WEALTH AND BEAUTY OF DEAUVILLE.

Shannon News, 13 November 1925, Page 1

WEALTH AND BEAUTY OF DEAUVILLE.

Last night I dreamed a dream in which racehorses played tennis, lovely women covered with jewels mended fishing nets and millionaires of all nations bathed in the sea in evening dress. This dream followed upon a day of sensations so varied, so wonderful, so full of thrills that even now I am like a man newly awakened unable to recognise the frontier of dreamland, writes an English visitor to Deauville in the "Daily Mail." Deauville is the place where boredom is buried, and, over the grave, rich men have made a palace of pleasure where Beauty reigns as queen and Fashion gives the law. And ! after four butterfly weeks Deauville dies. Beginning on the first day of Angust, the season, which is the soul of the town, passes on the 31st. and Deauville becomes merely a cluster of shuttered buildings on a windswept shore. But now the sesaon is in its prime. The yachts of millionaires lie in. the harbour, the horses of millionaires are on the racecourse, and the money of millionaires covers the tables in the Casino.

They come from all countries, these rich men, but the voice of gold has not an English accent. The great wealth of the money-month is no longer made in England. English beauty and culture may be prominent in Doauville, but th e lords of lucre and their bejewelled women whose money makes Doauville the dearest playground in Europe are not of England. Men supply the money, but women rule at Deauville. For the first time I have realised what is meant by that strange word "creations" applied to j clothes. "Creations" is the right word for the frocks worn by the womenfolk of the wealthy, for they create a personality which changes when the clothes are changed. A woman dressed for the plage in the morning does not look the same woman as she who visits the races in the afternoon, and neither resembles the same woman arrayed for the gaming tables at night. In the morning she is a slim athletic girl, given to tennis on the hard courts amid the geraniums; in the afternoon sh e is a dainty and languid woman, ready to bet from politeness but more concerned in harmonising her distinct colouring 1 with the glowing picture on the stands; in the evening she is a queen, imperious, splendid , adorned with flashes of dazzling flame and playing with fortunes for stakes. Photographers from the French papers rush about feverishly seeking distinctive costumes, while the wearer poses as casually as «he powders her nose. lam told that the world's fashions are set at Deauville. but I am inclined to believe that Deauville has a fashion of i's own.

There is sonielliin.gr about the place that drives women to extremes in dress and other things. Eyebrows have been plucked out so that they resemble a faint pencil line giving- a perpetual surprised expression to the face, geranium lips are being - worn with all moods and modes, and hair becomes shorter as the season grows older , I have hinted that Deauville is a resort of the rich. If any British man. and especially any British woman imagines that, because 100 francs go to £l, the difference in the exchange will counteract the expense, h't him and her put away that delusio-i. foi instead of being- means to an end, it will prove *m end to means. Put to a practical test, the benefit of the exchange simply does not exist in Deauville, where the only cheap thing is 5 cents for the ferry that takes you across to Tro'uville, and even that is doubled at night. After 11 p.m. all fares are doubled. Nobody appears to go to bed before three o'clock in the morning, and yet many of the woman arc taking exercise on horseback or displaying a new frock on the tennis courts before nine o'clock. That may account for the season being - so short. Here is the programme for my first day at Deauville:— 9 to 12—Walking - on the plage admiring the villas the gardens and pretty women. 12 to I—The aperitif hour, spent in admiring different clothes of pretty women.

1 to 2—Luncheon, rather spoiled by clothes of pretty women. 2 to s—At5 —At the races, where I missed two finishes while admiring' the clothes of pretty women. 5 to « —Visited a polo match and admired the ponies and the clothes of pretty women. (i to 7 —Visited the baths and admired the bathing costumes of pretty women. 7 to S—Aperitif hour. Tolorated the clothes of pretty women. 8 to 9 —Dinner. Appetite ruined by clothes of pretty women. 9 to 10—Retired to smoke-room to avoid clothes and pretty women. 10 to 2 —Visited Casino. Dazzled by ji-wels and clothes of pretty women, while small fortunes were won and lost every second at chemin-de-fer.