London Central Secondary School - Golden Glimpses Yearbook (London, Ontario Canada)

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days. The wise onlooker protects his face from flying pellets with a mask, as do the judges, and wears a cape with a high frilly collar to protect his ears from the blaring, clashing bedlam of many bands. There is, however, surprisingly little drunkenness, although wine flows freely. The streets are crowded with flower sellers. The air is thick with confetti. For days after one seems to leave a little trickle of it wherever one goes. King Carnival knows no restric- tions. Do as you please is his motto. Yet there are conventions even amid confetti showers. The masquer must disguise his voice as well as his face and preferably assume the costume of opposite sex. Carnival time is the gala. occa- sion of the Riviera. -Frances Copeland ED French Customs Any newcomer to France would find life so utterly different from that of other countries that it would take some weeks of readjust- ment before one felt really at ease. Thrift is an outstanding trait in a Frenchman. Comfort costs money, and to the Frenchman com- fort seems transient, while money is not, and the cheapest thing with which to pay is his own skin. For this reason he forfeits good plumb- ing and heating and mourns aud- ibly over a small hole burnt in an old rug or tapestry. Nor is food ever wasted. A French cook can cover a medley of unappetizing scraps with a heavenly sauce and make it a dish fit for the gods. No one ever leaves food on his plate, for besides it being a dread- ful waste it is an insult to the culinary arts of the hostess. The housewife in France is responsible for every little detail. She must attend to the process of cooking a dinner, even if she has a cook, as closely as though she were doing it herself. She must listen patiently to the account of the workman who repairs the stove on the temperamental character of that object. Besides this she watches her children's studies, helps them diligently in their homework, and makes herself their constant companion. Another distinguishing charac- teristic of a Frenchman is his THE REVIEW exquisite manners. Shop keepers and clerks manage to show a flatter- ing deference to their customers without losing any of their own dignity. Youth looks up to middle- age but never speaks to an older person with What would you do if you were young? In France the gentle art of con- versation still flourishes. It would be an insult to ask one's dinner guests to play cards after dinner or to go to the theatre. At any rate it would be superfluous for con- versation flows freely and delight- fully. The French feel that it should never develop into a lesson or an argument. Altogether the French are a charming people, thrifty without being mean, conscientious, tactful and exquisitely polite and enter- taining. -E. Harvey UU Le Petit Trianon Le Petit Trianon fLittle Castlej is to-day a touching memorial to Marie Antoinette. It was the gift of Louis XVI to his Queen when she asked him for a place of retire- ment where she could lay aside her duties and cease to be Queen. The Petit Trianon was one of the most perfect and graceful and delicate creations ever designed. It was situated in a retired nook in Versailles park, well out of sight 47 of Versailles and yet conveniently near. It was no larger than a country mansion of to-day and was furnished in an unostentatious manner. everything d e n o t i n g privacy and ease. The Queen pro- duced fashionable plays and comic opera there for her amusement and that of her friends. The boudoir for social amenities and amusements was the centre of the house. The panelling was of carved and gilded wood and there Were soft silken hangings. The prevailing colours were cream, delicate cherry and pale blue. It was designed for pleasant, intimate gatherings by a woman in the springtime of life. It was a doll's house whose win- dows looked out upon beautiful lawns and gardens. Marie Antoi- nette desired a natural garden and so engaged the best known horti- culturists to build it for her. This garden was to contain within its four square kilometres a reproduction of the whole of nature. T h e r e were French, Indian and African trees, Dutch tulips, a lake, a river, a mountain and a grotto, a roman- tic ruin, Greek temples, Dutch windmills. In this garden of nature the Queen spent the most enjoy- able hours of her life and even the King came only as a guest. In one section there was a com- plete miniature farm, equipped l-L'Opera 3-La Madeleine 2-L'Arc de Triomphe 4.-Tomb ol' lNapoleon

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46 The Flag of France The National Flag of modern France dates back to the year 1789 when the French people first rose up in righteous rebellion against the h a t e f u l conditions of the Uancien regime. Thus the French Revolution. Before this date, the iiag of France was the Hfleur-de-lys, of which we really know very little. What it was supposed to represent we are not certain. It may have been an iris, or a lily, or perhaps the head of a lance. At any rate, with the coming of the Revolution it quickly fell into disuse. The Tri-coleur as it is popular- ly called is composed of the three colours, red, white, and blue. The red and blue are the colours of the city of Paris. The white was add- ed at the suggestion of the Marquis de Lafayette, famed for his part in the American Revolution. The French flag has often falter- ed under the storms of revolutions, political dissensions, world wars and civil strife, but its engrained traditions of liberty and loyalty have always carried it through triumphantly. Indeed, the French people may well be proud of a flag which has stood for so much and played such a prominent part in history. -Claire Hicks EIU Raymond Poincare In this section set aside for France it seems fitting to mention one of France's greatest and most beloved statesman, the late Ray- mond Poincare. Tl-IE REVIEW Editor-Elizabeth Harvey H f France f Raymond Poincare was thrice premier of France. From 1913 to 1920 he was President of the French Republic. Five years 'ago he re- tired from the premiership and the politics of his country, and until his death was announced on Oct. the fifteenth, 1934, the world had all but forgotten that he had lived. But history had already judged and marked him for one of the notable figures of his age. He was a mild-eyed, rotund little man, with a pointed beard. Noth- ing in his outward appearance sug- gested the man of iron which he proved himself to be. He strove for the security of France with passionate devotion and cold real- ism. His mind mirrored with cur- ious exactness the mind of France, and in more than one moment of decision his voice proved to be the voice and his will the will of the French people. Raymond Poincare was a man of whom France may well be proud, for he did much to make her one of the leading nations of the world. -E. Harvey EIU The Place de la Concorde and the Champs Elysees The Place de la Concorde by day is vast rather than beautiful, and by night it is a congress of lamps. l-ln' Sucre Lim-ur. 4-Avcuue des Champs Elysees. 10-Pluce-de la Concorde. Because it is sacred ground Paris is unthinkable without it. In 1763 the open and uncultivated space was enclosed, surrounded with fosses, made trim and called La Place Louis Quinze. Twenty-two years later, kings having suddenly become cheap, the statue of Louis XV. was melted down and cast into cannon, while a clay figure of Liberty was set up in its stead, by the order of the National Convention. La Place was to be renamed La Place de la Revolution. A little later the guillotine which was to see the deaths of the king and queen and the proud rnobility of France was erected there. In 1799, the Reign of Terror being ended, the Place won the name of Concorde. Since then certain symbolic statues of great French cities have been set up, and the Place is a model of symmetry. Its two great fountains are a source of joy and coolness in hot weather. This basis of safety assures hap- piness in the presence of so much tinkling, falling water. If the Place de la Concorde may be called at night a congress of light, the Champs Elysees may be called in the afternoon a congress of wheelsg wheels revolving along this superb roadway, so wide and open, climbing so confidently to the Arc de Triomphe, with its graves on either side at the foot and its white mansions afterwards. Marie de Medicis in 1616 planned and laid out the Champs Elyseesg but Napoleon is the father of the scene which culminates so mag- nificently in the Arc de Triomphe. The particular children's paradise of Paris, where they bowl their hoops and ride the horses of minute roundabouts turned by hand and watch the marionettes is between the main road and the Elysees. -Marjorie Vining DEI Carnival Days on the Riviera Laughter, shouting, music, con- fetti, gaiety, confusion, milling crowds of gayly dressed people, nightmarish alarm clocks ten feet high, men in skirts, girls in trousers, and the Carnival is on. In the middle of the parade rides King Carnival, a gorgeous dummy on a wild steed, surrounded by his court. His reign is short but furious and then he is burnt at the stake. This is the Riviera in Carnival

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48 with a dairy, a mill, and several small rustic hamlets. The people in these hamlets did the simple farming but often the Queen and her Princesses amused themselves in the dairy making butter and cheese, chatting with the humble folk, studying their opinions and their simple language. It was a complete rest after being hedged in by the monotonous conventions of the French court. The Petit Trianon was a fabul- an ex- ously expensive toy for travagant woman, but it will re- main through the ages as a token of the of the former grandeur French Court.-Emily Illoorc IIE! From a Sidewalk Restaurant in Paris Since it is five o'clock let us take a chair outside the Cafe de la Paix and watch the people go by, for when all is said and done these out- door cafe chairs in Paris give it its highest charm. VVe see a stream of people,incessant and ofincredible density, all walking at the same pace, all talking as only the French can talk, rich and poor equally owners of the pavement. Now and then a Camelot offers a toy or a picture postcard, a performer bends and twists a piece of felt into every shape of hat, culminating in Napoleon's famous Hchapeau at comes. One thing that one notices is the absence of laughter. The dominant type of face seen from a chair at the Cafe de la Paix is not a happy one. Around and about one all the time, as one watches this pan- orama, the swift and capable waiters are busy. Paris may be a city of feminine charm and domina- tion but to the ordinary foreigner it is more a city of waiters. Still the people stream by. Look at those two long-haired artists from the Latin Quarter in velvet cloaks and black sombreros. In Canada they would be stared at and laughed at, but here no one is laughed at and it is interesting to note how little street ridicule there is in France. Individuality is encouraged and nourished. There is such a variety of types. The busy, capable girls and women shopping-their pretty uncovered heads all so neatly and deftly arranged, and their bags and bask- ets in their hands, the chair THE REVIEW N o d t e r e P a D r i m s e the mender blowing his horn, Htondeur de chiers with his mournful pipe and box of scissors, the brisk errand boys, the neat little milliners with their band- boxes, the business men with their inadequate portfolios. Paris as a spectacle is perpetually new and amusing. The foreignness of Paris never decreases. Every sound is foreign, every costume, every walk, every facade. From the women with no hats to the butchers who frankly sell nothing but horseflesh -everything is foreign. So from a chair outside a cafe we catch a glimpse of the real charm of Paris, one of the most fascinating cities in the world. --E. Harvey EIU Montmartre Paris has many quarters, each with characteristics so sharply de- fined that every true Parisian boasts that, if he could be dropped by parachute from an aeroplane anywhere within Paris he would instantly recognize the quarter in which he found himself. For tourists, ofcourse, these quarters are identified by special monuments. One of these, Butte Mont- martre , is identified by the Sacre Coeur, which with its opalescent white domes dominates a great city. This church, of remarkable size, was built on a hill-top after the war of 1870. The streets of Montmartre are peopled with historical, literary, musical, and theatrical ghosts. There lived on Rue de Chaussee d'Antin Baron Danglars, one of the villains of Monte Cristo, the banker whom the Count of Monte Cristo contrived to ruin. It was on this same street that Mirabeau, a distinguished statesman during the French Revolution. died. Here also Napoleon met Josephine de Beauharnais for the Hrst time, whose influence secured him his appointment in Italy. In the Rue de Bruxelles Zola, the great French realist of the nine- teenth century, worked hard to earn his living, he was sometimes so impecunious that he was obliged to pawn his coat and trousers, and stay home and work in his shirt. Nearby, Gounod composed masses, and the Ave Maria which are still sung in our churches today. Now these ghosts have vanished and these same streets are throbbing with living masses. Artists set their easels anywhere along the streets, painting unmindful of passers-by. Along the Boulevard de Clichy is the home of the night restaurant and cabaret which change con- tinuously. At one time Le Rat Mort is most frequented, then its popularity wanes, and gives way to ' Le Caveau Caucasien, oriper- haps Le Fetiche. No matter what may be said of these, there can be found genuine and distinct- ive art in the Montmartre cabaret. Montmartre is a city within a city and one of the most interesting parts of thewonderful city of Paris. -Rita Gilles DEI Versailles Versailles, the palace built by Louis XIV., is the epitome of grandeur and extravagance. It was constructed twelve miles from Paris and opened with a magni- ficent fete which was attended by Queen Marie Therese and Queen Anne of Austria. It is surrounded by miles of park which are a triumph of imagination and art- istry. It seems almost impossible that the great expanse of woods and flower gardens, with great lawns and ponds, a canal a mile long and large fountains, was once a mere sandy waste. Although, says a writer of the day, it has not the great size that is to be remarked in some ofHis Majesty's other Pal- aces, it is charming in every respect, everything smiles within and with- out, gold and marble vie with one another in their beauty and bril- liancy .... Its symmetry and the richness of its furniture, the beauty of its walks and the infinite - I Continued-on page-98