Although artists have painted the church, the river, and the old streets and waterway for years, there are still many of the most appealing aspects of the place that seem to remain outside the attainments of the painters and sketchers who reveal the results of their work there. There is one particular old street of houses, with romantic frontages on one side rising from the green water of a narrow canal, which is not easy to forget. Not only are the greens and greys and reds and ochres a delight to the eye, and the detail of the windows, overhanging eaves, and timber framing of the walls and gables particularly attractive, but one also gets peeps into interiors, where one can see old folk seated by windows with faces and curious black headgears such as Holbein and Rembrandt painted. Even Lisieux cannot eclipse Caudebec in the completeness of its antique streets, for here there have been few attempts to hide the picturesque timber fronts with stucco, and there are half a dozen narrow streets by the church where the buildings, with the passage of the centuries, have let their time-worn gables nod towards one another until the strip of sky that the builders left has been appreciably narrowed. Then, in wandering through these ancient ways one is suddenly confronted with a wealth of the most delicately carved stone, and looking up, one sees the exquisitely graceful tower of the church, with its profusion of ornament and its crocketed and coroneted spire rising above. The western entrance is often open, so that the passer-by may see the lacelike ornament of the doorway thrown out against the velvet blackness [Illustration: CAUDEBEC-EN-CAUX. One of the most picturesque towns in Normandy.] of the interior, a darkness relieved by the brilliant fifteenth and sixteenth century stained glass of the Flamboyant windows. Henri IV., when he stayed at Caudebec, said that the town had _la plus jolie chapelle que j’ai jamais vue_, but added that the jewel was badly set. The building was commenced in 1426, and in 1484 Guillaume Le Tellier, the master mason, died, and was buried in the Lady-chapel of the glorious building he had created. There existed in the sixteenth century an island in the Seine opposite Caudebec, and it is stated by Mrs. Macquoid that there were ‘three beautiful churches’ on it until the _mascaret_, a tidal bore, which at certain full moons in the spring and autumn equinoxes comes up the river with tremendous force, swept the whole island away. By 1641 the island had appeared again, but the _mascaret_ again demolished it. The wall of water that rushes up the narrowing river-mouth varies from 6 to 12 feet in height, and its force is sufficient to dislodge and carry away great stones. Caudebec began its existence as a fishing village under the control of the Abbey of St. Wandrille, and, with its convenient quay, soon grew prosperous. When Henry V. besieged the town, it held out for six months.