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NORMANDY PICTURESQUE.
by
HENRY BLACKBURN,
Author of 'Travelling in Spain,' 'The Pyrenees,'
'Artists and Arabs,' Etc.
Travelling Edition.
With Appendix of Routes and List of Watering-Places.
[Illustration: JOAN OF ARC'S HOUSE AT ROUEN]
[Illustration: Map]
London: Sampson Low, Son, & Marston, Crown Buildings, Fleet Street.
1870.
London:
Printed by William Clowes and Sons,
Stamford Street & Charing Cross.
PREFACE
TO
"_TRAVELLING EDITION._"
In issuing the Travelling Edition of "Normandy Picturesque," the
publishers deem it right to state that the body of the work is identical
with the Christmas Edition; but that the APPENDIX contains
additional information for the use of travellers, some of which is not
to be found in any Guide, or Handbook, to France.
The descriptions of places and buildings in Normandy call for little or
no alteration in the present edition, excepting in the case of one
town, concerning which the Author makes the following note:--
"The traveller who may arrive at Pont Audemer this year, with
'_Normandy Picturesque_' in his hand, will find matters strangely
altered since these notes were written; he will find that a railway
has been driven into the middle of the town, that many old houses
have disappeared, that the inhabitants have left off their white
caps, and have given up their hearts to modern ways.
"Such changes have come rapidly upon Pont Audemer, but we must not,
in consequence, alter our description of it; for the old houses and
the old customs are dear memories, and the more worth recording
because the reality has faded before our eyes."
_London, May, 1870._
CONTENTS.
PAGE
CHAP. I.--ON THE WING 1
" II.--PONT AUDEMER 13
" III.--LISIEUX 35
" IV.--CAEN--DIVES 51
" V.--BAYEUX 83
" VI.--ST. LO--COUTANCES--GRANVILLE 109
" VII.--AVRANCHES--MONT ST. MICHAEL 135
" VIII.--VIRE--MORTAIN--FALAISE 162
" IX.--ROUEN 185
" X.--THE VALLEY OF THE SEINE 217
" XI.--ARCHITECTURE AND COSTUME 243
" XII.--THE WATERING PLACES OF NORMANDY 265
APPENDIX 283
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
JOAN OF ARC'S HOUSE AT ROUEN _By_ S. PROUT.
_Frontispiece_.
CHAP. PAGE
II.--Market-place at Pont Audemer S. P. HALL
(_From a sketch by A. E. Browne._) 14
" A Sketch at Pont Audemer M. TIBIALONG 18
" Old Houses at Pont Audemer A. E. BROWNE 29
III.--Wood-carving at Lisieux A. E. BROWNE 40
IV.--Church of St. Pierre, Caen M. CLERGET 54
" A Sketch, at Caen M. TIBIALONG 64
" Old Woman of Caen M. TIRARD 69
V.--Bayeux Cathedral H. BLACKBURN 83
" Corner of House at Bayeux A. E. BROWNE 86
" Ancient Tablet in Cathedral H. BLACKBURN 90
" Facsimile of Bayeux Tapestry A. SEVERN 103
VI.--A Sketch, at Cherbourg M. TIBIALONG 110
" Exterior Pulpit at St. Lo _From a Photograph_ 116
" A 'Toiler of the Sea' S. P. HALL 132
" Mont St. Michael H. BLACKBURN 135
VII.--Church near Avranches H. BLACKBURN 144
" Ancient Cross H. BLACKBURN 147
VIII.--Clock Tower at Vire H. BLACKBURN 171
IX.--Rouen Cathedral M. CLERGET 194
X.--Market-women--Lower Normandy S. P. HALL
(_From a sketch by A. E. Browne._) 217
XI.--Modern houses at Houlgate H. BLACKBURN 253
" 'The Wrestlers' GUSTAVE DORÉ 257
NORMANDY PICTURESQUE.
CHAPTER I.
_ON THE WING._
It is, perhaps, rather a subject for reproach to English people that the
swallows and butterflies of our social system are too apt to forsake
their native woods and glens in the summer months, and to fly to 'the
Continent' for recreation and change of scene; whilst poets tell us,
with eloquent truth, that there is a music in the branches of England's
trees, and a soft beauty in her landscape more soothing and gracious in
their influence than 'aught in the world beside.'
Whether it be wise or prudent, or even pleasant, to leave our island in
the very height of its season, so to speak--at a time when it is most
lovely, when the sweet fresh green of the meadows is changing to bloom
of harvest and gold of autumn--for countries the features of which are
harder, and the landscape, if bolder, certainly less beautiful, for a
climate which, if more sunny, is certainly more bare and burnt up, and
for skies which, if more blue, lack much of the poetry of cloud-land--we
will not stay to enquire; but admitting the fact that, for various
reasons, English people _will_ go abroad in the autumn, and that there
is a fashion, we might almost say a passion, for 'flying, flying south,'
which seems irresistible--we will endeavour in the following pages to
suggest a compromise, in the shape of a tour which shall include the
undoubted delight and charm of foreign travel, with scenery more like
England than any other in Europe, which shall be within an easy distance
from our shores, and within the limits of a short purse; and which
should have one special attraction for us, viz., that the country to be
seen and the people to be visited bear about them a certain English
charm--the men a manliness, and the women a beauty with which we may be
proud to claim kindred.
We speak of the north-west corner of France, divided from us (and
perhaps once not divided) by the British Channel--the district called
NORMANDY (_Neustria_), and sometimes, 'nautical France,' which
includes the Departments of _Calvados_, _Eure_, _Orne_, and part of _La
Manche_. It comprises, as is well known, but a small part of France, and
occupies an area of about one hundred and fifty miles by seventy-five,
but in this small compass is comprehended so much that is interesting
to English people that we shall find quite enough to see and to do
within its limits alone.
If the reader will turn to the little map on our title-page, he will see
at a glance the position of the principal towns in Normandy, which we
may take in the following order, making England (or London) our starting
point:--
Crossing the Channel from Southampton to Havre by night, or from
Newhaven to Dieppe by day, we proceed at once to the town of PONT
AUDEMER, situated about six miles from Quillebeuf and eight from
Honfleur, both on the left bank of the Seine. From Havre, Pont Audemer
may be reached in a few hours, by water, and from Dieppe, Rouen or Paris
there is now railway communication. From Pont Audemer we go to
LISIEUX (by road or railway), from Lisieux to CAEN, BAYEUX and ST. LO,
where the railway ends, and we take the diligence to COUTANCES,
GRANVILLE, and AVRANCHES. After a visit to the island of Mont St.
Michael, we may return (by diligence) by way of MORTAIN, VIRE, and
FALAISE; thence to ROUEN, and by the valley of the Seine, to the
sea-coast.[1]
The whole journey is a short and inexpensive one, and may occupy a
fortnight, a month, or three months (the latter is not too long), and
may be made a simple _voyage de plaisir_, or turned to good account for
artistic study.
But there is one peculiarity about it that should be mentioned at the
outset. The route we have indicated, simple as it seems, and most easily
to be carried out as it would appear, is really rather difficult of
accomplishment, for the one reason that the journey is almost always
made on _cross-roads_. The traveller who follows it will continually
find himself delayed because he is not going to Paris. 'Paris is France'
under the Imperial régime, and at nearly every town or railway station
he will be reminded of the fact; and, if he be not careful, will find
himself and his baggage whisked off to the capital.[2] If he wishes to
see Normandy, and to carry out the idea of a provincial tour in its
integrity, he must resist temptation, _have nothing to do with Paris_,
and put up with slow trains, creeping diligences, and second-rate inns.
The network of roads and railways in France converge as surely to the
capital as the threads of a spider's web lead to its centre, and in
pursuing his route through the bye-ways of Normandy the traveller will
be much in the position of the fly that has stepped upon its
meshes--every road and railway leading to the capital where '_M.
d'Araignée_' the enticing, the alluring, the fascinating, the most
extravagant--is ever waiting for his prey.
From the moment he sets foot on the shores of Normandy, Paris will be
made ever present to him. Let him go, for example, to the railway
station at any port on his arrival in France, and he will find
everything--people, goods, and provisions, being hurried off to the
capital as if there were no other place to live in, or to provide for.
Let him (in pursuit of the journey we have suggested) tread cautiously
on the _fil de fer_ at Lisieux, for he will pass over one of the main
lines that connect the world of Fashion at Paris with another world of
Fashion by the sea.[3] Let him, when at St. Lo, apply for a place in
the diligence for Avranches, and he will be told by a polite official
that nothing can be done until the mail train arrives from Paris; and
let him not be surprised if, on his arrival at Avranches, his name be
chronicled in the local papers as the latest arrival from the capital.
Let him again, on his homeward journey, try and persuade the people of
Mortain and Vire that he does _not_ intend to visit Paris, and he will
be able to form some estimate of its importance in the eyes of the
French people.
We draw attention to this so pointedly at the outset, because it is
altogether inconsistent and wide of our purpose in making a quiet, and
we may add, economical, visit to Normandy, to do, as is the general
custom with travellers--spend half their time and most of their money in
Paris.
Thus much in outline for the ordinary English traveller on a holiday
ramble; but the artist or the architect need not go so far a-field. If
we might make a suggestion to him, especially to the architect, we would
say, take only the first four towns on our list (continuing the journey
to Coutances, or returning by Rouen if there be opportunity), and he
will find enough to last him a summer.[4] If he has never set foot in
Normandy before we may promise him an æsthetic treat beyond his dreams.
He will have his idols both of wood and stone--wood for dwelling, and
stone for worship; at PONT AUDEMER, the simple domestic
architecture of the middle ages, and at LISIEUX, the more
ornate and luxurious; passing on to CAEN, he will have (in
ecclesiastical architecture) the memorial churches of William the
Conqueror, and, in the neighbouring city of BAYEUX (in one
building), examples of the 'early,' as well as the more elaborate,
gothic of the middle ages.
If the architect, or art student, will but make this little pilgrimage
in its integrity, if he will, like Christian, walk in faith--turning
neither to the right hand nor to the left, and shunning the broad road
which leads to destruction--he will be rewarded.
There are two paths for the architect in Normandy, as elsewhere--paths
which we may call the 'simple right' and the 'elaborate wrong,' and the
right path is sometimes as difficult to follow as the path of virtue.
But both artist and amateur will revel alike in the beauty of landscape,
in the variety of form and colour of the old buildings, and in the
costume of the people; and we cannot imagine a more pleasant and
complete change from the heat and pressure of a London season than to
drop down (suddenly, as it were, like a bird making a swoop in the air),
into the midst of the quiet, primitive population of a town like Pont
Audemer, not many miles removed from the English coast, but at least a
thousand in the habits and customs of the people. An artist of any
sensibility could scarcely do it, the shock would be too great, the
delight too much to be borne; but the ordinary reader, who has prepared
his mind to some extent by books of travel, or the tourist, who has come
out simply for a holiday, may enjoy the change as he never enjoyed
anything before.
In the following pages we do not profess to describe each place on the
route we have suggested, but rather to record a few notes, made at
various times during a sojourn in Normandy; notes--not intended to be
exhaustive, or even as complete and comprehensive in description, as
ordinary books of travel, but which--written in the full enjoyment of
summer time in this country, in sketching in the open air, and in the
exploration of its mediæval towns--may perchance impart something of the
author's enthusiasm to his unknown readers, when scattered upon the
winds of a publisher's breeze.
[Illustration]