House and Garden 
ONE NEVER SEES 
of the maid upon awak¬ 
ening one is to pull the 
heavy curtains apart 
and let the daylight in. 
There is no attention 
paid to any particular 
style of furnishing in the 
French country home, 
outside of the drawing¬ 
room. The halls are 
severe, uncarpeted and 
cold; the dining-room, 
htted with ordinary ta¬ 
ble and caned bottom 
chairs, perhaps a deer’s 
head over the mantel, 
seems only a place in 
which to eat hurriedly 
and rush out again into 
the open air. 
The heavily draped 
bed is seen in the coun¬ 
try as well as in the town 
home; the hangings are sometimes replaced, however, 
by fresh muslin draperies, the crucifix always having its 
place at the head of the bed with the rosary and the 
twig of green representing the holy palm. The bed is 
high, soft and comfortable, with a clumsy eiderdown 
quilt and homespun sheets. A high step is required to 
get into these beds; this with a few chairs for conveni¬ 
ence, not often for comfort, a carpet at the bedside and 
a pru’-dieu form the furniture of the commonplace bed¬ 
room. There, is an atmosphere of cleanliness, though 
at the same time pervaded by the old musty smell of 
dried roses and lavender, which is peculiar to these old 
country houses and convents in France. Here one 
realizes also the lack of real home feeling as in the 
town house. In the town it is the Boulevard and the 
cafe which attract, in the country the beautiful parks 
surrounding the chateaux, and at the seaside the 
beach. The rented homes at the seaside more gen¬ 
erally show the English influence; chintz is used a 
great deal in both bedroom and sitting-room, and a 
combination that the French particularly delight in 
is a very ugly Turkey red cotton material combined 
with chintz. At the seaside the house is deserted 
for a huge tent, large enough to hold all the family; 
it is pitched on the beach early in the morning and 
the entire family, with work, book, spade and bucket 
spend whole days there; the tent is divided into rooms 
and is sometimes made quite attractive with decora¬ 
tions and comfortable chairs. 
There are homes, and many in France, both in town 
and country, which differ from these average ones I 
have ventured to describe; particularly among the 
artists and literary people one finds many that are 
charming examples of consistent appointments, which 
evince exquisite taste by the beauty of their decoration. 
I! ED 
FRENCH 
ON 
PILLOW 
THE DAYTIME 
CONSOLE AND ORNAMENTS, FRENCH DRAWING-ROOM 
38 
