bathing-places. The quaintness of the old inn Guillaume le
Conquerant at Dives counts for something, and the 5 franc _table-d'hote_
dinner there is good of its kind.

Caen

_Tripes a la mode de Caen_ may be a homely dish but it is not to be
despised, and it can be eaten quite at its best in the town where it was
invented. I have eaten it with great content at a bourgeois restaurant,
opposite to the Church of St-Pierre, the Restaurant Pepin, if my memory
serves me rightly, and a _Sole Bordeaux_ to precede it. The proprietor,
M. Chandivert, was very anxious that I should add a _Caneton Rouennaise_
to the feast, but I told him that "to every town its dish." He gave me a
capital pint of red wine, and impressed on me the fact that he had
obtained a gold medal at some exhibition for his _andouillettes_. Caen
is the town of the _charcutiers_, and you may see more good cold viands
shown in windows, in a walk through its streets, than you will find
anywhere else outside a cookery exhibition. Caen is an oasis in the
midst of the bad cookery of Western Normandy; and the restaurant at the
Hotel d'Angleterre and the Restaurant de Madrid are very much above the
average of the restaurant of a French country town. In both restaurants
you can dine and breakfast in the shade in the open air, the Madrid
having a good garden, the Angleterre a great tent in the courtyard,--a
welcome change from the stuffy rooms, full of flies, of most Normandy
hotels. I have a most pleasant memory of a _Homard Americaine_, cooked
at the Hotel d'Angleterre, which was the very best lobster I ever ate in
my life. The old _chef_ who made the fame of the Angleterre has retired,
but his successor is said to show no falling off in the art of preparing
a good dinner. I would suggest to the wayfarer to breakfast in the
garden of the Madrid and dine at the Angleterre. There is a little
restaurant, A la Tour des Gens d'Armes, on the left bank of the canal
which is much frequented by students, and where an _al fresco_ lunch is
served at a very small price. The food is good for the money, and there
is always a chance of finding some merry gathering there. A note of
warning should be sounded as to the cider and _vin ordinaire_ supplied
as part of the _table-d'hote_ dinners in Caen, and indeed everywhere in
Normandy. There is almost invariably good cider to be had and good wine
on payment, but the cider and wine usually put on the table rival each
other as throat-cutt