TOURIST CENTRES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 June 1938, Page 8

TOURIST CENTRES

DISCOVERIES BY ENGLISHMEN IN FRANCE. Frenchmen acknowledge that, from the tourist point of view, England discovered France. Discovered, is not too strong a term. Chamonix was literally discovered by the English. In 1740, two young Englishmen set out from Geneva to explore the region and visit the great glacier, the Sier de Glace, about which they had heard. They discovered Chamonix, and were so uncertain of their welcome that they camped outside the village, with their followers, and guard was mounted all through the night. Next morning they found the villagers friendly and only too eager to welcome them and guide them to the famous glacier. There they were shown the distant “white mountain,” as the inhabitants called it, and from that time Mont Blanc came into prominence. A stone at Chamonix is inscribed, “Pierre des Anglais,” and commemorates this discovery. Cannes was another discovery. Lord Brougham, in 1834, was stopped near by, at St. Laurent du Pont, on his way to Italy. While waiting for papers from Paris to enable him to continue, his journey, he inspected the region and was charmed by the beauty of the scene. Cannes was then a fishing village. He decided to go no farther, and caused a house to be built, which stands to this day. From this beginning Cannes has grown into one of the most famous Mediterranean coast resorts. If the English did not discover Nice, they were visitors there more than a hundred and fifty years ago. as is recorded by Arthur Young in his “Travels in France in 1787, 1788 and 1789.’ Dinard is another English discovery. Some English people a hundred years ago—the centenary was celebrated last year—Crossed from Saint Malo and discovered the delightful spot where Dinard now stands. They were so charmed with it that they decided to build there. Though Biarritz came into popularity through Empress Eugenie’s preference for that resort in the middle of the last century, it was British influence that made it a traditional resort. This lovely spot on the Basque coast was a great favourite with King Edward VII, and there is a memorial to him close to the shore. Pau was "discovered" by the English during the last campaign of the Peninsular War, in 1814. They found the place so delightful that as soon as the war was over many officers returned with their wives, and since that time there has always been an English colony in Pau.