The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1873-09-19
Arcachon.
A French Watering Place.


This is n favorite watering-place for
the French in summer, and in winter is
much resorted 10 by invalids from the
British isles Doctors consider the res
inous exhalations from the pines won.
derfully healing in lung and bronchial
difficulties. Arcachon is the PdtOis
word for resin. The peasants live most
ly by making turpentine; and for miles
around the village the trees are gashed,
and an earthen vessel fastened on 20 re-
ceiv5 the gum as il ooZes from the wood.
There was a settlement here in very an
cient times called La Teste de Buch,
from the head or chief of the tribe OF
Boians, that at one time inhabited this
part of the country. Three times IL was
overwhelmed by the sand, and afterward
rebuilt. In the time of the first Napo-
leon, who, it would seem, found time to
attend to every thing, small as well as
great. an engineer called Bremontier
was sent by the emperor 10 plant these
sandy dunes with pine trees, IN order 10
keen off the inroads of the sea. So sue
cessful was he, that we have now an eX-
tensive and beautiful forest and Hour
ishing town. A monument TO Bremon-
tier is to be seen in the midst of the for
est, and the finest chalet II the town ls
called after him. The principal building
one sees on leaving the depot ~ the
huge Casino, an imitation of the Moor
ish Alhambra. It struck me ms rather
caricature of IL. as il is painted in such
gorgeous colors as to look like a house
built of cards, face-side out. However,
the inhabitants view il with great pride.
IL contains fine theatre, bathrooms,
readinp-rooms and library. It is situn-
ted in the forest, and is the centreo the
Winter-town, or Vile d'Hiver, as Is
called the collection of pretty, romantic
looking Swiss chalets, which are dotted
in among the odorous pines. All these
houses are owned by a company IN Pans,
whose agent lives in one of them, and
attends to letting them, collecting rent,
etc. In the Casino garden the flowers
bloom, and the grass is green all winter,
although snow and ice are not quiet un-
known in the sunny south of France. In
fact. one has a winter of six weeks that
is sufficiently disagreeableand quite cold
enough to make one wish for New York
furnaces but, once that is past, the
weather is quite heavenly, and Febru-
ary as balmy as MAY in these latitudes.
Looking down from the Casino, you see,
at the base of the hills, the Vile d'Ete,
or Summer-town, which runs for miles
along the sea. The private residences
are very elegant. and front on the basin
of Arcachon. as the inlet is called their
gardens opening on the main street IN
the rear. Many French noblemen have
country houses here, the Baron Talley-
rand for one. The rest of the village ~
made up of such queer little houses, not
old and quaint, but all looking like CHI
nese pagodas, and painted pink. blue, or
yellow, as the fancy OF the owner has
suggested, and finished of with red-hled
roofs. One owner of eccentric tastes
had spent, / was told, ten Thousand
francs for three enormous gold balls that
surmounted his house. In his absence
il was rented toan English lady, q irlend
of mine, who was always known IN the
village as "Madame of the Golden
Balls" English names were never at
tempted by the good people, VINO
| thought il quite enough 10 call you ny
/ the name Of the house you occupied
/ The company, in naming the chniets'
| seem to have been anxious 10 conclllate
/ all natious, as we saw there villas Hum
/ boldt, Franklin, Shakespeare, and 80 on
ad yibfhfT7. The cheapest and most sol
itarv cottage on the list was approprl-
atelv called Villa Robinson Crusoe.
There was still, Irocollect, however, one
that surpassed Robinson in cheapness.
IL consisted Of one room, had no VIII
dows at all, and was rightly named ' illa
Solitaire. II was quite good enough
dare say, for any one so crusty asto WISH
TO live alone. Arcachon rs famous iol
its oysters. fish, and game, which are ev
erv day shipped 10 Paris in large quan
titles. The basin is connected by mar
row inlet with the bay of Biscay, th'
roar of whose waters is distinctly hear'
; from the village. The strip OF lan'
which lies between the inlet the tur
buIent Atlantic is called the Isle de
/ Oiseaux, from the great number OF Wild
. ducks which make IL their resort. I'ei
| lighthouse is situated on its extremes
v point. One day we went down 10 1t 1
, n Yacht. and then, crossing the narro
I tongue of sand, stood on the shore
/ the bay of Biscay. How the wind roared
s and the great waves came tumbling n
y and the shore was strewed, not with vi
{ brigbt-colorpd shells we had hoped
find. but with cuttle-fsh bones, and ugl
!, hits of wreck. At the sea-ward end
n the village there is erected, onthe shor'
s n huge iron cross. Tradition will hay
!, IL that a monk, walking on the shore
d prayerful meditation, found there 80
o tue of the Virgin Mary, and erected th
e cross TO commemorate what he consl'
s cred miracle Once every year, on u
y feast of st. Peter, the bay presents
n lively scene, of which this spot is Il
y centre. Hundreds of fishermen con
b from far and near the shore IL line
n with boats, whose gay pennants strea
y in the wind. At "A signal all lneel, an,
2, from the foot of the c oss, blessing
e pronounced by the cure upon ther
IS their wives and children, their boats m
e their nets.-dDDLCtLn Journal.