Most likely no thought is given it at all,
except that Coutances is somewhere on the railway line between Cherbourg
and Paris, or that it is near unto Bayeux; also possessed of a
magnificent cathedral, but whose greatest fame lies in a certain false
sentiment associated with its famous tapestry. Not that this great work
is to be decried,--far from it, but the spirit with which it is so often
viewed should be a matter of scorn for every broad-minded traveller.

Lisieux, too, has a wealth of attraction for those who fondly admire
reeking picturesqueness and old timbered houses, though its cathedral
will not please.

Pugin could not resist depicting many of these delightful old houses of
Lisieux in his book on Normandy, though, unlike Ruskin, he had no eye
for its cathedral; most of us will not have.

So much, then, as a plea for a more sincere and thorough appreciation of
the charms of western Normandy. It is cheap; accessible, and has a
practically inexhaustible store of treasure for the traveller or student
of limited time or money, but who will not make of it the usual mere
"bank-holiday" scamper. The same applies also to Brittany, which is
treated elsewhere, with this proviso, that the tourist afoot or awheel
is far better equipped than he who has to depend upon steam and the
rail, two at least of Brittany's cathedrals being "off the line."

II

NOTRE DAME D'EVREUX

The Cathedral at Evreux is another of those edifices which gives one its
best impression when first seen upon entering the city. Charmingly,
possibly romantically, situated, it lies in a shallow valley with all
the picturesqueness of its varied style limned against the sky in truly
impressionistic fashion. This impression, when viewed from the slight
eminence by which the railway enters the town, is a vista of rambling
roofs and a long, sloping street running gently down to the very foot of
the structure, which, set about and interspersed with verdure, as it is
in the spring and summer months, warrants one in counting his
introduction to this charmingly attractive, though non-consistent, type
of church, as one of the events which will live in memory for years.

[Illustration: _Notre Dame d'Evreux_]

If towering spires and pinnacles were a _sine qua non_ for a great and
imposing architectural style, this church would at once rank as one
of the most delightful examples extant; for these very features, albeit
they are mostly of what we have