Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1882-10-11
The French at the Sea.

Berck, ID point OF health, is the Margate
of France, and the bracing wind of the
north sweeps over the sea TO its coast. So
well known Is it as a hesith resort that
two great hospitals have been built for II
valid children and are always full of con
valescent patients. But except these hos
pitals and lighthouse that flashes from
time to time a weiri light along the dunes
the hotels and the villas are the place.
There are one or two general shops which
DO roaring business in necesssres. and q
very shy trade IN boxes made of shells and
framed seaweeds ard other feeble efforts
at fancy wares on the sea coast. The viii
las are for the regular visitors who come
year after year from Lille and Abbevllle
and Amiens; the hotels are for the stran-
gers. L: is so pleasant TO drop into place
where British sovereign IS treated as
doubtful coin, snd British half crown
will not be taken on any terms. Inc lit
tie place has escaped tourist agencies. 1t
Is new life to an Englishman to come to
this place, and it is cheap life. Six or
seven francs day is the hotel accommo-
datIon tout compris. and the only other
thing upon which you can spend money
is the hire of donkey and the purchase
of bathing costume. Nobody wants
. box made OF sea sheIls-it can be bought
at the Lowther Arcade; but if YOU do not
bathc you have little else to do, and If you
do, cslecons are de rlgueur, At five IN
the morning you are wakened up by the
Boots and his confreres digging the sand
from the doorway and making egress into
the roadway possible. For the wIad blow
ing in from the north over The crests of
the waves catches the sand, which drifts
in till the lItt-e place is buried ID IL as if
in a snow storm. At seven or eight not a
cup, but cuvette of coffee, with yard
of bread and great lump of butter, is
served IN your room, and as you look fIom
your window the stretch OF sand is cover
ed with chiLlren and women, all in the
brightest and gayest and airiest of bathing
costumes, and great corpulent papas, in
black and orange striped drawers, very
much resembling wasps IN coior, but not
st all waspish in the waist. A saturnlne
guardian of the peace, in a cooked hat and
with an almost feminine waist, with q ig
ure like v,oloncello case on stilts, con-
templates the scene severely and seems on
the lookout for anything, from q suicide TO
a cigar; otherwise, the whole 20 Julation Is
in the water and sand, aHd color and plea
sure are all at their highest pitch. At
nine the ba.hers are strollng homeward,
and an hour or two afterwards that dejeuner
q la fourcheite, such a puzzle 10 the dlges-
tion of the true orn Briton, Is in full and
unbroken swing. Sleep seems then 10 de-
scend on the little village and but fo- the
solitsry gendarme, the sands are as deser-
ted as the desert.
But al one the place wakes up. The
LADIES assume costumes Little less severe
than that OF the morning, and French taste
asserts itself In thousand varieties. They
flock about IN little coytys along the sands,
supplied with the llghiest of French 7ov-
els, from which they seriously abstain
while they talk gossip in shrill accents.
After all, The English by the sea do very
much the same. a picturesque French
man In white flannel, with as much cachet
about 1t as If 1t was a lady's tea-gown,
comes up to the solitary EnglIshman and
courteOusly invites him TO join HIM In
game called lie cricket, and adds by way of
explanation that 1t is a game much played
IL the universities Of Oxford. The Eng
ishman goes and finds family group
father, mother, two pretty girls, two
children and dog-playing croquet on
the sands. Nothing can be warmer than
his reception, except the sunshine, or
stranger thar this innocent; old fashioned
game, now no longer played ''in the uni
versIties of Oxford.' BesiGes the picnic
there is the chasSe auI nloUettes, or hunt
ing of the gulls, performed every afternoon
with the most astonishing want OF success
on the part of the practiced sportsman. In
the evening there are dancing ahd round
games, and gossip and Irritation, and moon
light walks along the gray sands, while the
phare overhead flashes its light out TO
sea. The Englishman who visits such
scene comes back with no small admiration
for people whose seaside pleasures are so
innocent and so genuine We so to Nor
way and to Algiers and 10 Russia for nov
city, because we ind the Continent 80
overrun ana so dear Here is place five
hours distant from Boulogne. where
scarcely an Eng plishman has ever beer, and
II Is hut one OF dozen similar places on
The neIghboring northern coast.