White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1933-04-27
Normandy Dons
Festival Attire
Creets Spring With Quaint Age
Old Ceremonies.


y NORMANDY is planning for APP
nj pie blossom time. Like Win
u chester, in the Valley of Vir-
ginia. and other great apple
growing regions of America, Nor
mandy fares forth in festival attire
when the buds of it's famous apple
trees burst in the spring.
Although the French are largely
wine-imbibing people, the natives of
Normandy drink apple cider. There,
YOU can't eat meal without cider,
you can't be born without cider and
you can't get married or die without
cider. The old duchy, Slightly smaller
than the state of Maryland, is one
huge orchard.
Even "When it's apple blossom time
in Normandy" however, the duchy has
many world-famous spots that also
attract the attention of the traveller
Rouen, Deauville, Cherbourg, Havre,
Bayeux, Honfleur, Dieppe, Falaise,
Alencon.
Mortimer swooping down, raiding,
destroying, but finally settling on the
land and giving it softened form of
their name; stalwart son of duke and
tanners daughter crossing the chan
mel to make world history at Hastings;
Norman dukes reigning in England;
the king of the English reigning in
Normandy. Armored knights clanking
about, in London, Sicily, Naples, at the
tomb of Christ. The Maid burnt at
the stake. Daring sons of Normandy
roaming the seas to fish, to explore
and colonize unknown lands, from
Newfoundland to the Antarctic, to the
South Seas around the world. Nor
mans building lordly castles, chateaux,
cathedrals, and abbeys of distinctive
norman architecture" painting pic
lures, writing poetry, plays, and novels
of enduring fame. Poussin and Millet,
Pierre Corneille, Alain Charter and
Malherbe, Flaubert, De Maupassant,
and others Norman galaxy.
Normandy does more than sit
around and dream of the long ago.
Through Havre, second seaport of
France; through Cherbourg, it saw
some of the legions pass to the west
ern front. 1t has greeted kings and
queens, admirals and generals, and
heard the roar of cannon salutes, the
hum of sky craft. Through these
ports today pass travellers from the
western world, and professions of con-
suls, agents, buyers, statesmen, anbas-
sailors of commerce of every kind
hunters all, seeming the romance and
adventure in foreign trade, in anything
from anchovies to antiques.
Dress designers, looking to Paris for
the first and last -werd on fashions
send "scouts" to the golden beaches
of Deauville and it's less aristocrat tic
vis-a-vis, Trouville. Here, where the
beau monde disports itself in season
beneath gaily striped tents, at the ca.
sinos, along the promenades, and at
the races, the gods and goddesses of
style display their latest creations on
beautiful women.
Back from white chalk cliffs and
sandy beaches stretches a green and
pleasant land of winding streams, fer
tile grain fields and pastures, hedge
AONS, VI NAAANSs WO1A-ACpL LA 1uos anu
villages of matched cottages. There
are hills and dales and glens, forests
and waterfalls, and the typically Nor
man long, straight roads.
Famous for Cattle.
And cows! Innulnerable herds spot
the lush meadows everywhere, but es-
pecially in the Contentin, the PENN
sula which points toward England. 1t
has given it's name to a Norman breed
of cattle famous for beef, but more
so for milk production. Paris drinks
Normandy's milk and cream, and both
London and Paris eat it's fresh but
ter and cheese -Camembert, Neuf-
chatel, Pont L'Eveque-with histories
as distinguished as the duchy's own.
In one field men in blue snocks are
loading hay into carts drawn by pom,
derOus horses. They're percherons %
exclaims the horse lover from the Mid
die West. "My Indiana neighbor used
to import carloads Of them. Don't
they remind you of Rosa Bonhenr's
Horse Fair?' AS matter of fact,
most of her models for that picture
were percherons."
Another Normandy product is it's
patois; ones school book French will
not serve here. In the daily common
speech one authority has counted some
5000 words which are foreign to
French.
On an early visit to England, the
future Conqueror found Normans ev-
erywhere. There were Norman prel
ates in the bishoprics, Norman lords
and soldiers in the fortresses, Norman
captains and sailors in the seaports."
The Conquest itself affected every
phase of Engands national activities,
especially it's political and social in.
situations. One writer has called at.
tenti0n to the fact that for more than
800 years the British parliament has
used Norman French when imploring