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Normandy Picturesque by Henry Blackburn
page 121 of 171 (70%)

In the country districts the habits of the peasant class are the only
ones that a traveller has any opportunity of observing; of the upper
classes he will see nothing, and of their domestic life obtain no idea
whatever. It is not to be accomplished, _en passant_, in Normandy, any
more than in Vienna. In the inns, the company at the public table
consists almost invariably of French commercial travellers, and the two
English ladies whom we meet with everywhere, travelling together. There
is hardly an hotel in Normandy, excepting, of course, at the
watering-places (of which we shall speak in the last chapter), that
would be considered well appointed, according to modern notions of
comfort and convenience. Ladies travelling alone would certainly find
themselves better accommodated in Switzerland or in the Pyrenees;
excepting in the matter of expense, for Normandy is still one of the
cheapest parts of Europe to travel in--the Russians and Americans not
having yet come.

We meet, as we have said, but few French people above the farming and
commercial class; our fellow-travellers being generally 'unprotected'
Englishwomen who may be seen in summer-time at the various railway
stations--fighting their way to the front in the battle of the
'_bagages_,' and speaking French to the officials with a grammatical
fervour, and energy, which is wonderful to contemplate[56]--taking their
places on the top of a diligence, amongst fowls and cheeses, with the
heroic self sacrifice that would be required to mount a barricade; in
short, placing themselves continually (and unnecessarily, it must be
admitted) in positions inconsistent with English notions of propriety,
and exposing themselves, for pleasure's sake, to more roughness and
rudeness than is good for their sex. These things arise sometimes from
necessity--on which we have not a word to say--but more frequently from
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