1936 On the Continent

buildings.
    In Lower Normandy, on the other hand, where Danish elements are predominant, the farm buildings are all adjoining and grouped round a square court, giving directly on to the road.
Upper and Lower Normans
    The same differences can be seen in the character of the inhabitants. The Upper Norman is essentially adventurous, full of imagination, at times even fantastically so, whereas the Low Norman is more down to earth, methodical and cold. It was from Upper Normandy that William the Conqueror set out, as well as the bold navigators and explorers who later on discovered the Canaries, the islands of the West Indies and Canada. But once these lands had been discovered, it was the Low Normans who peopled and exploited them.
    It is the Low Normans, too, who deserve most the reputation, which all the Normans enjoy indiscriminately in France, of being hair-splitters and makers of eternal law-suits.
    A particular term is used in French to describe the special characteristics of the Norman countryside: “bocage,” which might almost be translated “grove-land” or, with greater banality, “woodland.” On its rich and sea-dampened soil, crossed by innumerable streams, a luxuriant vegetation has sprung up, and at every hand you will see pasture lands thickly covered with the greenestof green grass with their browsing herds of cattle or horses. The fields are all surrounded by close hedges separating them from the roads and from each other, and are crisscrossed with innumerable apple-trees. The cider and meat from Normandy are both famous.
    As I have already said, it is above all in springtime that Normandy attracts me away even from the flowers and trees of Paris, when I can take my fill of the white hawthorn in the hedges and when all the apple-trees are in full bloom.
    The Norman coast is in some ways a separate region, communicating, with the inland countryside by narrow valleys at right angles to the sea. The coast-line is nearly 400 miles long, and is shaped like a widely-opened crescent with the mouth of the Seine in the centre. On either side of the Seine, and particularly to the left looking seawards, there are a number of lovely and famous beaches with very fine sand: Deauville, Trouville, Cabourg, etc., while as you get nearer the two points of the crescent the coast-line becomes more and more precipitous.
    In the North-east there are the enormous chalk cliffs of Etretat, Fécamp and St. Valéry en Caux, something like those of Dover, moulded into natural pillars and arches by the sea. In the region of Cotentin, on the other hand, the coast is covered with immense granite rocks.
    Finally, to the West, on the frontier of Brittany, a row of hills cut by narrow gorges where rivers rush down in rapids and falls has earned for this region the name of “Swiss Normandy.”
The Gothic Town of Rouen
    Rouen is the capital of Normandy, and I cannot impress on you too earnestly the absolute necessity of seeing it, even if you have to leave out the rest of Normandy to do so. It is a big town, built almost entirely on the slopes running up from the right bank of the Seine, and it positively bristles with spires and towers. It is not very far from Paris. About 90 miles of a very pleasant journey along the winding valley of the Seine. Through trains from the Gare St. Lazare in Paris get you there in a little under two hours.
    On the way, as you pass Les Andelys, you will see on a promontory the towering ruins of Gaillard Castle, an immense fortress with three successive circles of wall each more than 15 feet thick. It was built in 1196 by Richard the Lion Heart.
    Rouen, which is also an important commercial and industrial city of 120,000 inhabitants, has preserved from its past history as capital of Normandy a perfect welter of monuments of the Middle Ages, and it is this which has given it the name of “La cité gothique,” or “La ville musée.” Luckily for you, and I may add for myself too, practically all these monuments of the past are grouped together in quite a small area, as in most old towns.
The Cathedral
    There is first of all the Cathedral, pure Flamboyant Gothic in style, begun in 1202 and only finished in the sixteenth century, with its spire 512 feet high and its two towers, one of which carries a bell weighing approximately 20 tons. It contains the tomb of Rollo, the first Scandinavian chief of the Normans. Alongside is the Archbishop’s Palace and the Church of St. Maclou, both of which are