The
women do not affect the big, white caps that stand out from their faces,
and reach down their backs like those worn by the nuns, so that when
worn by little girls they cover half of their bodies. Their gowns are
made without the wide stripe of velvet applied on each shoulder and
rounding away under the arms. Nor do they wear the low shoes with square
toes, high heels, and long black ribbon streamers. Here, as elsewhere,
we found faces that resemble other faces, costumes that really are no
costumes at all, cobblestones, and even a sidewalk.
Was it worth while to expose ourselves to seasickness (which, by the
way, we escaped, a fact that inclined us to leniency), only to see a
citadel that we do not admire, a lighthouse that did not appeal to us in
the least, and a rampart built by Vauban, of whom we were already
heartily tired? But people had spoken to us of Belle-Isle's rocks. So we
started at once, and taking a short cut across the fields, walked to the
beach.
We saw one grotto, only one (the day was near its close), but it
appeared so beautiful to us (it was draped with sea-weed and decorated
with shells, and water dripped from the top), that we resolved to spend
a day in Belle-Isle, in order to discover more of them, if there were
any, and feast our eyes leisurely upon their beauties.
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