A Spring Ramble in Normandy. 77 



is essentially more purely, foreign than numer- 

 ous places hundreds of miles more distant from 

 London. There is scarcely a hotel in Nor- 

 mandy where it is considered worth while to 

 take in the ' Times.' At Kouen, at Evreux, at 

 Louviers, the tourist is free from the daily 

 doings of English politicians and the fluctua- 

 tions of railway stocks and shares. It is need- 

 less to point out that it is in such complete 

 changes as necessarily result from this absence 

 of the daily routine of English life that the 

 greatest relief is found by all those who really 

 are in want of change of scene. Neither is 

 there much doubt that April and May are the 

 proper months in which to visit Normandy. 

 At this season of the year the country is free 

 from English travellers, and it is possible in 

 the towns of Eure and Calvados to live com- 

 pletely the life of the inhabitants ; and thus the 

 cost of living, though higher than it used to be, 

 is more moderate than in many parts of the 

 Continent. 



But there are other and more solid advan- 

 tages to be found in a visit to Normandy in the 

 early spring. The heat and the dust in summer 

 are considerable ; and though more hilly than 



