OCR Text |
Show Normandy Dons Festival Attire Greets Spring With Quaint Age-Old Ceremonies. Prepared by National Geographic Society. Washington. D. C. WXU Service. NORMANDY Is planning for apple ap-ple blossom time. Like Winchester, Win-chester, in the Valley of Virginia, Vir-ginia, and other great apple-grow-, ing regions of America, Normandy fares forth in festive attire when the buds of its famous apple trees burst in the spring. Although the French are largely a wine-imbibing people, the natives of Normandy drink apple cider. There, you can't eat a 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 traveler Rouen, Deauville, Cherbourg, Cher-bourg, Havre, Bayeux, Honfleur, Dieppe, Falaise, Alencon. Northmen swooping down, raiding, destroying, but finally settling on the land and giving it a softened form of their name; stalwart son of duke and tanner's daughter crossing the channel 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 that this Is the land of William the Conqueror lies in the fair-haired Scandinavian types which persist to-this to-this day in various districts. As to the origin of the Norman'sj Inclination to "hedge" on every question, let historians argue asj they will, but it Is a fact that onei must usually labor hard to extract a-plain a-plain yes or no from him. "Was the apple crop large this year?" you ask. His classic reply Is: "Well, for a good apple year, it is not too good ; but for a bad apple year, it is not too bad !" The tendency to avail himself of subtle distinctions may account for the Norman's reputation as a somewhat some-what grasping character, and the fondness for legal forms and lawsuits law-suits has earned him and his fellows the title of "the lawyers of France." Natural Curiosity. Thirty miles southwest of Vire, as the crow flies, on the border between be-tween Normandy and Brittany, towers tow-ers the duchy's most imposing natural nat-ural curiosity and its finest coastal monument of the Middle ages stupendous stu-pendous Mont Saint Michel. It Is a granite islet 3,000 feet in circumference, circum-ference, girt with Immense walls and towers, plastered with houses climbing up its sides, and the whole crowned with an ancient abbey, ab-bey, shrine of the Archangel Michael, Mich-ael, saint of high places. Lovers of the antique find in its historical associations, in the grandeur of its outward aspect, an appeal and a fascination similar to those of Carcassonna East of Vire Is Falaise, where Robert the Devil, the Magnificent, looked out of the castle window and saw Arlette, the tanner's daughter. ft V ' Norman Women Astroll. 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. Normans building lordly castles, chateaux, cathedrals, and abbeys of distinctive "Norman architecture," painting pictures, writing poetry, plays, and novels of enduring fame. Poussin and Millet, Pierre Cornellle, Alain Chartier and Malherbe, Flaubert, Flau-bert, De Maupassant, and others a 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 western front. It has greeted kings and queens, admirals and generals, and heard the roar of cannon salutes, sa-lutes, the hum of sky craft. Through these ports today pass travelers from the western world, and processions pro-cessions of consuls, agents, buyers, salesmen, ambassador of commerce of every kind hunters all, scenting the romance and adventure in foreign for-eign trade, in anything from anchovies an-chovies to antiques. Dress designers, looking to Paris for the first and last word on fash-Ions, fash-Ions, send "scouts" to the golden beaches of Deauville and Its less aristocratic vis-a-vis, Trouville. Here, where the beau monde disports dis-ports itself in season beneath gaily striped tents, at the casinos, along the promenades, and at the races, the gods and goddesses of style display dis-play their latest creations on beautiful beau-tiful women. Back from the white chalk cliffs and' sandy beaches stretches a green and pleasant land of winding wind-ing streams, fertile grain fields and pastures, hedgerows, orchards, well-kept well-kept farms, ah'd villages of thatched cottages. There are hills, and dales and glens, forests and waterfalls, and the typically Norman long, straight roads. Famous for Cattle. And cows ! Innumerable herds spot the lush meadows everywhere, but especially in the Contentin, the peninsula which points toward England. Eng-land. It has given Its name to a Norman breed of cattle famous for beef, but more so for milk production. produc-tion. Paris drinks Normandy's milk and cream, and both London and Paris eat Its fresh butter and cheese Camembert, Neufchatel, Pont L'Eveque with histories as distinguished distin-guished as the duchy's own. In one field men in blue smocks .are loading hay Into carts drawn by ponderous horses. "They are perche-rons perche-rons I" exclaims the horse lover from the Middle West. "My Indiana neighbor used to Import carloads of them. Don't they remind you of Rosa Bonheur's 'Horse Fair?' As a matter of fact, most of her models mod-els for that picture were perche-rons." perche-rons." ' Another Normandy product Is Its patois; one's school book French will not serve here. In the daily common speech one authority has counted some 5,000 words which are foreign to French. On an early visit to England, the future Conqueror found Normans everywhere. There were "Norman prelates in the bishoprics, Norman lords and soldiers In the fortresses, Norman captains and sailors Ij the seaports." The Conquest Itself affected af-fected every phase of England's national na-tional activities, especially Its political po-litical and social Institutions. One writer has called attention to the fact that for more than S00 years the British parliament has used Norman French when Imploring the king to approve or reject its laws. Though the old Norse laniurige died out quickly In Normandy, it left tokens of its Scandinavian i origin In such place names as Dieppe, "deep"; In IJorfletir and Barfiour, fieur. the Norse fliot, meaning mean-ing "small river"; In Yvetot, Ivo's "toft" or "iDclosure." Another proof Another story goes that he first saw her washing clothes at the fountain foun-tain one day when he was returning return-ing from the chase. However, It was, her "pretty feet twinkling In the brook" led to her becoming the mother of the Conqueror. North of Falaise is Caen, a Norman Nor-man Athens and unrivaled center for the study of Norman art. Here the Normans' extraordinary faculty for adaptation appears at its best. Though they invented little that was new, they adopted from other countries, coun-tries, developed and Improved. French language and literature, French feudal doctrines, and Romanesque Roman-esque architecture in particular bear the stamp of their genius. In Norman Nor-man hands this architectural form from northern Italy became a distinctive, dis-tinctive, living thing, marked by great size, simplicity, and masslve-ness masslve-ness and love of geometric ornament. orna-ment. The two abbeys founded here by the Conqueror and his wife are superb examples of the architecture which preceded the rise of the early Gothic in the Thirteenth century, and which also crossed the channel even before the Conqueror. The Conqueror was buried In one of these abbeys, and Matilda, his cousin-wife, in the other. What a courtship was William's I A seven-year siege of Matilda's hand, disdain from the lady, slights not to be endured, and finally a wrathy lover rushing into Matilda's presence, seizing her by the hair, dragging her about the room, striking strik-ing her, flinging her to the floor. After that she said yes I Gathered His Hosts. Still farther north is Dives. Here in those stirring days of 1000, the future victor at Hastings gathered together "an Innumerable host of horsemen, slingers, and foot soldiers," sol-diers," wild, adventurous spirits, the war strength of northern Europe, eager for the battle over the sea. In the river's mouth lay some 700 ships. The largbst could hold fifty knights with all their horses and men; the smallest boats were not even decked over, and were loaded to'the gunwales with stores and provisions, pro-visions, Including small grinding mills for the grain. For pictorial history of the Con-quost. Con-quost. go to Bayeux and look at the 58 scenes embroidered on linen the famous Bayeux tapestry. Prob- i ably no other fabric anywhere In the world surpasses it in Interest and importance. Crude though it is It design, and partly defaced, It nevertheless recreates a momentous period in the world history. But all Norman roads lead to Rouen at last. Rouen, "Gothic Queen of France" and the duchy's ancient capital, where "each monument monu-ment Is a hook, each stone a souvenir." sou-venir." Yet, more than architecture, architec-ture, more than antiquities, Joan of Arc is the strongest lure; forlloueff Is her town, saturated with glorioui and tragic memories of her. Hei spirit still hovers over the marked , place where, condemned for "haw I ing fallen hack Into the error3," 6he went to fiery martyrdom. ' |