Evening star., 1927-05-14
THE LIBRARY TABLE
By The BOokloper

DourE, inside whose granite uAhe, oui
mounted by forts. we have come 10
system of quays, basins, tracks. steam
and electric cranes. and warehouses.
the premier Atlantic port of France.
Herbert Adams Gibbons in his book,
Ports of France" shows that there
are many other ports, IL not larger
and buster, at least more interesting
In atmosphere and historical associ-
alton. He gives a chapter to each OF
these two chief Atlantic ports, as well
as to Marseilles, the first of all French
ports. Cherbourg, the penlsula tnat
juts north into the English Channei,
with it's hinterland, is fascinating
corner Of Normandy, and we can
recommend without hesitation every
thing that lies in the triangle of Caen,
Mont-Saint. Michel and Cherbourg." ;"
The Booklover, having spent q vaca-
ton on this peninsula, entirely agrees
with Mr.. Gibbons. lie Havre, the
terminus Of the French steamship line,
the Compagnie Generate Transatlan-
tique, is really lie Havre de Paris,
on the especial port Of Paris. Mr..
Gibbons commends it, not for its
beauty, but for its convenience and its
commercial activity, as 1t Is the great
cotton port Of France and the coffee
mart of Europe. Marseilles, though
an Occidental Algiers or Port Said
Is Enthusiastically French. not less
French than other great cities, not
less Meridional than other sections Of
the Midi" 1t "can receive so stean1-
ers q day, and is always overcrowded.
You can go from sunrise to sunset
OF a Summer day, on foot along the
mole and quays, climbing to the fiat
roofs of warehouses. darting in and
out OF basins in the. rowboat you
have preferred to motor boat, look
ing down on the seven dry docks, one
Of which takes the biggest ships OF
the Mediterranean, and still feel that
you have not done the port"
Mr.. Gibbons unstintedly and at the
very beginning sings the praises OF
Pornic, on the marshes OF Brittany.
the oldest port of France. though ne
ventures a guess that few have ever
heard of it. There it was that he
wrote his book, in a kitchen trans
formed into. a study, in the Villa
Marie Therese, overlooking the Bale.
de Bourgneuf and the long lie de
Noirmoutier. which forms a natural
breakwater for the bay. Dunkirk, on
the Channel, he admires spiritually De-
cause it held out through the four
years of the World War, France s
alert sentinel on the north, that barred
the German road, to the Straits of
Dover and made it impossi-
BILE for the Germans to boast that
their surprise attack had resulted In
the capture of a single port OF
France" Anglicized Boulogne, only
three hours from London. Is the port
of France through which most tourists
c7f aY
France is by Dieppe, the deep port of
Normandy" for there the chalk cliffs,
the .falaises', of song and story, are
seen at their best. The two ports OF
Harfieur and Honfieur. on either side
of the Seine near it's mouth, both
almost suburbs of Havre, were in
former days strongholdS of the first
rank. ''They stood with their backs
against hills, impregnable so long as
their fleets controlled the sea-" st.
Malo. once the starting point for Bre-
ton privateers, is port for only little
craft, because .'the tides along the
coast of France between the Norman
and Breton peninsulas are the most
violent in. Europe" and make the
port inaccessible for large steamers;
but mo place In France is pusier
when the Newfoundland fleet is being
fitted out and when 1T returns with
the seasons CATCH OF all the French
Atlantic ports, the naval port OF Brest
alone enjoys 1.-The advantage OF ada-
uuate natural protection. combined
with deep water and generous space Tor.
DEVELOPMENT" The other ports must
continually spend large sums on
dredging, dikes, and breakwaters. IN
one wear the Americans landed nearly
two million troops at Brest, from forty
to fifty thousand a day, without
single accident and with virtually no
delay" Other interesting. ports Oh
France described by Mr.. Gibbons are
Dives and Caen, ports OF Wiiiiam tne
Conoueror: the tiny Breton hshlng
port OF Pont-Cro Douarnenez, home
Of the sardine; Nantes and st. Nazaire,
uorts of the Loire; Sables d'Olonne,
the old port of the Vendee; La
Rochelle and Rochefort, the latter
few miles inland from the Atlantic,
bordeaux, on an estuary about ~
miles from the sea; Bayonne and Fort
Vendres, in the Basses Pyrenees:
Cette, on the Gulf of Lyons, ana
Toulon. the chief naval port of France
ON the Mediterranean.
One Of the foremost of the cider
poets of France. Jean Richepln, dled
in December, 1926. He was a member
of the French Academy and had sue
ceeded in fiction, drama, short story
writing and journalism, as well as In
poetry. Born in. 1S49, he had seen
of century of chang
ing literary traditions in France and
had himself always mingled romanti-
cism and realism in his work. His
fayorite poetic subjects We're the sea
and vagabondia. His best known
poems are the "Chansons de Gueux"
fSongs of the Beggers). Another col
lection is called LES Blasphemes.
One of his important novels is La
CLIQUE" and some of his dramas are
"Nana- -Sahib," Monsieur Scapin,"
q F'ilibustier." Par le Glaive" and
"Vers la Joie'' Jean Eichepin was
such a lover of the sea that he bought
an island off the Breton coast, near
the fishing harbor of Douarnenez, and
built himself simple Summer home
at the waters edge. The island is
to have been the scene OF
parts of "Tristan and Isolde" and to
have been the site of the castle of the
King of Cornwall.
i
Another French novelist of prom
inence, member of the French Acad-
emy, who has recently published a
new novel. is Edouard Estaunie.
Born in 1862, and by training an en-
gineer, M. Estaunie has for some
years devoted himself almost entirely
to letters. His latest novel, Tells
qu'ils Furent" tSuch as They Were).
is study of the French bourgeoisie
of former times, preceding and follow
ing the Revolution, now almost a
type of the past. The ideals and
scruples of the bourgeois family in
the story. the Doublets. seem rather
unwise and Quixotic today, but are
doubtless true enough to the period
presented. Some of Edouard Estau-
MES earlier novels are "L'Empreinte"
(The Stamp, la Vie Secrete" (The
Secret Life). 'L'Appel de la Route
(The Cali of the Road. and LES