1936 On the Continent

front of the church and its towers, over 170 feet high, are masterpieces of the Flamboyant Gothic style which has been carried to so high a degree of perfection in Normandy.
    A few miles down the river there is the Benedictine Abbey of Saint Wandrille, whose vaulted refectory, more than a 100 feet in length, built in the thirteenth century, is a famous piece of architecture well worth seeing.
    Then you come to Villequier, known chiefly owing to Victor Hugo’s poem on the death of his daughter, who was drowned there in 1843.
    The estuary of the Seine begins at Quillebœuf. The river here is full of sandbanks, between which the steamer has to pick its way carefully. The barges prefer to reach Havre by the canal which begins opposite Quillebœuf at Tancarville.
    On the spur overlooking the town stands a forbidding-looking castle with squat towers of between 40 and 60 feet in height. From then onwards, the estuary gradually widens out until it is finally more than 6 miles wide.
    Soon the high buildings of the transatlantic port of Havre begin to show themselves on the right, and the steamer finally accosts at the Southampton Quay after crossing the whole of the outer port protected by its two immense stone breakwaters.
    Le Havre is a big modern city of 150,000 inhabitants, and is the first tidal port ever built. It was constructed in the reign of François I, its founder, during the first half of the sixteenth century.
Havre and the Cliffs of the Norman Coast
    If you are interested in people you will certainly be interested in Le Havre. Any seaport is fascinating to a student of human nature, and Le Havre is no exception. It is an almost entirely modern town and a very busy transatlantic port, and it contains nothing of historical interest except the Hôtel de la Marine on the Place de l’Arsenel, not far from where the Rouen boats stop, which has a Louis XIV façade richly decorated in maritime motifs. Around about the Place de l’Arsenel you will see a certain number of interesting old houses and some sailors’ cabarets full of life and movement.
    If you are anything like me, you will want to see the whole port thoroughly and at your leisure. But the best way of getting a first general impression is either to take a motor-boat at the Place Gambetta, where they are on hire, and go through the twelve immense docks on water, or else to get on the tramway No. 3 which runs alongside the docks as far as the Eure dock on the other side of the port. There, near the gigantic modern transatlantic railway station, you will be able to visit the
Normandie
if you have the luck to be there during one of its calls at the port.
    As far as hotels go, if you are thinking of staying in Le Havre any length of time, there are plenty of them and of every degree of comfort and price, just as in any other big port. The most famous is perhaps the Frascati on the port, I Rue Duperrey. And for eating you couldn’t dobetter than try the Filet de Sole, 108 Rue de Paris, where besides serving an excellent version of the dish to which the restaurant owes its name, they will give a succulent “Poulet à la Havraise.” I can’t describe the dish exactly, as I am not sufficiently well versed in the art of cooking, but if you like chicken you will certainly like the Havre way of doing it.
    For those who have a particular passion for fish I should recommend La Petite Tonne, a small sailors’ restaurant, 28 Rue de Paris. I suppose they just
have
to cook fish well, as otherwise I cannot imagine a sailor going there to eat it.
    An extremely hilly road leads out of Havre and takes you the whole way along the coast as far as Tréport. You are not bound to take it, of course, but if you are not in a hurry, it would be a pity to miss it, as it is an exceptionally lovely coast road.
    Your first stopping place would be at Etretat, which is a well-known holiday resort, famous for its cliffs pierced by immense natural archways. Although living is far from cheap in Etretat, you can get a really good meal at a moderate enough price at the Rôtisserie of the Golf Hotel.
Fécamp and Dieppe
    After Etretat, you will come into Fécamp. This little town has a fascinating old museum and a lovely church, the church of the Trinité, which is one of the earliest examples of Norman Gothic. If you want a drink, or to stay for dinner, try the Hôtel du Grand Cerf at the entrance of the town.
    Fécamp is followed by a whole series of small ports and well-known beaches: