HOME LIFE IN FRANCE "Chaque Frangaise travaille pour 1'avenir et accumule pour la postrit, retranchant me'thodiquement sur son bien-etre et sur son plaisir, ce qu'il faut pour le bien-etre des generations futures et les benders qu'il ne connaitra pas." M. GABRIEL HANOTAUX (" Le France Contemporaine "). HOME LIFE IN FRANCE BY MISS BETHAM-EDWARDS OFFICIER DE L'INSTRUCTION PUBLIQUE DE FRANCE WITH TWENTY ILLUSTRATIONS SECOND EDITION METHUEN & CO. 36 ESSEX STREET W.C. LONDON First Published . May, 1905 Second Edition . July, 1905 A UN AMI FRANAIS CE LIVRE EST DEDIE M. B.-E. SOME of these papers have appeared in the Cornhill and other Magazines, to the Editors and Proprietors of which I here make due acknowledgment. My best thanks are also due to the numerous French friends who have helped me in the matter of facts and figures, and to the artists who have so graciously lent photo- graphs of their works. CONTENTS CHAPTER I SOCIAL USAGES CHAPTER II HOUSEKEEPING 12 CHAPTER III HOLIDAY-MAKING . 36 CHAPTER IV THE BABY 44 CHAPTER V THE GIRL 51 CHAPTER VI THE BOY 59 CHAPTER VII CONSCRIPTS -69 CHAPTER VIII BRIDES AND BRIDEGROOMS 77 viii CONTENTS CHAPTER IX PAGE WIVES AND MOTHERS 89 CHAPTER X THE SINGLE LADY 98 CHAPTER XI THE DOMESTIC HELP JOS CHAPTER XII MESSIEURS LES DEPUTES . .113 CHAPTER XIII THE OFFICER I2O CHAPTER XIV THE COUNTRY DOCTOR 126 CHAPTER XV MY FRIEND MONSIEUR LE CURE 133 CHAPTER XVI THE PROTESTANT PASTOR 140 CHAPTER XVII THE PROFESSOR OF AGRICULTURE 148 CHAPTER XVIII THE JUGE DE PAIX 154 CHAPTER XIX THE TAX COLLECTOR . 160 CONTENTS ix CHAPTER XX PAGE THE YOUNG BUSINESS LADY l6$ CHAPTER XXI A GREAT LADY MERCHANT 1 72 CHAPTER XXII AN ASPIRANT TO THE COMEDIE FRANCAISE . -179 CHAPTER XXIII THE VILLAGE SCHOOLMASTER 1 85 CHAPTER XXIV JACQUES BONHOMME IQI CHAPTER XXV RESTAURANT-KEEPING IN PARIS 2OO CHAPTER XXVI HOURS IN VAL-DE-GRACE 207 CHAPTER XXVII MY JOURNEY WITH MADAME LA PATRONNE . .213 CHAPTER XXVIII THE LYCEE FENELON FOR GIRLS 219 CHAPTER XXIX LA MAISON PATERNELLE, OR REFORMATORY FOR YOUNG GENTLEMEN 227 CHAPTER XXX THE FAMILY COUNCIL 239 CONTENTS CHAPTER XXXI PAGE CHARACTERISTICS 253 CHAPTER XXXII FICTION AND FIRESIDES 268 "CHAPTER XXXIII THE CODE CIVIL AND FAMILY LIFE 277 CHAPTER XXXIV NEW YEAR'S ETIQUETTE 285 CHAPTER XXXV THE ENTENTE CORDIALE 2QI INDEX .... 301 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS TO FACE PAGE MARRIAGE Frontispiece By H. Gervex. Photograph by Brawn, Clement & Cie. HOLIDAY AMUSEMENTS .... 37 By Madame Delacroix-Gamier. JUVENILE FORT-BUILDING . 39 Photograph by F. Braun, Royan. SEASIDE SIGHTS, THE HARVEST OF THE SALT .... 40 Photograph by F. Braun, Royan. THE HARVEST OF THE SALT (VENDEE) 40 Photograph by F. Braun, Royan. GYMNASTIC FETE AT PONS (SAINTONGE) 6 1 Photograph by F. Braun, Royan. CONSCRIPTS 71 By P. A. J. Dagnan-Bouveret. Photograph by Braun, Clement & Cie. THE FIRST COMMUNION 79 By Jules Breton. Photograph by Braun, Clement & Cie. BRIDAL PAIR (1LE D'OLERON) 8 1 Photograph by F. Braun, Royan. M. LE PREFET REWARDS LONG SERVICE (A Scene from Madame Bovary) 109 By H. Brispot. Photograph by Braun, Clement & Cie. xii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS TO FACE PAGE HAPPY SOLITUDE 135 By M. tAbbt van Helltbeke. PROTESTANT CHURCH OF SAUJON (SAINTONGE) ... 144 Photograph by F. Braun, Royan. A SITTING OF THE JUGE DE PAIX 157 Photograph by F. Braun, Royan, TO THE VILLAGE SCHOOL 1 86 Photograph by F. Braun, Royan. "A SMALL THING, BUT MY OWN" (SAINTONGE) . -194 Photograph by F. Braun, Royan. THE RETURN FROM MARKET 195 Photograph by F. Braun, Royan. IN THE VINEYARD 197 Photograph by F. Braun, Royan. DARBY AND JOAN 199 Photograph by Clouzot, Niort. LA MAISON PATERNELLE 226 LA MAISON PATERNELLE INTERIOR 230 HOME LIFE IN FRANCE CHAPTER I SOCIAL USAGES first turning of a French door-handle is symbolic. Just as we lower the knob to the left, our neigh- THEbours raise it to the right, so we may safely take it for granted that everything done across the water is performed after a fashion directly contrary to our own. Domestic arrangements, social usages, rules of etiquette are pleasantly criss-cross, divertingly unfamiliar, neither more nor less than antipodal. Twenty-four hours spent under a French roof may be described as a perpetual process of dishabituation. The merest bagatelle is invested with novelty. Unaccustomed ways and surroundings make it difficult to believe that French and English are separated hour's sea that in clear weather France by an journey only ; and England contemplate each other face to face. Nor on further acquaintance does this impression vanish. Many of our countrymen, like the late Mr. Hamerton, have made France their home. But in their case it is dissimilarity that fascinates. In the very least like the home left behind, a French fireside can never be. Let us begin with the guest-chamber of a well- appointed house. Our first notion is that a bed has just been put into a boudoir or drawing-room for our accommo- dation. Not a single object suggests a room in which we B i not only sleep, but go through the various processes of the toilette. We soon discover that one handsome piece of furniture, as closely shut as a piano with the lid down, is delusive at first is a a washstand ; another, equally sight, a reveals a dressing-table ; or, maybe, panel tiny dressing- closet, the said panel never under any circumstances what- ever being allowed to remain open during the day. Most things in France have a historic explanation, and the fashion of receiving visitors in one's bedroom was set by royalty. Sully describes how one morning Henri " " Quatre waked up his dormouse the snoring Marie de Medici by his side, in order that she might hear what the minister had to say. The Sun-King allowed himself farther licence, and held solemn audiences in his garde-robe. Ver- sailles, vast as it was, had no space for private salons; courtiers of both sexes could only be at home to visitors in their bedrooms. The habit has not wholly died out. I have at different times spent many weeks with old-fashioned folk living near Dijon, the household consisting of three families living under one roof. On the first chilly day a fire would be lighted in the grandmother's bedroom, and thither we all adjourned for a chat or a game of whist. If neighbours dropped in, no apology was offered for receiving them thus unceremoniously. Another custom handed down from generation to gene- ration is that of employing men in housework. In private interiors, as well as in hotels, men often supply the place of housemaids, at any rate up to a certain point. They sweep the rooms, polish the floors, and brush velvet-covered furniture. In Balzac's works, these domestics are often mentioned. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries valets de chambre not only acted the part of housemaids, but of ladies' maids their mistress's head- ; they arranged dress and hair, and aided her in the adjustment of hoops m&fallalas or flounces. Perhaps the fact of Frenchwomen SOCIAL USAGES 3 in former days always being dressed, never dressing them- selves, accounts for the indifference to the looking-glass. It has ever been a standing marvel to me that our sisters over the water have their bonnets straight and their coiffure irreproachable. In the matter of mirrors they are worse off than Pompeiian ladies with their metal substitutes. A French abounds in reflectors never sleeping apartment ; by any chance can you see yourself properly. A looking- glass invariably surmounts the mantelpiece, but so obscured by ornamental timepiece and branched candelabra as to be absolutely unavailable. There will be looking-glasses here, there for one that the looking-glasses ; answers purpose for which it was intended you seek in vain. With regard to downiness, elasticity, and cleanliness the French bed is unsurpassed, every year or every two years the mattresses being opened, picked over, and aired. The only drawback is height, a bed being often as difficult to get at as the upper berth of a ship's cabin. In a French house no prevailing savour of fried bacon between eight and nine o'clock a.m. announces the family breakfast. Your tea or coffee and roll are served whilst you still luxuriate on your pillows. Rousseau pronounced the English breakfast to be the most charming custom he found here. The French habit has much to recommend it. Our hosts are left to themselves, and our own day is begun without effort or fatigue. A French home, moreover, is seldom adapted for a house party. The cosy morning room, the library, and smoking-room are only found in palatial dwellings. What would a lady do, for example, with three or four visitors in a Parisian flat ? The next experience of a French household is its extreme animation with apologies to my friends I will say noisiness. An English band of housemaids is mouse- like in its movements. Passages are swept and dusted, breakfast-room, schoolroom, servants' hall are prepared for the morning meal in almost unbroken silence. No sooner 4 HOME LIFE IN FRANCE are shutters thrown open in France than a dozen sounds announce the resumption of work, the return to daily life. Men and maids laugh, talk, or dispute at the top of their voices master and mistress shout orders children make ; ; a playroom of corridors. The general effervescence might lead a modern Voltaire's Inge"nu, or the counterpart of Montesquieu's Persian, to suppose that in France taciturnity is heavily taxed.