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

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  Speaker 1: Section seventeen of Chateau 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: LibriVox dot org. Recording by Alex Foster www dot Alex
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  Speaker 1: Foster dot me dot Duque. Chateau and Country Life in
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  Speaker 1: France by Mary King Waddington, Chapter ten, Norman Chateau. We
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  Speaker 1: never remained all summer at our place. August was a
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  Speaker 1: disagreeable month there. The woods were full of horse flies,
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  Speaker 1: which made riding impossible. No nets could keep them off
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  Speaker 1: the horses, who were almost maddened by the sting. They
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  Speaker 1: were so persistent that we had to take them off
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  Speaker 1: with a sharp stick. They stuck like leeches. We generally
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  Speaker 1: went to the sea, almost always to the Norman coast,
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  Speaker 1: establishing ourselves in a villa, sometimes at do'u Ville, sometimes
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  Speaker 1: at Villere, and making excursions all over the country. Some
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  Speaker 1: of the old Norman chateau are charming, particularly those which
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  Speaker 1: have remained just as the they were before the revolution,
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  Speaker 1: but of course there are not many of these. When
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  Speaker 1: the young ones succeed, there is always a tendency to
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  Speaker 1: modify and change, and is not easy to mix the elaborate,
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  Speaker 1: luxurious furniture of our times with the stiff, old fashioned
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  Speaker 1: chairs and sofas one finds in the old French houses.
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  Speaker 1: Merely to look at them one understands why our grandfathers
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  Speaker 1: and grandmothers always sat upright. One of the most interesting
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  Speaker 1: of the Norman chateau is Abondon, in the department of
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  Speaker 1: the Urre Loire, belonging until very recently to the Valembrosa family.
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  Speaker 1: It belonged originally to Ladouches de Torselle, guvarnand de senfand
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  Speaker 1: de France, children of Luisse and Marie Antoinette. After the
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  Speaker 1: imprisonment of the royal family, Madame de Torselle retired to
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  Speaker 1: her chateau d'a Bondon and remained there all through the revolution.
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  Speaker 1: The village people and peasants a daughter, and she lived
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  Speaker 1: there peacefully through all those terrible days. Neither chateau nor
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  Speaker 1: park was damaged in any way, although she was known
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  Speaker 1: to be a devoted friend and adherent of the unfortunate
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  Speaker 1: royal family. A band of half drunken pains tried to
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  Speaker 1: force their way into the park one day with the
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  Speaker 1: intention of cutting down the trees and pillaging the chateau,
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  Speaker 1: but all the villages instantly assembled, armed with pitchforks, rusty
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  Speaker 1: old guns and stones, and dispersed the rabble. Abondon is
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  Speaker 1: a Louis Cal's chateau, very large. Seventeen rooms are facade,
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  Speaker 1: but simple in its architecture. The Duchess occupied a large
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  Speaker 1: corner room on the ground floor, with four windows, the ceiling,
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  Speaker 1: which was very high and walls covered with twel degouis.
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  Speaker 1: An enormous bed a baldacin was trimmed with the same twile,
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  Speaker 1: and each post had a great bunch of white feathers
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  Speaker 1: on top. In eighteen eighty six, when one of my
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  Speaker 1: friends were staying at Abondon, the hangings were the same
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  Speaker 1: which had been there all through the revolution. She told
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  Speaker 1: me she had never been so miserable as the first
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  Speaker 1: time she stayed at the chateau. During the lifetime of
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  Speaker 1: the late Duchesse de Vallenboza. They gave her the Duchesse
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  Speaker 1: de Tourzelle's room, thinking it would interest her as a
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  Speaker 1: chambre historique. She was already nervous at sleeping alone on
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  Speaker 1: the ground floor, far from all the other inmates of
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  Speaker 1: the chateau. The room was enormous, walls nearly five meters high.
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  Speaker 1: The bed looked like an island in the midst of space.
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  Speaker 1: There was very little furniture, and the white feathers on
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  Speaker 1: the bed posts nodded and waved in the dim light.
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  Speaker 1: She scarcely closed her eyes, could not reason with herself,
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  Speaker 1: and asked the next morning to have something less magnificent
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  Speaker 1: and more modern in all the bedrooms. The dressing tables
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  Speaker 1: were covered with dantees de boche of the epoch note Bouche,
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  Speaker 1: name of a village in Belgium where the lace is
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  Speaker 1: made end of note. And all the mirrors and various
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  Speaker 1: little boxes for powder rouge patches, and the hundred accessories
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  Speaker 1: for a fine lady's toilette in those days were in
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  Speaker 1: Vernie Martin absolutely intact. The drawing rooms still had their
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  Speaker 1: old sink hangings, a white ground covered with wreaths of
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  Speaker 1: flowers and birds with wonderful bright plumage, hand painted framed
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  Speaker 1: in wood of two shades of light green. The big
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  Speaker 1: drawing room was entirely paneled in wood of the same
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  Speaker 1: light green. Most beautifully and delicately carved. These old boiserie
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  Speaker 1: were all removed when the chateau was sold. After the
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  Speaker 1: death of the Duches de Torseelles, the chateau went to
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  Speaker 1: her niece, the Duchesse de Carches, who left it to
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  Speaker 1: her niece, the Duches de Varrambrosa. A very rare instance
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  Speaker 1: in France of a property descending directly through several generations
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  Speaker 1: in the female line. It was sold by the Varrambrosa.
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  Speaker 1: The old wood panels are in the Paris house of
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  Speaker 1: a member of that family. The park was very large
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  Speaker 1: and beautifully laid out, with the fine trees one seas
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  Speaker 1: all over Normandy. Twenty years ago a seald spectacle en
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  Speaker 1: Verdeure still existed in the park. The seats were all
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  Speaker 1: in grass. The Coulis side scenes made in the trees
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  Speaker 1: of the park, their boughs cut and trained into shape
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  Speaker 1: to represent green walls, a marble group of allegorical figures
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  Speaker 1: at the back. It was most carefully preserved. The seats
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  Speaker 1: of the amphitheater looked like green velvet, and the trees
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  Speaker 1: were always cut in the same curious shapes. It seemed
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  Speaker 1: quite a fitting part of the fine old place, with
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  Speaker 1: its memories of past fete and splendors. Before the whirl
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  Speaker 1: wind of liberty and equality swept over the country. Many
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  Speaker 1: of the chateau are changing hands. The majirat aunt ai
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  Speaker 1: doesn't exist in France, and as the fortunes must always
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  Speaker 1: be divided among the children, it becomes more and more
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  Speaker 1: difficult to keep up the large places. Life gets dearer
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  Speaker 1: every day, fortunes don't increase. Very few young frenchmen of
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  Speaker 1: the upper classes do anything. The only way of keeping
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  Speaker 1: up the big places is by making a rich marriage
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  Speaker 1: the daughter of a rich banker or industrial or an American.
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  Speaker 1: Our cousins, Conte Contes Jill have a pretty old place,
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  Speaker 1: not very far from Ville sur Mer, where we went
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  Speaker 1: sometimes for sea bathing. The house is an ordinary square
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  Speaker 1: white stone building, a fine terrace with a flight of
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  Speaker 1: steps leading down to the garden on one side. The
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  Speaker 1: park is delightful, many splendid old trees. Until a few
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  Speaker 1: years ago there were still some that dated since Louis Catars,
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  Speaker 1: the last one of that age, a fine oak with
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  Speaker 1: wide spreading branches, died about two years ago. But they
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  Speaker 1: cannot make up their minds to cut it down. I
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  Speaker 1: advise them to leave the trunk standing. I think by
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  Speaker 1: degrees the branches will fall, as they are quite dead.
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  Speaker 1: Cover it with ivy or a vine of some kind,
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  Speaker 1: and put a notice on it of the age of
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  Speaker 1: the tree. The house stands high, and they have splendid views.
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  Speaker 1: On one side from the terrace, a great expanse of
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  Speaker 1: green valley looking towards Valaise. On the other the sea,
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  Speaker 1: a beautiful blue summer sea. When we were there the
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  Speaker 1: other day we went over from Villere to breakfast. It
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  Speaker 1: was late in the season, the end of September, one
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  Speaker 1: of those bright days one sometimes has in September, when
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  Speaker 1: summer still lingers and the sun gives beautiful mellow tints
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  Speaker 1: to everything without being strong enough to make one feel
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  Speaker 1: the heat. The road was lovely all the way, particularly
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  Speaker 1: after we turned off the high road at the top
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  Speaker 1: of the Houlgate Hill. We went through countless little Norman lanes,
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  Speaker 1: quite narrow, sometimes between the high green banks with a
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  Speaker 1: hedge on the top, and the trees meeting over our heads,
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  Speaker 1: so narrow that I wondered what would happen if we
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  Speaker 1: met another auto left the sea behind us and plunged
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  Speaker 1: into the lovely green valley that runs along the back
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  Speaker 1: of the coast line. We came suddenly on the gates
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  Speaker 1: of the chateau, rather a sharp turn. There was a
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  Speaker 1: broad avenue with fine trees leading up to the house.
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  Speaker 1: On one side meadows fenced off with white wooden palings
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  Speaker 1: where the horses and cows were grazing, a pretty lawn
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  Speaker 1: before the house with beds of pegonias, and all along
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  Speaker 1: the front high raised borders of red geranium, which looked
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  Speaker 1: very well against the greystone. We found a family party,
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  Speaker 1: Comte and Comtesdi, their daughter and a governess. We went
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  Speaker 1: upstairs a nice wooden staircase with broad, shallow steps, to
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  Speaker 1: an end room with a beautiful view over the park,
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  Speaker 1: where we got out of all the wraps, veils and
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  Speaker 1: glasses that one must have in an open auto if
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  Speaker 1: one wishes to look respectable when one arrives, and went
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  Speaker 1: down once to the hall where the family was waiting.
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  Speaker 1: The dining room was large and light, high wide windows
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  Speaker 1: and beautiful trees wherever one looked. The decoration of the
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  Speaker 1: room was rather curious. The des descend, like many Norman
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  Speaker 1: family from William the Conqueror, and there are English coats
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  Speaker 1: of arms on some of the shields on the walls,
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  Speaker 1: a band which looks like fresco but really is painted
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  Speaker 1: on linen, very cleverly arranged with some composition that makes
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  Speaker 1: it look like the wall runs straight around the room,
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  Speaker 1: with all sorts of curious figures soldiers, horses, and boats
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  Speaker 1: copied exactly from the famous bayoutapestries. The most striking episodes
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  Speaker 1: the departure of the conqueror from d'v the embarkation of
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  Speaker 1: his army, the cavalry, most extraordinarily long, queer shaped horses
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  Speaker 1: with faces like people, the death of Harold, the fighting
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  Speaker 1: Bishop Udou, brother of the conqueror, who couldn't carry a
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  Speaker 1: lance but had a good stout stick, which apparently did
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  Speaker 1: good service as various saxons were flying horizontally through the
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  Speaker 1: air as he and his steed advanced. One wonders at
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  Speaker 1: the imagination which could have produced such extraordinary figures. Has
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  Speaker 1: certainly no men or beasts at any period of time
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  Speaker 1: could have looked like those. The ships were less striking,
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  Speaker 1: had rather more semblance of boats. However, the effect with
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  Speaker 1: all the bright colouring is very good and quite in
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  Speaker 1: harmony with this part of the country, where everything teems
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  Speaker 1: with legends and traditions, of the Great Duke. They see
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  Speaker 1: Feles where he was born from their terrace. Sometimes we didn't,
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  Speaker 1: for though the day was beautiful, there was slight haze
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  Speaker 1: which made the far off landscapes only a blue line.
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  Speaker 1: After breakfast we went for a walk in the park.
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  Speaker 1: They have arranged it very well, with rustic bridges and
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  Speaker 1: seats wherever the view was particularly fine. We saw a
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  Speaker 1: nice old red brick house near the farm, which was
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  Speaker 1: the manoir where the dowager Countess lives now. She made
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  Speaker 1: over the chateau to her son in her lifetime, on
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  Speaker 1: condition that he would keep it up and arrange it,
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  Speaker 1: which he has done very well. We made the tour
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  Speaker 1: of the park, passing a pretty lodge with roses and
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  Speaker 1: creepers all over it, and Marie put upon a sign.
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  Speaker 1: D is mayor of his little village and finds it
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  Speaker 1: convenient to have the Mary at his own gate. We
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  Speaker 1: rested a little in the drawing room before going back,
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  Speaker 1: and he showed us various portraits and miniatures of his family,
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  Speaker 1: which were most interesting. Some of the miniatures are exactly
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  Speaker 1: like one we had have a father of that period,
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  Speaker 1: with the high stock and tight buttoned coat. The light
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  Speaker 1: was lovely, so soft and warm in the drawing room,
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  Speaker 1: and as there were no lace curtains or vitrages, and
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  Speaker 1: the silk curtains were drawn back from the high plate
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  Speaker 1: glass windows, we seemed to be sitting in the park
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  Speaker 1: under the trees. They gave us tea and the good
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  Speaker 1: little cakes. Saint Pierre, a sort of sables for which
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  Speaker 1: all the coast is famous. The drive home was enchanting,
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  Speaker 1: with a lovely view from the top of the hill,
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  Speaker 1: a beautiful blue sea at our feet. In the turrets
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  Speaker 1: and pointed roofs of the ville houses, taking every possible
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  Speaker 1: color from the sunset clouds. We went back once more
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  Speaker 1: to a te d'arsan given for her seventeen year old daughter.
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  Speaker 1: It was a lovely afternoon and the place looked charming,
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  Speaker 1: the gates open, carriages and autos arriving in every direction.
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  Speaker 1: People came from a great distance, as with the autos,
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  Speaker 1: no one hesitates to undertake a drive of a hundred kilometers.
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  Speaker 1: The young people danced in the drawing room. Madame Yll
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  Speaker 1: had taken out all the furniture, and the parents and
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  Speaker 1: older people sat about on the terrace, where there were
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  Speaker 1: plenty of seats and little tea tables. The dining room,
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  Speaker 1: with an abundant buffet, was always full. One arrived at
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  Speaker 1: a fine appetite after whirling for two or three hours
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  Speaker 1: through the keen salt airs. The girls all look charming.
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  Speaker 1: The white dresses, bright sashes and big picture hats are
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  Speaker 1: so becoming. They were dancing hard when we left about
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  Speaker 1: half past six, and it was a pretty sight as
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  Speaker 1: we looked back from the gates, long lines of sunlight
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  Speaker 1: wavering over the grass, figures in white flittering through the trees,
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  Speaker 1: distant strains of music, and what was less agreeable, the
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  Speaker 1: strident sound of a sirenne on some of the autos.
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  Speaker 1: They are detestable things. We were very comfortable at Villere,
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  Speaker 1: in a nice clean house looking on the sea, with
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  Speaker 1: broad balconies at every story, where we put sofas and
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  Speaker 1: tables and green blinds, using them as extra salon. We
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  Speaker 1: were never in the house except to eat and sleep.
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  Speaker 1: Nothing is more characteristic of the French, particularly in the bourgeoisie,
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  Speaker 1: than the thorough way in which they'd do their month
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  Speaker 1: at the sea shore. They generally come for the month
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: of all August holidays have begun, and business of all
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  Speaker 1: kinds is slack. Our plage was really a curiosity. There
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  Speaker 1: is a splendid stretch of sand beach. At low tide,
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  Speaker 1: one can walk by the shore to Torrville or Uhlgate
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  Speaker 1: on a perfectly firm, dry sand. There are hundreds of
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  Speaker 1: cabins and tents striped red and white and umbrellas on
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  Speaker 1: the beach, and all day long whole families sit there.
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  Speaker 1: They all bathe, and a curious fashion at villere is
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  Speaker 1: that you put on your bathing dress in your own
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  Speaker 1: house over that of penwar, generally of red and white
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  Speaker 1: striped cotton, and walk quite calmly through the streets to
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  Speaker 1: the eteblisment. Some of the ladies and gentlemen of mature
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  Speaker 1: years are not to their advantage when they can, if
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  Speaker 1: they have houses with a terrace or garden, they take
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  Speaker 1: their meals outside, and as soon as they have breakfasted
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  Speaker 1: start again for the beach. When it is low tide,
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  Speaker 1: they go shrimp fishing or walk about in the shallow
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  Speaker 1: water looking for shells and seaweed. When it is high tide,
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  Speaker 1: all sit at the door of their tents, sewing and
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  Speaker 1: reading or talking. I mean, of course, the petit bo
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  Speaker 1: rasi at other places on the coast, Dourville or Oolgate,
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  Speaker 1: the life is like Newport or Dinarch or any other
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  Speaker 1: fashionable sea side place. With automobiles, dinners, dressing, et cetera.
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  Speaker 1: They get all of the sea air and out of
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  Speaker 1: door life that they can crowd into. One month, one
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  Speaker 1: lady said to me, one day I can't bathe, but
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  Speaker 1: I take a bound there. Every day I sit on
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  Speaker 1: the rocks as far out in the water as I can.
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  Speaker 1: I take off my hat and my shoes and stockings.
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  Speaker 1: There is a great clearing out always by the first
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  Speaker 1: of September, and then the place was enchanting, bright, beautiful
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  Speaker 1: September days one could still bathe the sun was so strong,
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  Speaker 1: and the afternoons, with just a little chill in the air,
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  Speaker 1: were delightful for walking and driving. There was a pretty
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  Speaker 1: Norman farm just over the plage at the top of
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  Speaker 1: the Ferleise, where we sometimes went for tea. They gave
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  Speaker 1: us very good tea, milk and cider, and excellent bread
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  Speaker 1: and butter and cheese. We sat out of doors in
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  Speaker 1: an apple orchard at the little tables. All of the
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  Speaker 1: beasts of the establishment in the same field, the chickens
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  Speaker 1: and sheeps surrounded us were evidently accustomed to being fed,
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  Speaker 1: but the horses, cows and calves kept quite to the
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  Speaker 1: other end. We saw the girls milking the cows, which
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  Speaker 1: of course interest the children immensely. We made some charming
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  Speaker 1: excursions in the auto. Went once Saturday to Contes, such
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  Speaker 1: a pretty road through little smiling villages, every house with
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  Speaker 1: a garden, or if too close together to allow that,
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: there were pots of geraniums, the falling kind in the windows,
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  Speaker 1: which made a red curtain dropping down over the walls.
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  Speaker 1: We stopped at Lisieure, a quaint old Norman town with
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  Speaker 1: a fine cathedral and curious houses with gables and towers.
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  Speaker 1: One street most picturesque, very narrow, with wooden houses, their
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: projecting roofs coming so far over the street one could
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  Speaker 1: hardly see the sky. In some places there were all
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  Speaker 1: kinds of balconies and cornieces, most elaborately carved. The woods
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  Speaker 1: so dark one could scarcely distinguish the original figures and devices.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: But some of them were extraordinary dragons and enormous winged animals.
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: We did not linger very long, as we were in
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  Speaker 1: our new auto. A Martini hill climber built in Switzerland,
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: and of course, like all automobilists, were anxious to make
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  Speaker 1: as fast a run as possible between Villere and Kont.
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: The approach to Kant is not particularly interesting. The country
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  Speaker 1: is flat, the road running through poplar bordered fields. One
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  Speaker 1: does not see it at all until one gets quite near,
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  Speaker 1: and then suddenly beautiful towers and steeples seem to rise
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  Speaker 1: out of the green meadows. It was Saturday market day
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  Speaker 1: and the town was crowded every description. A vehicle in
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  Speaker 1: the main street and before the hotel, two enormous sixty
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  Speaker 1: horse power Mercedes, farmers gigs and donkey cart with cheeses
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  Speaker 1: and butter. A couple generally inside, the man with his
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  Speaker 1: blue smock and broad brimmed hat, the woman with a high, clean,
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  Speaker 1: stiff starched muslin cap, a knit shawl over her shoulders.
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  Speaker 1: They were not in the least discomposed by the bustle,
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  Speaker 1: and the automobiles never thought of getting out of the way,
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  Speaker 1: jogged comfortably on keeping to their side of the road.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: We left the auto at the hotel and found many
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  Speaker 1: others in the courtyard and various friends. The De's had
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  Speaker 1: come over from Grongeu their place. He is Corseil General
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: of Calvados, and market day in a provincial town is
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  Speaker 1: an excellent occasion for seeing one's electors. There were also
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  Speaker 1: some friends on Truvill d'O vill, most of them in auto's,
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  Speaker 1: some in like carriages. We had tried to make a
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  Speaker 1: rendezvoufety at the famous Pettitier who sends his cakes and
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  Speaker 1: bonbon over half the department, but that was not very practical,
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: as they had all finished what they had to do
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: and we had not even begun our sight seeing. However,
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  Speaker 1: Ye told us he would leave our names at the
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: tea room, a sort of club they have established over
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  Speaker 1: at the Petititier, where we would be quieter and better
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  Speaker 1: served than in the shop, which would certainly be crowded.
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  Speaker 1: On Saturday afternoon, we walked about till we were dead tired.
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: Saint Pierre is a fine old Norman church with beautiful
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: tower and steeple. It stands fairly well in the place
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: Saint Pierre, but the houses are much too near. It
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: should have more space around it. There was a market
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: going on on the other side of the square, fruit
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: big apples and pears, flowers and fish being heaped up together.
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: The apples looked tempting, such bright red ones. We went
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: to the two Abbe, both of them quite beautiful. Saint
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: Etienne Abbeozam was built by William the Conqueror, who was
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: originally buried there. It is very grand, quite simple, but
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: splendid proportions, a fitting resting place for the great soldier, who, however,
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: was not allowed to sleep his last sleep undisturbed in
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: the city he loved so well. His tomb was desecrated
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: several times, and his remains lost in the work of destruction.
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: We went on to the Abbe or Dam, which is
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: very different, smaller, not nearly so simple. The facade is
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: very fine, with two square towers, most elaborately carved. The
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: steeples have long since disappeared, and there are richly ornamented
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: galleries and balustrades in the interior of the church, not
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: at all the high solemn vaulted isles of the Abbe Jozams.
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: It was founded by Queen Matilde, wife of William the Conqueror,
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: and she is buried there a perfectly simple tomb with
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: an inscription in Latin. There was at one time a
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: very handsome monument, but it was destroyed, like so many
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: others during the revolution, and the remains placed some years
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: after in the stone coffin where they now rest. We
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: hadn't time to see them. Many interesting things in the
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: churches and in the town, as it was getting late
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: and we wanted some tea before we started back. We
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: found our way to the Petitier quite easily, but certainly
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: couldn't have had any tea if d had not told
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: us to use his name and ask for the club room.
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: The little shop was crowded, people standing and making frantic
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: dashes into the kitchen for chocolate and muffins. The club
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: room upstairs was quite nice, painted white, a good glass
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: so that we could arrange our hair, a little one
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: or two tables, and we were attended to at once.
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: They brought us the speciality of the place, light hot
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: breoche with grated ham inside, very good and very indigestible.
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: We went home by a different road, but it looked
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: just like the other. Fewer little hamlets perhaps, and great
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: pasture fields filled with fine specimens of Norman dray horses
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: and mares, with long legged colts running alongside of them.
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: It was late when we got home. The lighthouses of
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: Rentfleur and Avres made a long golden streak stretching far
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: out to sea, and the great turning flashlight of Saint
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: Ares was quite dazzling. We went back over the same
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: ground two or three days later on our way to Bayeux.
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: The town is not particularly interesting, but the cathedral is
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: beautiful and in wonderful preservation. The columns are very grand,
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: every capital exquisitely carved, and no two alike. Our guide,
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: a very talkative person, unlike the generality of Norman peasants
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: who are usually taciturn, was very anxious to show us
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: each column in detail and explain all the really beautiful carving.
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: But we were rather hurried as some of the party
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: were going to launch at barbie Ville. Comte Foil Chateau.
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: On the same place as the cathedral is the Hotel
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: de Ville, with the wonderful tapestries worked by Queen Matilde,
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: wife of William the Conqueror. They are really most extraordinary
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: and so well preserved. The colors look as if they
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: had been painted yesterday. I hadn't seen them for years
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: and had forgotten the curious shapes and vivid coloring. We
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: went to one of the lace shops, the Bayeux. Lace
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: is very pretty, made with the fuseau very fine, a
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: mixture of Valenciennes and Mechlin. It is very strong. Though
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: it looks delicate. The Dantellier still do a very good business.
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: The little girls begin to work as soon as they
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: can thread their needle and follow a simple pattern. The
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: Fs enjoyed their day at barbe Vill Contefoy's chateau very much.
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: They said. The house was nothing remarkable, a large square building,
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: but the park was original. Contefois is a racing man,
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: breeds horses and has his are on this place. The
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: park is all cut up into paddackx, each one separated
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: from the other by a hedge, and all connected by
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: green paths. F said the effect from the terrace was
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: quite charming. One saw nothing but grass and hedges, and
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: young horses and colts running about. Contesse Fois and her
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: daughters were making lace. The girls went into Bayou three
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: or four times a week and took lessons from one
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: of the Danteliers. End of section ten. Recording by Alex
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: Foster in Nottingham, England. Www dot Alex Foster dot me
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: dot uk.