The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-09 00:00:00

LIFE AT BIARRITZ.

(From the Times' Correspondent.)

BIARRITZ, Sept. 5.

The Empress and the Prince Imperial arrived here
at 2 o'clock on Monday morning last. This early
hour was chosen probably to spare the authorities
the trouble of a formal reception, of addresses, and
processions of young girls dressed in white strewing
flowers and presenting bouquets. The three tri-
umphal arches,—one at the railroad terminus of St.
Esprit, whi;;tt as a faubourg of Bayonne is now at-
tached to the Department of the Basses Pyrenees,
the other at the village of Anglet, where the road
turns off to Biarritz, and the third at its entrance,
close to the Imperial residence, or as it is now called
the Villa Eugenie,—were barely completed. All
other display was dispensed with. The Mayor's
proclamation, while informing the good people
of Biarritz of the Empress's approaching visit,
recommended them to refrain from any noisy de-
monstrations of loyalty, and otherwise to respect
the retirement and repose of the august visitors,
The Empress fee's nowhere more at home and more
Sndependent in her movements than in this long,
familiar spot. In every other place, whether at
Fontainebleau, St. Cloud, or Compiegne, a certain
degree of etiquette is observed which interferes
more or less with freedom of action. At Biarritz it
is not so. Their Majesties come hither to seek re-
pose, though not absolute solitude, and they live and
move about pretty much as any of the people they
see about them. You meet them any morning or
evening walking about the streets, or strolling
along the beach or on the slopes. Everybody treats
them with respect, and nobody intrudes upon them.
For the Empress it is her place of predilection. She
frequented it in times gone by, when she certainly
did not dream that she should one day wear the
crown of France. Not a pass, a ruin, a glen, or a
streamlet which is not familiar to her, and the
pleasure with which she revisits them as Empress of
the French is not less lively than when she knew
them as simple Eugenie Montijo. The morning
after her arrival she might be seen, accompanied by
one or two attendants, walking about the town, or
on the beach between the Imperial residence and
the Port Vieux, the favourite resort of bathers. The
villa is nearly at the water's edge, and stands on a
terrace the.base of which at high tides is beaten by
the sea. A very few years ago the piece of land at-
tached to it was but a sandy plain. It is now covered
with verdure and shrubs ; is enclosed by wooden
palisades, and is irrigated by means of small canals,
which are fed from an artificial lake at a short dis-
tance. Biarritz itself, from an insignificant village
some five-and-twenty years since, is become a re-
spectable town, and is every year growing larger.
its lodging houses, hotels, and restaurants are good,
and the prices by no means extravagant. You have
the casino, with its coffee room, and its terrace
where yon eat your ice, sip your coffee, smoke
your cigar, read, loiter, or converse, while
on breathe an atmosphere which is health
itself ; or the theatre, with Levassor or some
other Parisian favourite every night. You
stroll through streets thronged with English,
French, and Spaniards in every variety of cos-
tume, and all affording a scene of animation which
cannot be surpassed anywhere. As it is just now
the height of the season, Biarritz is crowded, and
every day brings new visitors ; and where they all
find room it is not easy to imagine. The carriages
which ply between Bayonne and Biarritz keep up
a perpetual movement. Spacious and handsome ;
chars-a-bane, with accommodation for twenty per-
sons, omnibuses, with six insides and six out-
sides; D srrigrand's diligence 3 and neat caleehes, all
admirably horsed, are available at moderate prices.
B izaars displaying shawls,silks, rauslins, babouches,
Turkish pipes, and whet in case of need passes for
Latakia tobacco, reading rooms, gymnastics, the
Spanish hawker with his blue velvet jacket orna-
mented with silver filigree buttons, his red sash round
his waist, his head bound with a yellow silk handker-
chief, broad-shouldered, deep-chested, and carrying
his immense pack of soft goods as lightly as if it were
a cushion of down ; with a smile, a salute, and a com-
pliment for old and young,handsome and ill favoured,
gentle and simple—in Spanish or Basque, French or
Gascon—for it is all the same to him—are all at hand
to minister to your taste. Juan Perez has not, it is
true, made much progress in English. Whether he
adopts Figaro's theory as to the root of the language
I know not, but I suspect he is of opinion that
" How do you do ?" and " Good bye" will enable
him to faceevery emergency.
If you are of a romantic turn, the Chamber
d'Amour, with its touching legends, the curious
cavern of Ustarits, the picturesque Cambo, Roland's
Pass, the secluded valley of Itsatsou, Hasparren,
Fontarabir, whose echoes repeated the doleful blast
of the wild horn which announced to Charlemagne
the death of his hero in Roncesvalles, the crags of
San Marcial, with its votive chapel and ever burn-
ing lamp, commemorating the triumph of the
Spanish army over the French during the great
war of independence, the Nivelle, the Nive, the
Adour—all are near at hand.

There is another spot of a different character
about half-an hour's drive, and which few quit this
part of the country without visiting. I a:lude to
the establishment known as the Refuge, which is di.
rected by the religious community, the " Servantes
de Marie," and that of the Bernardines, at a short
advance from it, both in the commune of Anglet.
The pleasant and picturesque village of Anglet
stands close to the route from Bayonne to the
Spanish frontier, at the angle where that of Biarritz
begins. It is halfway between both towns. It was
on the heights of Anglet that the English division
was posted which commanded the high road to
Spain during the preparations for creasing the
Adour, and the blockade of Bayonne, in 1814.
Its name occurs several times in the military de-
spatches of the period. On the sandy plain between
Anglet and Biarritz the Refuge has arisen,as it were,
by magic, by the energy of a single man. Some
five and twenty years ago the Abbe Cestac, whose
name has long since gained a well-merited celebrity
throughout the Pyrenees, founded at Bayonne,
to the Cathedral of which he was attached, an
orphan asylum, the direction of which he confided
t
tethe sisterhood known as the Servants of Mary.
t.
comprehensive benevolence was not content with
this,
tee opened a home for the unfortunate class
c". 7°'al
a desire to
outcasts of society, who mani-
fested to abanc n their evil ways, and he
placed
therußordeaux an,aunder the tele of Mlles repenties, at
Toulouse i:lhouses belonging to the
orphan asylum,
In 1839 he bought out of his own
resources,
in th
withie most secluded
tioe help from his family, a spot of
ground
secluded part of the plain be-
tween Anglet and tiarri.tz. On this he built straw
huts, and aided by hie
hood of the Servants Bouiter, who joined the sister.
their superior, under thet
eaNary' and soon became
„ivrnorkof Sister Magdalene,
soil, and obtained the
the Abbe Cestac set to
moat on the ungrateful
goodsiuccessful results.
While engaged in this
made the mark for every sir
His acts
sarcasm,
he was
were ascribed by scoffers to.the worst ea.oti
and,
even by those who knew his singieniindetivne:;
purity, to an overweening vanity, or to 11 fass
ns_
ticism. He persisted through good report and:,
report, never turning aside from his object,
and
never once desponding. Not a garret, or a cellar,
where he knew that vice or misery lurked within
the sphere of his ministry, but he visited. In little
more than two years from its foundation the Refuge
of Anglet sheltered near 200 young women rescued
from vice, and lodged, fed, clothed, and taught to
work. The Refuge now consists of 550, includ-
ing " Servants of Mary" and "Repenties."
The
cells are built of stone, but the straw hut
which was the first habitation on the sands
is still preserved. Every sort of neddie work
is now done there, from the finest embroidery
to the coarsest garments used by the peasants; and
a marriage trousseau, valued it some hundreds of
pounds, was completed last week. Certain articles
of carpentry work are done by the sisterhood. Their
farmhouse is well stocked with Breton eery, s,poultry,
and pigs; they dairy is excellent, the butter is in
great repute in the neighbourhood, and from this
last article alone the Community received during the
past year about £l5O. No member of the Commu-
nity remains unemployed for a single moment of the '
day. Those who are not employed inmanual labour
ate engaged in teaching the poor children of the