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18 - Chateau and Country Life in France by Mary King Waddington · Chateau and Country Life in France

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  Speaker 1: Section eighteen of Schuttle and country Life in France. This
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  Speaker 1: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
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  Speaker 1: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox dot org. Boulogneschau Neh One year we were at
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  Speaker 1: Boulogne for the summer, in a funny little house in
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  Speaker 1: a narrow street, just behind the port and close to
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  Speaker 1: the casino and beach. There were a great many people,
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  Speaker 1: all the hotels full, and quantities of automobiles passing all day.
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  Speaker 1: The upper part of the town is just like any
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  Speaker 1: other seaside place, rows of hotels and villas facing the sea.
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  Speaker 1: Some of the houses built into the high green cliff,
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  Speaker 1: which rises steep and almost menacing behind. Already parts of
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  Speaker 1: the cliff have crumbled away in some place, and the
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  Speaker 1: proprietors of the villas find some difficulty in letting them.
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  Speaker 1: The front rooms on the sea are charming, but the
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  Speaker 1: back ones directly under the cliff, with no heir or sun,
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  Speaker 1: are not very tempting. There is a fine deek and
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  Speaker 1: raised broad walk all along the sea front, with flowers,
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  Speaker 1: seats and music stand It is a perfectly safe beach
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  Speaker 1: for children. For though the channel is very near and
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  Speaker 1: the big English boats pass close to the shore, there
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  Speaker 1: are several sand banks which make the beach quite safe.
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  Speaker 1: And from seven in the morning till seven at night
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  Speaker 1: there are two boats olage and two men on the
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  Speaker 1: beach with ropes, life preservers and horns which they blow
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  Speaker 1: whenever they think the bathers are too far out. There
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  Speaker 1: is an aspector de la Pledge, a regular French official
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  Speaker 1: with a gold band on his cap, who is a
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  Speaker 1: most important and amiable gentleman, and sees that no one
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  Speaker 1: is annoyed in any way. We made friends with them
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  Speaker 1: at once mouyenon im piers de difrent, and you looked
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  Speaker 1: after us, saw that our tents were put up close
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  Speaker 1: to the water, no others near, and warned off stray
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  Speaker 1: children and dogs who were attracted by our children's toys
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  Speaker 1: and cakes. The Pledge is a pretty sight. On a
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  Speaker 1: bright day. There are hundreds of tents, all bright colored.
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  Speaker 1: When one approaches Boulogne from the sea, the beach looks
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  Speaker 1: like a parterre of flowers. Near the casino, there are
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  Speaker 1: a quantity of old fashioned ramshackly bathing cabins on wheels,
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  Speaker 1: with very small boys, cracking their whips and galloping up
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  Speaker 1: and down from the deep to the edge of the
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  Speaker 1: water on staid old horses, who know their work perfectly,
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  Speaker 1: put themselves at once into the shafts of the carriages.
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  Speaker 1: Never go beyond a certain limit in the sea. All
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  Speaker 1: the bathers are prudent. It is rare to see any
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  Speaker 1: one swimming out or diving from a boat. A policeman
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  Speaker 1: presides at the public bathing place, and there are three
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  Speaker 1: or four begnere and vegnes who take charge of the
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  Speaker 1: timid bathers. One wonderful old woman, bare legged, of course,
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  Speaker 1: a handkerchief on her hand, a flannel blouse and a
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  Speaker 1: very short skirt made of some waterproof material that stood
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  Speaker 1: out stiff all around her and shed the water. She
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  Speaker 1: was the Premier Venes, seven years old and had been
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  Speaker 1: venues at Boulogne for fe fifty one years. She had
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  Speaker 1: bathed Sea Point as a child, and was delighted to
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  Speaker 1: see her again, and wildly interested in her two children.
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  Speaker 1: There were donkeys, of course, and goats. The children knew
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  Speaker 1: the goat man well and all ran to him with
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  Speaker 1: their mugs as soon as they heard his peculiar whistle.
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  Speaker 1: They held their mugs close under the goat, so that
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  Speaker 1: they got their milk warm and foaming, as it was
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  Speaker 1: milk directly into their mugs. The goats were quite tame.
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  Speaker 1: One came always straight to our tents and lay down
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  Speaker 1: there till his master came. Everyone wanted to feed them
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  Speaker 1: with cakes and bits of sugar, but he could never
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  Speaker 1: let them have anything, for fear it would spoil their milk.
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  Speaker 1: Another friend was the cake man, dressed all in white,
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  Speaker 1: with his basket of paeosch and madlein on his head.
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  Speaker 1: Then there were the inevitable Africans with fezzes on their
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  Speaker 1: heads and bundles of silk cut their sheen, and ostrich
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  Speaker 1: feathers that one sees at every pledge. I don't think
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  Speaker 1: they did much business. The public was not at all distinguished.
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  Speaker 1: We often wondered where the people were who lived in
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  Speaker 1: the hotels, all very expensive and villas for with very
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  Speaker 1: rare exceptions. It was the most ordinary petit bourgeoisie that
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  Speaker 1: one saw on the beach, a few Americans, a great
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  Speaker 1: many fourth rate English. They were a funny contrast to
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  Speaker 1: the people who came for the concourritique and the race
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  Speaker 1: week one saw then a great influx of automobiles. There
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  Speaker 1: were balls at the casino and merry pretty well dressed
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  Speaker 1: women of both worlds. Much on evidence, the Chetna from
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  Speaker 1: the neighboring chateau appeared and brought their guests. For that
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  Speaker 1: one week, Boulogna was quite fashionable. The last Sunday of
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  Speaker 1: the races was a terrible day. There was an excursion
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  Speaker 1: train from Paris and two excursion steamers from England. They
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  Speaker 1: were on the quay when the English boats came in,
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  Speaker 1: and it was amusing to see the people. Some of
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  Speaker 1: them had left London at six in the morning. There
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  Speaker 1: were all sorts and kinds, wonderful sportsmen with large checked suits,
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  Speaker 1: caps and field glasses slung over their shoulders, a great
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  Speaker 1: many pretty girls, general in white, all at bags and
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  Speaker 1: baskets with bathing suits and luncheon, and in an instant
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  Speaker 1: they were swarming over the pledge or ity, crowded with
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  Speaker 1: the Paris excursionists. They didn't interfere with us much as
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  Speaker 1: we never went to the beach. On Sunday. F was
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  Speaker 1: fishing all day with some of his friends in a
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  Speaker 1: pilot boat. They brought back three hundred mackerel. Had a
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  Speaker 1: beautiful day, the sea quite calm, and the fish rising
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  Speaker 1: in quantities. C and I with the children went off
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  Speaker 1: the sea out the lowoods in the auto. We established
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  Speaker 1: ourselves on a hillside, pines all around us, the sea
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  Speaker 1: at our feet, a beautiful blue sky overhead, and not
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  Speaker 1: a sound to break the stillness, except sometimes in the
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  Speaker 1: distance the styrienne of a passing auto. We had our
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  Speaker 1: tea basket found a nice clear space to make a fire,
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  Speaker 1: which we did very prudently, scooping out a great hole
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  Speaker 1: in the ground and making a sort of oven. It
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  Speaker 1: was very difficult to keep the children from tumbling into
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  Speaker 1: the hole as they were rolling about on the soft ground,
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  Speaker 1: but we got home without any serious detriment toil limb.
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  Speaker 1: The life in our quarter on the Kiet is very different,
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  Speaker 1: an extraordinary animation and movement. There are hundreds of vessels
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  Speaker 1: of every description in the port all day and all night.
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  Speaker 1: Boats are coming in and going out. The English steamers
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  Speaker 1: with their peculiar, dull, penetrating whistle that one hears at
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  Speaker 1: a great distance. Steam tugs that take passengers and luggage
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  Speaker 1: out to the Atlantic liners lying just outside the deck.
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  Speaker 1: Yachts pilot boats easily distinguished by a broad white line
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  Speaker 1: around their holes and a number very conspicuously printed in
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  Speaker 1: large black letters on their white sails by Dessaux, smart
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  Speaker 1: looking little craft that take boys out to the various
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  Speaker 1: points where they must be laid. One came in the
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  Speaker 1: other day with two large red bell shaped boys on
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  Speaker 1: her deck, which made a great effect from a distance.
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  Speaker 1: We were standing on the pier and couldn't imagine what
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  Speaker 1: they were. Avisos dispat boats with their long narrow flame
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  Speaker 1: which marks them as war vessels, streaming out in the wind.
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  Speaker 1: Their sailors looked very picturesque in white jerseys and blueberries
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  Speaker 1: with red pomponds. Small steamers that run along the coasts
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  Speaker 1: from Kelley to Dunkirk. Others cargo boats, broad and deep
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  Speaker 1: in the water that take fruit and eggs over to England.
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  Speaker 1: The baskets of peaches, plums and apricots look most appetizing
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  Speaker 1: when they are taken on board. The steamers look funny
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  Speaker 1: when they come back with empty baskets, quantities of them
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  Speaker 1: piled upon the decks tied to the masts. Many little
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  Speaker 1: pleasure boats, flat broad rowing boats that take one across
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  Speaker 1: the harbor to the Gamahaitim, which is a long way
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  Speaker 1: around by the bridge, a most uncomfortable performance at low tide,
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  Speaker 1: as you go down long, steep, slippery steps with no
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  Speaker 1: railing and have to scramble into the boat as well
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  Speaker 1: as you can. Of course, there are fishing boats of
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  Speaker 1: every description, from the modest little sloop with one mast
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  Speaker 1: and small sail, to the big steam trawlers, which are
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  Speaker 1: increasing every year and gradually replacing the old fashioned sailing boat.
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  Speaker 1: One always knows when the fishing boats are arriving by
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  Speaker 1: the crowd that assembles on the quay, that peculiar population
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  Speaker 1: that seems natural to all ports, young able bodied sailors
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  Speaker 1: full of interest about the run and the cargo. Ald
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  Speaker 1: men in blue jerseys who sit on the wall in
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  Speaker 1: the sun all day and recount their experiences. Various officials
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  Speaker 1: with gold bands on their caps, men with hand carts
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  Speaker 1: waiting to carry off the fish, and fishwives their baskets
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  Speaker 1: strapped on their backs, hoping for a haul of crabs
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  Speaker 1: and shrimps or fish from some of the small boats.
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  Speaker 1: All the cargo of the trawlers is sold before they
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  Speaker 1: arrive to the mirror men who deal exclusively in fish,
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  Speaker 1: and who have a contract with the big boats. There
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  Speaker 1: is no possibility of having a good fish except at
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  Speaker 1: that where one can sometimes get some from one of
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  Speaker 1: the smaller boats, which fish on their own account and
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  Speaker 1: have no contract, But even those are generally sold at
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  Speaker 1: once to small dealers who send them off to the
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  Speaker 1: neighboring inland towns. In facts, the proprietor of one of
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  Speaker 1: the big hotels told me he had to get his
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  Speaker 1: fish from Paris and pay Paris prices. The fishwives, the
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  Speaker 1: young ones particularly, are a fine looking law, tall straight
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  Speaker 1: with feet and legs bare, a little white cap or
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  Speaker 1: woolen feature on their heads. They carry off their heavy
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  Speaker 1: baskets as lightly as possible, taking them to the ad
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  Speaker 1: where all the fish must go. They are quite a
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  Speaker 1: feature of boulloon, the young fishwives. One sees them often
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  Speaker 1: at low tide fishing for shrimps, carrying their heavy nets
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  Speaker 1: on their shoulders and flat baskets strapped on their backs
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  Speaker 1: into which they tip the fish very cleverly. They're quite
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  Speaker 1: distinct from the bouloonnies matelote, who or a step higher
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  Speaker 1: in the social scale. They always wear a wonderful white
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  Speaker 1: cap with a high starched frill which stands out around
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  Speaker 1: their faces like an oureod. They too wear short, full skirts,
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  Speaker 1: but have long stockings and vary goods stout shoes, not sabo,
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  Speaker 1: which are always disappearing. They turn out very well on Sundays.
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  Speaker 1: I saw a lot of them the other day coming
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  Speaker 1: out of church, all with their caps scrupulously clean, short
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  Speaker 1: full black or brown skirts, aprons ironed in a curious
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  Speaker 1: way across the apron, making little waves. Our maids couldn't
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  Speaker 1: think what had happened to their white aprons. The first
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  Speaker 1: time they came back from the wash, thought there had
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  Speaker 1: been some mistake and they had some one's else clothes.
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  Speaker 1: They had to explain to the washer women that they
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  Speaker 1: liked their aprons iron straight, long gold earrings and gold chains.
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  Speaker 1: They're handsome women, dark with straight features, a serious look
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  Speaker 1: in their eyes. Certainly people who live by the sea
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  Speaker 1: have a different expression. There is something grave, almost sad
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  Speaker 1: in their faces, which one doesn't see in dwellers in
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  Speaker 1: sunny meadows and woodlands. We went this morning with the Baundurge,
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  Speaker 1: who was at the head of one of the fishing
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  Speaker 1: companies here, to see one of their boats. Come in
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  Speaker 1: and unload. It was a steam trawler with enormous nets
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  Speaker 1: that had been fishing off the English coast near Land's End.
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  Speaker 1: There were quite a number of people assembled on the quay,
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  Speaker 1: a policeman, a galbdipot, an agent of the company, and
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  Speaker 1: the usual lot of people who are always about when
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  Speaker 1: a fishing boat comes in. Her cargo seemed to be
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  Speaker 1: almost entirely of fish. They call here sonenbrun. They were
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  Speaker 1: sending up great baskets of them from the whole where
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  Speaker 1: they were very well packed in ice. Half way up
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  Speaker 1: they were thrown into a big tub which cleaned them,
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  Speaker 1: took off the salt, and gave them a silvery look.
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  Speaker 1: They are put by hundreds into hand carts which were waiting,
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  Speaker 1: and carried off at once to the Eye. They had
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  Speaker 1: broad in three thousand, five hundred fish, but didn't seem
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  Speaker 1: to think they had made a very good hull. The
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  Speaker 1: whole cargo had been sold to a mariere and was
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  Speaker 1: sent off at once by him. All over the country
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  Speaker 1: other boats were also sending their cargo to the Eye.
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  Speaker 1: They had all kinds of fish, soles, mackerel, and a
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  Speaker 1: big red fish. I didn't know at all. I wouldn't
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  Speaker 1: have believed, if I had not seen it with my
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  Speaker 1: own eyes, that such a bright colored fish could exist. However,
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  Speaker 1: a very sharp little boy who was standing near and
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  Speaker 1: who answered all my questions, told me they were Rouge.
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  Speaker 1: We went on to the add a large gray stone
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  Speaker 1: building facing the sea, rather imposing, with a square tower
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  Speaker 1: on top, from which one could see a long way
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  Speaker 1: out to sea and signal incoming fishing boats. It was
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  Speaker 1: very clean water running over the white marble slag, and
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  Speaker 1: women with pails and brushes washing and wiping the floor.
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  Speaker 1: It is evidently a place that attracts strangers. Many tourists
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  Speaker 1: were walking about, one couple American I think, passing through
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  Speaker 1: in an automobile and laying in a stock of lobsters
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  Speaker 1: and crabs, the big deep sea crabs and juge. The
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  Speaker 1: men rather hesitated about leaving his otto in the streets.
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  Speaker 1: They had no chauffeur with them, tried to find a
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  Speaker 1: boy who would watch it for a wonder None was forthcoming,
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  Speaker 1: but two young fishwives who were standing near said they would.
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  Speaker 1: When the man came back with his purchases, he gave
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  Speaker 1: each of them a five franc piece, which munificence so
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  Speaker 1: astounded them that they could hardly find words to thank him.
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  Speaker 1: Quantities of fish of all kinds had arrived, some being
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  Speaker 1: sold an ecrie, but it was impossible to understand the
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  Speaker 1: prices or the names of the fish. At least for us,
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: the buying public seemed to know all about it. The
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  Speaker 1: fishwives were very busy, standing behind the marble slabs with
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  Speaker 1: short thick knives with which they cut off pieces of
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  Speaker 1: the large fish when the customer didn't want a whole one,
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  Speaker 1: and laughing and joking with everyone. Here and there we
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  Speaker 1: saw a modern young person in a fancy blouse, her
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  Speaker 1: hair dressed and waved with little combs, but there were
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  Speaker 1: not many. We bought some soles and shrimps. Monsieur de
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  Speaker 1: Ge tried to bargain the little for us, but the
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  Speaker 1: women were so smiling and so sure we didn't know
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  Speaker 1: anything about it or what the current price of the
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  Speaker 1: fish was, that we had not much success. The trawlers
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  Speaker 1: are gradually taking away all the trade from the old
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  Speaker 1: fashioned fishing boats. They go faster, carry more and larger nets,
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  Speaker 1: and are of course stronger sea boats. They're not much
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  Speaker 1: more expensive, They burn cold of an inferior quality, and
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  Speaker 1: their machinery is of the simplest description. There is not
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  Speaker 1: the loss of life with them that there must be
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  Speaker 1: always with the smaller sailing boats. Newfoundland is the most
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  Speaker 1: dangerous fishing ground, as the men have so much to
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: contend with the passing of Transatlantic liners and the cold,
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: thick fogs which come up off the banks. All of
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: them prefer the Iceland and fishing the cold is greater,
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  Speaker 1: but there is much less fog and very few big
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  Speaker 1: boats to be met en route. Few of the Boulogne
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  Speaker 1: boats go to Newfoundland. It is generally the boats from
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  Speaker 1: Fecon and some of the Breton ports that monopolize the
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  Speaker 1: fishing off the banks. It seems that men often die
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  Speaker 1: from the cold and exposure in these waters. From the
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  Speaker 1: old fashioned sailing boats, they usually send them off two
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  Speaker 1: by two in a dory. They don't fish from the
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: big boats. They start early, fish all day. If no
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: fog comes up, they're all right and get back to
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: their boats at dark. But if a sudden fog comes on,
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  Speaker 1: they often can't find their boats and remain out all
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: night half frozen. One night they can stand, but two
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: nights cold and exposure are always fatal. When the fog lifts.
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: The little boat is sometimes quite close to the big one,
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  Speaker 1: but the men are dead frozen. Monsieur de Gae tells
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  Speaker 1: us all sorts of terrible experiences that he has heard
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: from his men, and yet they all, like the life,
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: wouldn't lead any other and have the greatest contempt for
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: a landsman. There is a fruit stall at the corner
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: of our street where we stop every morning and buy
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: fruit on our way down to the beach. We have
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  Speaker 1: become most intimate with the two women who were there,
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  Speaker 1: one a young one with small children about the age
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  Speaker 1: of hours, to whom she often gives grapes or cherries
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  Speaker 1: when they pass, and the other a little, old, wrinkled,
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: brown faced grandmother who sits all day in all weathers
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: under an awning maid of an old sail and helps
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  Speaker 1: her daughter. She has very bright eyes and looks as
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: keen and businesslike as the young woman. She told us
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: the other day. She had forty grand children. All the
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: males men and boys, sailors and fishermen and mush. Many
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: of the girls fishwives, and the mothers married to fishermen
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: or sailors. I ask their why some of them hadn't
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: tried to do something else. There were so many things
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  Speaker 1: people could do in these days to earn their living
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  Speaker 1: without leading such a rough life. She was quite astonished
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  Speaker 1: at my suggestion, replied that they had lived on the
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: sea all their lives and never thought of doing anything else.
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  Speaker 1: Her own husband had been a fisherman, belonged to one
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: of the Iceland boats. When three or four times a
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: year regularly didn't come back one year, no tidings ever
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  Speaker 1: came of ship or crew, it was God's will, and
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  Speaker 1: when his time came, he had to go, whether in
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  Speaker 1: his bed or on his boat. And she brought up
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  Speaker 1: all her sons to be sailors or fishermen, and when
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: two were lost at sea, except at that too, as
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  Speaker 1: part of our lot. Only said it was hard sometimes
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  Speaker 1: for the poor women when the winter storms came, and
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: the wind was howling, and the waves thundering on the beach,
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  Speaker 1: and they thought of their men. Monon she always called
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  Speaker 1: her husband when speaking of him, wet and cold, battling
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  Speaker 1: for their lives. I talked to her often, and the
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: words of the old song, But men must work, and
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: women must weep, though storms be sudden and waters deep,
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: and the harbor bar be moaning for the floating boy
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: at the end of the jetty makes a continuous, dull,
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: melancholy sound. When the sea is at all rough, and
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: when it is foggy, the channel fogs come up very quickly.
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: We hear fog horns all around us, and quite distinctly
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: the big Sihan of Capkrene, which sends out its long
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: wailing note over the sea. It is very powerful and
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: is at a long distance. The shops on the quay
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: are an unfailing source of interest to me. I make
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: a tour there every morning before I go down to
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: the beach. They have such a wonderful variety of things.
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: Shells of all sizes, enormous pink ones like those I
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: always remember standing on the mantelpiece in the nursery at home,
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: brought back by a sailor brother who used to tell
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: us to put them to our ears, and we would
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: hear the noise of the sea, and beautiful delicate little
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: mother of pearl shells that are almost jewels, wonderful frames,
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: boxes and pincushions made of shells, big spoons too, with
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: a figure or a ship painted on them. Knives, penholders,
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: paper cutters, and brooches made out of bones of big fish,
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: tassels of bright colored seaweed, corals, vanilla beans curiously worked
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: to leather belts, some roughly carved ivory crosses, umbrella handles,
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: canes of every description, pipes, long gold earrings, parrots, little
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: birds with bright colored feathers, monkeys, an extraordinary collection. I'm
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: sure one would find many curious specimens if one could
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: penetrate into the back of the old shops and pull
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: the things about. Evidently sailors from all parts of the
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: world have passed at Boulogne. Still I don't hear many
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: foreign languages spoken, almost always French and English. Occasionally a
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: dark face with bright black eyes strikes one. We saw
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: two Italians the other day talking and gesticulating hard shivering too,
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: with woolen comforters tied over their caps. There was a
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: cold fog and we were all wrapped up. It must
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: be awful weather for Southerners, who only live when the
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: sun shines and go to bed when it is cold
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: and gray. There are all sorts of itinerants, Petti maschon
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: on the other side of the quay, looking on the water,
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: old women with fruit and cakes, children with crabs and shrimps,
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: dolls in Boulognese costume, fishwives and mattelote stalls with every
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: description of food tea, coffee, chocolate, sandwiches and fried potatoes.
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: The children bought some potatoes the other day, wrapped up
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: in brown paper, quite a big portion for two soups,
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: and said they were very good. The quet are very broad, happily,
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: for everything is put there. One morning there were quantities
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: of barrels. I asked what was in them? Salt? They
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: told me for the herring boats which are starting these days. Nets,
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: coils of ropes, big sails, baskets, boxes, odd bits of iron,
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: some anchors. One is rather to pick one's way. An
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: automobile has been standing there for three or four days.
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: I asked if that was going to Iceland on a trawler,
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: but the man answered quite simply, oh, no, madame. What
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: should we do with an automobile and a fishing boat.
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: It belongs to the owner of one of the ships,
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: and has been here unpouned, waiting till he can have
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: it repared. We went one evening to the casino to
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: see a bad de matteot. It was a curious sight,
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: a band playing on a raised stand a broad space
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: cleared all round it, and lots of people dancing. The
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: great feature, of course, was the mattei drot. Their costumes
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: were very effective. They all wore short, very full skirts,
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: different colored jackets, short with a belt, very good stout
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: shoes and stockings, and their white frilled caps. They always
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: danced together, very rarely with a man. It is not
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: a tiquit for them to dance with any man when
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: their husbands or lovers are at sea, their hands on
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: each other's shoulders. They dance perfectly well and keep excellent time,
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: and I suppose enjoy themselves. But they look very solemn,
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: going round and round until the music stops. Their feet
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: and ankles are usually small. I heard an explanation the
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: other day of their dark skins, clean cut features, and
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: small feet. They are of Portuguese origin. The first foreign
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: sailors who came to France were Portuguese. Many of them
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: remained married French girls, and that account for that peculiar
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: type in their descendants, which is very different from the
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: look of the French women in general. There are one
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: or two villages in Brittany where the women have the
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: same coloring and features, and their also Portuguese sailors had
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: remained un married, and one still hears some Portuguese names
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: Jose Manuel. Among the women, some annunziatas, Carmelos, etcetera. We
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: had a house in Brittany one summer, and our kitchen
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: maid was called Dolores and of Section eighteen