France -- Description and travel; France -- Social life and customs
much prettier: it was more like England; we even saw a few flocks of
sheep, but they did not seem to get much: in one place they were eating
the earth. As we were walking up the hill an old woman came to beg;
the driver offered her a card of an inn, which he told her was a Bank
of England note: she did not, however, take it, but turned away. There
were several crucifixes in the villages and at the side of the road.
The women about here had generally short petticoats, and _very_ high
caps. The babies were wrapped up in swaddling-clothes, like mummies. We
stopt at Louviers. The inn was very poor and shabby. The mistress had
on a curious cap with long muslin lappets. While dinner was preparing
we walked through the town. We went into a curious old cathedral, where
were several figures with candles burning before them, and some Virgins
dressed with little veils, artificial flowers, etc. There were a great
many people kneeling down and repeating prayers. We went into a shop
to look for some caps, but they asked a great deal for the commonest,
so we did not buy them. The women here all wore the high caps. There
was one little boy with long flaxen hair, and the lady who was with him
took off his velvet cap to shew us his hair. On our way home we saw
the same man and boys dancing upon stilts that I had seen at Paris:
there was a great crowd round them, and a woman went about collecting
money, saying, 'Encouragez la petite famille.' When we reached the inn
dinner had been ready some time. As soon as we had dined we continued
our journey. We passed Pont Large in going out of the town. The country
was beautiful, and we had another view of the Seine; they were making
hay on one of the islands. Our eyes were quite refreshed by seeing two
or three green fields _hedged_ in, with a few cows feeding in them.
Certainly if any person wished to have a pleasant impression of France
they ought to come this way: it is beyond comparison prettier than the
Calais road; the banks of the Seine are so beautiful. Near Rouen there
is a chalk rock and several caverns with people living in them; and we
had another beautiful view of the river. It was dark when we reached
Rouen. It is an old, ugly town, but there appeared to be some good
shops. We stopped at the Custom-house (there were a number of ships
near it): they did not examine our trunks, but sent a person on to
the inn with us. We went to the Hôtel de Normandie, which was all in
confusion; the father of the people there was _just_ dead: their mother
had been dead two years. When papa and mamma asked what we could have
for dinner, they said anything; after it was ordered, however, they
brought in only very few of the things and said the table d'hôte had
eaten it all: and then they brought in two raw pigeons and asked if we
would like to have them dressed. One of the hotel servants had been at
Brighton, and she said she was very sorry to leave England, and was
going to try to get there again. She spoke English tolerably.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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