** French beaches -- Arcachon








French Beaches: Arcachon


Figure 1.--A French reader tells us, "It is practicly impossible to find a image showing a poor French boy in bare foot in the 20th century." Another reader writes, "Indeed there are not a large number of pictures of barefoot French children. I did find, however, this postcard dated 1906. (It looks like 96, but the post mark is actually September 26, 1906.) The postcard shows a group of children watching a Puppet Theater (Punch and Judy show) in Arcachon, a seaside village on the French coast near Bordeaux. Some of the children are barefoot. I think that in 19th and early 20th century years also poor French children, at least in sea village, go barefoot in daily life. For formal occasions as your French reader indicates, French children rarely went barefoot.

Arcachon is located in the southwestern French department of Gironde, the open Atlantic in the Bay of Biscay. It is a popular seaside resort on the Atlantic coast 55 kilometres (34 mi) southwest of Bordeaux, in the Landes forest. Arachon has a a sandy beach and a mild climate.. It is often seen as a favorable place for invalids recuperating from pulmonary complaints. A French reader tells us, "This postcard was took in the Jardin of the Casino Mauresque. It is front of the beach. The children who were probably playing in the sand on the beach are here seen enjoying a Punch and Judy show (in French: ???). I know this place. Of course many of the children have bare feet because they are at the beach, It is sure these same children put on their shoes when they left the beach to go into the town. Arcachon is a famous city on the French Atlantic coast. The children here look to be from affluent families brought to the seaside for a family vacation. They probably were staying in fashionable hotels."






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Created: 7:05 AM 10/13/2004
Last updated: 5:34 PM 3/15/2021