The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1928-06-08

at PAbbaye aux Hommes, and VISA
Wis IAbbaye aux Danes, like the queeni
who builded it, sits on a throne.
1t is at Bayeux, though, that one
feels nearer that queen, Mathilde.j
Gray, dim Bayeux, old even then,
when the Conqueror's queen was writ
ing history with her needle. The first
of the great French realists, she seems
in the naive sincerity of those old
tapestries, which truly are an epic.
Fine P%ercherons Are Many.
Between towns in Normandy one Is
struck by the fine percherOns. Along
the smooth, white roads they pass in
sturdy line, with that majestic dig
nifty only possible to thoroughbreds,
whether horses or humans. Their
notified launches and polished coats
CLEAN like mother-o'-pearl, and their
liquid eyes speak volumes to n who
loves them.
Then Dives-Dives, with its inn of
the %cOnquering William, where Madame
de Sevigne really left her patch-box,
and one almost fancies the OdOr of
rose leaves behind her, where the cook
beats eggs in old Caen bowls that the
china collector greedily gazes on, and
where the exquisite tapestries ought
to be put under glass. A chateau it
was, built for the C%onqueror while his
boats were building that he crossed
to England in, and owe the door are
still the arms of an old seigneur who
married into the house of Savoy.
Dives port, now nearly chOked with
sand, was once a great haven. There
Williams fleet, assembled for the con-
quest of England, lay a whole month
awaiting the favorable winds which
never came until they had changed
their position to Saint Valery.
Between Rouen and Havre is the
pretty town of Caudebec, with quaint
timbered houses and it's broad terrace
beside the river. On a market day, in
the Grande Place in front Of the
church, is to be seen one of the few
Old-time sights Of Normandy, the grand
old church and the place itself con-
tributing their share in the ensemble.
But the traveller who would see this
specimen of an old Norman town,
wearing still it's mellow and pictur-
esque charm, must hasten thither with
out delay. 4
Wonderful Mont Saint Michel.
Mont Saint Michel, with it's de-
tached air, appears as though man and
nature united in their work to build
a masterpiece. Its one struggling
street, that begins in the gateway of
a king and ends-ah, that is the point.
Where does it end? Three times did
the vision of Saint Michel appear to
Saint ALBERT, commanding a church.
on the rocky heights. Hence rose that
marvel of early Norman architecture,
with its tombs of saints and heroes
and brothers of kings, its Black Vir-
gin, its Sale DIES Chevaliers with SUM-
lit aisles, its cloisters and exquisite
colonadeS. AS one thinks of the his
tory that has peOpled this pinnacled
hill, emotions, impressions, and ensa-
lions crowd the mind, and surely the
faintest Imagination can fill the struc-
ture with the kingly shapes and
knightly shadows of the Hundred
Years war.
Trouville, Deauville, Dieppe-in a
short sketch of Normandy, those gay
bathing places, those doubles ex-
traits de Paris" must be omitted. They
are Vatican in the Twentieth century,
though, and the salon of a casino in
the height of the season is an ami
mated and diverting scene.
In Normandy the artist may find
cOngenial occupation and the Oppor-
tunity, so difficult in these days, Of
sketching picturesque types-grOups at
the market place, groups at the inn
doors, horses in clumsy harness, goats
and sheep in Biblical melange. He will
find doors and porches of so good a pat
tern and so old that they are new to
the world Of today. One may learn
the value of variety in it's simplest
forms and realize the artistic worth
of high-pitched roofs and contrasts in
color, if it be only of dark beams
against plaster, and Of meaning in the
lines of construction. But these treas
ures of Normandy are disappearing
fast and must be quickly gathered.
In all the fair Normandy coast, each
year more and more is there a disap-
pointing note. One looks almost In
vain for the old Normandy costumes;
the blouse and the close white cap
are all that are left now Of the Won
drous headgear, the short ~petticoats,
the embroidered stomacher, the Caen
and Rouen jewels of a generation ago.
undermining destruction is rapidly
plotting out the memory of old days!