test browns, rise above the
cottages or farm buildings that surround them in the ideal fashion that
is finally repeated at Ouistreham where locks impound the waters of the
canal, and a great lighthouse stands out more conspicuously than the
church tower. Seen through the framework of closely trimmed trees
Ouistreham makes a notable picture. The great Norman church is so
exceedingly imposing for such a mere village, that it is easy to
understand how, as a port in the Middle Ages, Ouistreham flourished
exceedingly.

The tramway crosses the canal at Benouville on its way to Cabourg, and
leaving the shade of birches and poplars takes its way over the open fields
towards the sea. Benouville is best remembered on account of its big
chateau with a great classic portico much resembling a section of Waterloo
Place perched upon a fine terraced slope. Ranville has an old church tower
standing in lonely fashion by itself, and you pass a conspicuous calvary as
you go on to the curious little seaside resort known as Le Home-Sur-Mer.
The houses are bare and (if one may coin a word) seasidey. Perched here and
there on the sandy ridge between the road and the shore, they have scarcely
anything more to suggest a garden than the thin wiry grass that contrives
to exist in such soil.

Down on the wide sandy beach there is an extensive sweep of the coast to be
seen stretching from beyond Ouistreham to the bold cliffs of Le Havre.
Keeping along the road by the tramway you have been out of sight of the
sea, but in a few minutes the pleasant leafiness of Cabourg has been
reached. Here everything has the full flavour of a seaside resort, for we
find a casino, a long esplanade, hotels, shops and bathing apparatus. It is
a somewhat strong dose of modern life after the slumbering old world towns
and villages we have been exploring, and it is therefore with great
satisfaction that we turn toward the village of Dives lying close at hand.
The place possesses a splendid old market hall, more striking perhaps than
that of Ecouche and a picturesque inn--the Hotel Guillaume le Conquerant.
The building is of stone with tiled roofs, and in the two courtyards there
are galleries and much ancient timber-framing, but unfortunately the
proprietor has not been content to preserve the place in its natural
picturesqueness. He has crowded the exterior, as well as the rooms, with a
thousand additions of a meretricious character which detract very much from
the char