunnery and admirable handling of submarine craft. For the +lower deck the supply of the suitable class of bluejacket might be +sadly deficient were it not for the seafaring populations of Brittany +and Normandy. At Bologne there was living recently a wrinkled old +grandmother who had forty grandchildren, of whom all the males were +sailors or fishermen, while several of the girls had become fishwives +or had married fishermen or sailors. France owes much to her little +weather-beaten grandmothers of this type. + +The manning of the fleet is partially carried out by voluntary +enlistment, but the main supply is gained by means of the _inscription +maritime_, a system established in the latter part of the seventeenth +century by Colbert. This method requires all sailors between eighteen +and fifty to be enrolled in "the Army of the Sea." They begin their +term of seven years of obligatory service at about twenty, two years +of the period being furlough. Any man earning his livelihood on inland +waters, provided they are tidal or capable of carrying sea-going +vessels, is included in the term "sailor." A further supply of men +is obtained by transferring a certain number of the year's army +recruits to the sea service. + + [Illustration: SOLDIERS OF FRANCE IN PARIS.] + +Cherbourg, Brest, and Toulon are the chief naval ports, Lorient and +Rochefort being of lesser importance. Shipbuilding, however, takes +place at each of the five. + +The frequent changes make it impossible to discuss the strength of the +fleets in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, or those stationed in +colonial waters, but collectively the fighting force of the navy has +for the last few years numbered roughly 25 battleships, 15 large +armoured cruisers, 16 protected cruisers, 80 or 90 destroyers, 180 +torpedo-boats, and about 90 submarines and submersibles. Under the new +administration larger ships are being built, and the destroyer is +taking the place of the torpedo-boat. + +On account of its superiority as a fighting machine the army of France +ranks above the navy, and it should have been placed before the navy +in the short notes which constitute this chapter. The author has felt, +however, that the subject is too complex to deal with in such a book +as this. He confesses to blank ignorance as to the efficiency of the +French artillery material, although from English sources he gathers +that it is superior to that possessed by almost any other nation. It +would be extremely interesting if one could state how far the army is +prepared for "the real thing," how much it has learned in recent +years, to what extent its very efficient army of the air is a source +of strength, and whether the rifle at present in use is as perfect a +weapon as those of other countries. These are subjects much discussed +by the inexpert, and the author does not feel competent to deal with +them. + +In the present year (1913) the period of service for the conscripts +who form the army was raised from two to three years, and by this +means the numbers of the peace strength were enormously increased from +the former establishment of a little over half a million men. The new +law did not add, as might perhaps be imagined, another quarter of a +million to the total. France has not a sufficiently large population +to provide such a number of men of the required age and physical +fitness. The numbers are, however, considered sufficient to meet the +imaginary dangers which threaten her national existence, and the +country has now to divert much of its energy to meeting the cost of +this regrettable lengthening and thickening of her big stick. +Incidentally the world's prosperity must suffer, and social reforms +generations overdue must be postponed! With Ebenezer Elliott one asks +again: + + When wilt Thou save the people? + O God of mercy, when? + + [Illustration: SKETCH MAP OF FRANCE] + + + + +INDEX + + + Ablutions, personal, 34 + + Academies, the, 75 + + Adour, the, 144, 168 + + Agnosticism, 80, 83 + + Agriculture, 116 + + Agrippa, 161 + + Aigues-Mortes, 127, 163 + + Aix-en-Provence, 164 + + Algerian wine, 125 + + Allier, the, 147 + + Alms-giving in churches, 44 + + Alps, 123, 124 + + Amboise, 150 + + Amiens, 203 + + Andely, Le Petit, 154 + + Angers, Chateau d', 150 + + Anglo-Norman horses, 123 + + Angouleme, 200 + + Apache, the, 96, 97 + + Arles, 130, 162, 164, 195, 196, 200 + + Armoricans, the, 7 + + Army, the, 209 + + _Arrondissement_, the, 60 + + Asses, 123 + + Assize, Courts of, 63 + + Aube, the, 152 + + Augustus Caesar, 161, 181 + + Auvergnes, the, 146 + + _Aversier_, the, 131 + + Avignon, 162, 164 + + Ay, 126 + + + _Baccalaureat de l'enseignement_, 74 + + Bachelier, Nicholas, 167 + + Bacteriology, science of, 18 + + Bagehot, Walter, 53 + + Banns, announcement of, 42 + + Barker, Mr. E. H., 106, 116 + + Bastille, the, 111 + + Bath, the itinerant, 34 + + Battle of Flowers at Nice, 171 + + Bayonne, 168 + + Beauce, La, plain of, 115, 116, 119 + + Beaugency, 148 + + Beauvais, 203 + + Bedroom, the typical, 26, 28 + + Bergerac, 167 + + Bernese Alps, 143, 159 + + Betham-Edwards, Miss, 31 + + Beziers, 126 + + Biarritz, 184, 190, 191 + + Birth-rate, the, 36 + + Blessington, Lady, 172 + + Blois, 148 + + Blois, Chateau de, 149 + + _Bonne-a-tout-faire_, the, 13, 14, 101, 102 + commissions of the, 30 + + Bordeaux, 167 + + Bore on the Seine, 155 + + Boue de Lapeyrere, Admiral, 207 + + Boulanger, 139 + + Boulevards, the, 88 + + Boulogne, 189, 208 + + Boulogne, Bois de, Paris, 110 + + Bourseul, Charles, 18 + + Boy Scouts in France, 72 + + Bread, French, 87 + + Brest, 207, 209 + + Brieg, 158 + + Brittany, 11, 12, 122, 123, 131, 189, 208 + megalithic remains, 7 + + Brougham and Vaux, Lord Chancellor, 170 + + Brunel, Isambard, 18 + + Buckwheat, 115 + + Butcher, the French, 32 + + Byron, Lord, 159 + + Byzantine architecture, 193, 199, 200, 201 + + + Cabourg, 184 + + Caen, 88, 201 + + Caesar, Gaius Julius, 10 + + Cafes, the, 86, 87, 88, 113 + + Calvaries, roadside, 122 + + Cannes, 170, 174 + + _Canton_, the, 60 + + Carcassonne, 198 + + Carmargue, the, 163 + + Carnac, prehistoric remains at, 194 + + Carnavalet, Musee, Paris, 109 + + Carts, country, 118 + + Casino, the, 171, 176, 178 + + _Cassation, Cour de_, 63 + + Catherine de Medici, 150 + + Cattle, 123 + + Caudebec, 155, 156 + + Cevennes, the, 115, 123, 145, 146 + peasants of, 128-130 + + Charente, the, 144 + + Chartres, 202 + + Chateau Gaillard, 153 + + _Chateau_ life, 133-137 + + Chatillon, 152 + + Chaumont, Chateau de, 150 + + Chenonceaux, Chateau de, 150 + + Cherbourg, 205, 209 + + Chestnuts, 115 + + Children, training of, 38, 39 + + Churches, 78 + attendance at, 78 + decorations in, 79, 80 + irreverent behaviour in, 78 + + Church-going, women and, 79 + + Cimbri, 157 + + Civil Code, the, 14, 42, 47, 66 + + Cleanliness, 33 + + Clermont-Ferrand, 200 + + Cluny, Hotel, Paris, 110 + + Coal consumption, 29 + + _Concierge_, the, 38, 97, 98, 99 + + _Conciergerie_, the, Paris, 110 + + Conscription, 210 + + Constantine, Emperor, 196 + + Constitution, the French, 50, 51, 52, 53 + + Conversation in the _chateau_, 139 + + Cooking, French, 2, 3 + + Corniche Roads, the, 179, 180, 181 + + Correze, 115 + + Costebelle, 173 + + Crau, La, 163, 164 + + Critical faculty of the French, 20 + + Cure, the, 83, 84, 85 + + + Deauville, 183 + + Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, the, 50, 51, 52 + + Demolins, M., 71 + + Deputies, Chamber of, 55 + salaries of, 59 + + Diane de Poitiers, 150 + + Dieppe, 187 + + Dinard, 189 + + Discipline, lack of, 47 + + Dive, the, 184 + + Divorce laws, 44, 45 + + Doctors, fees of, 131, 132 + + d'Or, Iles, 173 + + Dordogne, the, 167 + + _Dot_, the, 47 + + Dreyfus, Captain A., 63 + + Duelling, 139-142 + + Dumas, the elder, 139 + + Durance, the, 164 + + + Ebro, the, 151 + + Economies of the French, 21 + + Education, expenditure on, 67, 68 + + Education and social status, 75 + + Educational system, 72 + + Edward the Confessor, 156 + + Edward VII., King, 190 + + English Channel, the, 6 + + Epernay, 126 + + Esplanade, on the Riviera, the, 176, 177 + + Essonne, the, 152 + + Esterel Mountains, 173, 174 + + Etaples, 189 + + Etoile district of Paris, 89 + + Etretat, 153, 184, 185 + + Eu, 187 + + Euric, king of the Visigoths, 166 + + Evreux, 204 + + + Faculties, the State, 75 + + Family Council, the, 34, 35 + + Farms, 119, 120 + + Fecamp, 186 + + _Five o'clock, le_, 135 + + Flail, use of, 118 + + Flamboyant style, 204 + + Fontainebleau, forest of, 124 + + Food, high cost of, 105 + + Forests of France, 124 + + Forez, plain of, 146 + + France as a colonising nation, 48 + + Franchise, the, 56 + + Franks, the, 10 + + Frejus, 173 + + French enterprise, 65 + + French people, origin of, 11, 12, 32 + + Frenchwomen, dress of, 2 + + Funerals, 79 + + Furnishing of the _chateau_, 135, 136 + + Furniture, household, 28 + + + Galatia, 10 + + Gallia Comata, 161 + + Games at _Lycees_, 72 + + Garavan, 170, 182 + + Gard, the, 162, 195 + + _Garde republicaine_, the, 64, 93 + + Garonne, the, 144, 164-167 + + Gascons, the, 11 + + Gaul, early tribes of, 7, 8 + + Gauls, the, 9 + + _Gendarmerie_, the, 64 + + Geneva, Lake of, 159, 164 + + George, Mr. W. L., 81 + + Gironde, the, 167 + + Gisors, 204 + + Golf-courses, 171, 188 + + Grievances, endurance of, 49, 50 + redress of, 19 + + Gris Nez, Cape, 6, 153 + + Guise, Duc de, 150 + + + Habeas Corpus, the right of, 52 + + Hannibal, 157 + + Hardelot, 189 + + Harfleur, 156 + + Hausmann, the architect, 113 + + Havre, Le, 156 + + Hedges, lack of, 121 + + Holdings, average size of, 116 + + Holmes, Mr. T. Rice, 33 + + Home life, 25 + + Home-sur-Mer, Le, 184 + + Honfleur, 156 + + Hope, Sir John, 168 + + Horses, breeding of, 122, 123 + + Hotels, 3 + + Hotels, French and English, contrasted, 32, 33 + + Household furnishing, 26 + repairs, 26 + + Housemaid's work done by men, 25 + + Housing, 37 + in Paris, 104 + + Huguenots, 150 + + Hunting parties, 136 + + Husbandry, primitive, 117 + + Hyeres, 172 + + + Ideas, the great, of the French, 17, 18 + + _Inscription maritime_, 208 + + _Institut de France_, 75 + + Irreligion, 82, 83 + + + _Jeune fille_, the, 39, 40, 46, 69 + + Jewish communities, 81 + + _Juge d'instruction_, 63 + + _Juge de paix_, 35, 61, 62, 63 + + Jumieges, Abbey of, 156 + + Jura, the, 123, 143 + + + Lamartine, 139 + + Landais, the, 11 + + Landes, Les, 123, 124 + + Langeais, Chateau de, 150 + + Language, the French, 8, 11 + + Langres, Plateau de, 152 + + Lannemezan, plateau of, 165 + + Lauzan, Hotel de, Paris, 110 + + Le Parc, 160 + + Le Puy-en-Velay, 76, 146, 200 + + _Liberte_, destruction of the, 207 + + Libourne, 167 + + Lillebonne, 156, 198 + + Locke, Mr. J. W., 113 + + Loing, the, 152 + + Loire, the, 144-150, 156 + + Lorient, 209 + + Louis XIV., 110 + + Louvre, Palais du, Paris, 110 + + Lugdunum, 161 + + Lutetia Parisiorum, 110 + + _Lycees_, the, 39, 68, 69, 70, 72, 74 + + _Lycees_ for girls, 69 + + Lyons, 61, 160, 161, 162, 198 + + + Madeleine, the, 44 + + Maeterlinck, 156 + + _Mairie_, the, 43 + + _Maison paternelle_, la, 35, 38 + + Maladetta Chain, 165 + + _Mariage d'inclination_, the, 40 + + Marie Antoinette, 110 + + Maritime Alps, 164 + + Marketing, 30, 103 + + Marne, the, 152 + + Marriage, enquiries before, 24 + parental control of, 40, 41, 42 + + Martin, Cap, 181 + + Martiniere, La, 148 + + Mary Stuart, 150 + + Maure Mountains, 173 + + Meals, 31 + + Meat, the cutting of, 32 + + Medical services in the country, 31 + + Megalithic remains of Brittany, 7 + + Mentone, 181, 182 + + Merovingian architecture, 198, 199, 200 + + _Metayage_ system, the, 117 + + _Metayers_, 117 + + Meudon Woods, 141 + + Midi, the, 118 + + _Midinette_, the, 13, 33, 94, 95, 96 + + Ministry, the, 56 + + Misconceptions concerning France, 13 + + Mistral, the, 163 + + Monaco, 177 + Prince of, 178 + + Monopolies, State, 60 + + Montaigne, 140 + + Monte Bego, 118 + + Monte Carlo, 177, 178, 179 + + Montmartre, 107 + + Mont St. Michel, 202 + + Morals of the French, 16, 17 + + Moselle, the, 151 + + Mules, 122 + + + Nantes, 148 + + Napoleon, 67, 140 + modern France the work of, 65 + + Napoleon III., 55 + + Napoule, La, 171, 174 + + Narbonne, 10, 126, 198 + + National debt, 60 + + Navy, the, 205-209 + + Neste, the, 165 + + Nevers, 147 + + Nice, 171, 176, 177 + + Nimes, 162, 194 + + Normandy, 115, 116, 118, 119, 122, 123, 126, 208 + architecture of, 201 + people of, 12 + + Notre Dame, Paris, 203 + + Noyon, 202 + + Nuns as medical practitioners, 132 + + + Odours of France, 5 + + Oiseaux, Montagnes des, 173 + + Olive, the, 162 + + Omnibuses of Paris, 91, 101 + + Orange, 162, 196 + + Orleans, Foret d', 124 + + Orne, the, 184 + + Orthez, 168 + + Oxen, draught, 118, 124 + + + Parc Monceaux, Paris, 108 + + Paris, cab-drivers of, 1, 2 + compared with London, 110, 111, 112 + Etoile district, 107 + fortifications of, 112 + high prices in, 29 + high rents of, 29 + home life in, 25 + Plage, 189 + prisons, 65 + Roman, 110 + St. Antoine District, 109 + Sainte Chapelle, 109 + St. Etienne-du-Mont, 109 + St. Germain, 109 + St. Jacques, 109 + smoke of, 107 + streets of, 86, 87, 107, 108, 109 + + Pau, 191, 192 + + Pau, Gave de, 168, 192 + + Peasant, costume of, 126 + life, 114-131 + ownership of land, 114, 115 + women, 130 + + Pelletan, M., 206 + + Pennine Alps, 143, 159 + + Percheron horses, 123 + + Perdu, Mont, 165 + + Perigueux, 197, 198 + + Philippe Auguste, 150 + + Phoenician traders, 164 + + Phylloxera, the, 125 + + Pigs, 123 + + Pinay, 145 + + _Pistonnage_, 58 + + Plato, 183 + + Poitiers, 200 + + Poitou, plain of, 144 + + Police, 64 + + Policemen of Paris, 90, 91 + + Politeness of the French, 99 + + Pont du Gard, 157, 195 + + Pont du Roi, 165 + + Pratz, Mdlle. de, 95, 105 + + _Premiere Instance_, Court of, 61 + + President, the, 57, 58 + + Prison system, 64 + + Protective tariffs, 104 + + Protestants in France, 81 + + Provence, scenery of, 163 + + Public Instruction, Minister of, 68 + + Pyrenees, the, 123, 124, 165, 191, 192 + + Pyrimont, 160 + + + Rapidity of speech, 15 + + Reason, Festival of, 197 + + Religion of the French, 76, 77 + + Rents in Paris, 103, 104 + + Revolution, the, 50, 62, 197 + + Rheims, 203 + + Rhone, the, 127, 143, 157, 160, 161-165 + + Rhone Glacier, 144, 158 + + Richard Coeur-de-Lion, 153 + + Riviera, the, 169-183 + + Road, rule of the, 90 + + Roanne, 145, 147 + + Robespierre, 110 + + Rochefort, 139, 209 + + Roman architecture in France, 193-199 + + Roman Catholicism, 81 + + Rouen, 154, 155, 203 + + + Sabatier, Paul, 84 + + St. Bartholomew, Massacre of, 150 + + St. Benezet, 157 + + Ste. Beuve, 139 + + St. Denis, Paris, 78, 200, 202 + + St. Etienne, 145, 146 + + St. Gaudens, 166 + + St. Georges de Boscherville, 201 + + St. Germain, Faubourg, Paris, 106, 111 + + St. Gilles, 163 + + St. Jean de Luz, 190, 191 + + St. Martory, 166 + + St. Maurice, 158 + + St. Michel, Mont, 202 + + St. Raphael, 173 + + St. Remy, 197 + + St. Valery-en-Caux, 186 + + St. Wandrille, 156 + + Sand, George, 128-130 + + Sanitation, imperfection of, 88, 89 + + Saone, the, 160, 161 + + Scholarships, State, 69 + + School-boy, the, 73 + + Schoolmistress, the lay, 69, 70 + + Schools, 85 + + Segusiani, the, 161 + + Seine, the, 11, 150-157 + + Senate, the, 55 + + Servants, female, 26 + + Sevigne, Marquise de, 110 + + Sheep, 123 + + Sherard, Mr. Robert, 141 + + Shooting parties, 136 + + Shop assistants, 100 + + Sologne, the, 148 + + Soult, Marshal, 168 + + Strabo, 164 + + Strong, Rowland, 92 + + Submarine, France and the, 18 + + Superstitions among the peasantry, 131 + + + Tancarville Castle, 156 + + Tancarville, Raoul de, 201 + + Taine, H. A., 65 + + Tarascon, 162 + + Tarbais horses, 123 + + Tarbes, 123 + + Taxation, 59 + indirect, 60 + + Taxis, horse-drawn, in Paris, 92 + + Telephone, inventor of, 18 + + Tenda, Col di, 172 + + Teutones, 157 + + Thiers, 139 + + Thrift, the need for, 24 + + Thriftiness of the French, 14, 21 + + Toques, the, 183 + + Toulon, 207, 209 + + Toulouse, 166 + plain of, 124 + + Touquet, Le, 188 + + Tours, 144 + + Town planning in France, 112 + + Traffic of Paris, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94 + + Trees, roadside, 121 + + Treport, 187 + + _Tribunal correctionnel de l'arrondissement_, 61 + + Trou du Taureau, 165 + + Trouville, 183 + + Tuileries, the, Paris, 110 + + Turbie, La, 181 + + + Universities, the, 74 + + + Valence, 162 + + Valescure, 173 + + Vallais, the, 159 + + Veuillot, 139 + + Veules, 186 + + Vienne, 162, 197, 200 + + Vikings, the, 154 + + Villages, 120 + + Villefranche, 177 + + Vine, the, 163 + + Vines, American, 125 + + Virgin, representations of the, 76 + + Visigothic architecture, 199 + + Vosges, the, 123, 143 + + Vulgarity in illustrated papers, 15, 16 + + + Waddington, Mary K., 136 + + Washing days, 138 + + Wedding ceremonies, 43, 44 + + Wellington, Duke of, 168, 191 + + William the Conqueror, 156, 184, 201 + + Wine-grower, the, 125 + + Woman in business, the, 46 + + Women, position of, among the peasants, 128 + + + Yonne, the, 152 + + Young, Arthur, 166 + + + Zola, Emile, 128 + + + + +THE END + + + _Printed by_ R. & R. CLARK, LIMITED, _Edinburgh_. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of France, by Gordon Cochrane Home + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FRANCE *** + +***** This file should be named 35678.txt or 35678.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/6/7/35678/ + +Produced by Melissa McDaniel, Juliet Sutherland and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/35678.zip b/35678.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2f46b36 --- /dev/null +++ b/35678.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..139f3a0 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #35678 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/35678) |
