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VII - ETRETAT

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 August 2010

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Summary

The coast of Normandy and Picardy, from Trouville to Boulogne, is a chain of stations balnéaires, each with its particular claim to patronage. The grounds of the claim are in some cases not especially obvious ; but they are generally found to reside in the fact that if one's spirits, on arriving, are low, so also are the prices. There are the places that are dear and brilliant, like Trouville and Dieppe, and places that are cheap and dreary, like Fécamp and Cabourg. Then there are the places that are both cheap and pleasant. This delightful combination of qualities may be found at the modest plage from which I write these lines. At Etretat you may enjoy some of the finest cliff-scenery it has been my fortune to behold, and you may breakfast and dine at the principal hotel for the sum of five and a half francs a day. You may engage a room in the town over the butcher's, the baker's, the cobbler's, at a rate that will depend upon your talent for driving a bargain, but that in no case will be exorbitant. Add to this that there are no other opportunities at Etretat to spend money. You wear old clothes, you walk about in canvas shoes, you deck your head with a fisherman's cap (when made of white flannel these articles may be extolled for their coolness, convenience, and picturesqueness), you lie on the pebbly strand most of the day, watching the cliffs, the waves, and the bathers; in the evening you converse with your acquaintance on the terrace of the Casino, and you keep monkish hours.

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Portraits of Places , pp. 139 - 147
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2009
First published in: 1883

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  • ETRETAT
  • Henry James
  • Book: Portraits of Places
  • Online publication: 29 August 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511693809.008
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  • ETRETAT
  • Henry James
  • Book: Portraits of Places
  • Online publication: 29 August 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511693809.008
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • ETRETAT
  • Henry James
  • Book: Portraits of Places
  • Online publication: 29 August 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511693809.008
Available formats
×