Lo. There is an upper
and lower town--a town on the rocks, with its old church with five gilt
statues, built almost out at sea--and another town, on the shore. The
streets of the old town are narrow and badly paved; but there is great
commercial activity, and a general sign of prosperity amongst its
sea-faring population. The approach to the sea (on one side of the
promontory, on which the town is built) is very striking; we emerge
suddenly through a fissure in the cliffs on to the sea-shore, into the
very heart and life of the place--into the midst of a bustling community
of fishermen and women. There is fish everywhere, both in the sea and on
the land, and the flavour of it is in the air; there are baskets, bales,
and nets, and there is, it must be added, a familiar ring of
Billingsgate in the loud voices that we hear around us. Granville is
the great western sea port of France, from which Paris is constantly
supplied; and, in spite of the deficiency of railway communication, it
keeps up constant trade with the capital--a trade which is not an
unmixed benefit to its inhabitants; for in the '_Messager de Granville_'
of August, 1869, we read that:--
'L'extreme chaleur de la temperature n'empeche pas nos marchands
d'expedier a Paris des quantites considerables de poisson, _au
moment meme ou il est hors de prix sur notre marche_.
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