RMS Caronia is due to arrive at Villefranche on Friday, March 17th, at approximately
7.00am.
The French Riviera
Round Africa Souvenir Book Cover
THE French Riviera is one of the most charming and picturesque southern European holiday playgrounds along the
Mediterranean's northern littoral.
As one writer so aptly described it…
“The Riviera is an agreeable loitering place, in pretty country, beset with roses and overlooking a placid,
cobalt-blue summer sea. It is just a great green paradise of modern villadom - white houses set deep among palms
and gardens.”
The Riviera, meaning rim, or shore, is the narrow strip of France and Italy which lies between the Maritime Alps
and the Mediterranean. The heart of the district, the real Riviera, stretches from Cannes to Menton and includes
Nice, Monaco and Monte Carlo.
It is called the “Côte d'Azur” or Azure Coast, from the wonderful blue Mediterranean waters at this
point. The air is bracing and there is an abundance of sunshine.
The height of the Riviera season is February, March and April. The best roadstead along the French Riviera for large
steamers is at Villefranche, a small coastal town, picturesquely situated on the slope of the hills about 3¾
miles from Nice.
Nice, a large city with a resident population of over 200,000, is the fashionable centre of the Riviera. Finely
situated along the Baie des Anges, it is well-protected from cold North winds by the Maritime Alps.
The great thoroughfare of Nice is the waterfront esplanade, the Promenade des Anglais, curving with the shore and
bordered by fine hotels and splendid villas. The promenade was built in 1822 with funds furnished by English residents
of Nice - hence its distinguishing name. Nice is the greatest resort of the Riviera.
A short distance eastward of Nice is the famous cliff of Monaco, a small peninsula of solid rock. Monaco is a tiny
principality, of which Monte Carlo is the best known of the three communes.
Monte Carlo's fame is intimately connected with a Casino, or gambling establishment, on which both the wealth of the
Prince of Monaco and the immunity of the inhabitants from taxation are founded. The Casino, built by Carnier, the
architect of the Paris Opera House, was founded in 1863.
Spectacular Corniches
Three well known mountain roads, the Little, Middle and Great Corniche, run to Monaco, Monte Carlo and Menton, at the
end of the Great Corniche, close to the Italian Riviera.
Grasse, the paradise of flowers of the French Riviera, is situated between Nice and Cannes. The flower fields of Grasse
fill to a great extent the requirements of French perfume manufacturers. Cannes, ideally located on the Gulf de Napoule,
has enjoyed for a long time a high reputation as a most pleasant resort on the Côte d'Azur.
Nearby Juan-les-Pins owes its name to the abundance of pines and firs which formerly covered the shores of the
semicircular Gulf of Juan. The popular bathing resort lies close to the west base of Cap Antibes.
At the western end of the wide sweep of the Baie des Anges, some 12 miles from Nice, stands ancient Antibes on a steep
shore, with its beautiful “Promenade du Front de Mer” along the shore. The invasion beaches on the Riviera
during World War II are located between St. Tropez and Hyeres.
Sunday
19 March 1950
Barcelona, Spain
RMS Caronia is expected to arrive at Barcelona on Sunday, March 19th, at approximately 7.00am.
BARCELONA is Spain's chief seaport and one of the most important on the Mediterranean. Back of the city of Barcelona,
with its one and a half million inhabitants, in the North-East corner of the Iberian Peninsula, rises the hill El
Tibidabo.
From its 2,000-foot summit there is an all-embracing view of encircling pine-clad hills, with the snowy range of the
Pyrenees far away to the north. Below, outspread on the sloping plain, between the green of the Catalan Hills and the
blue of the Mediterranean, lies the great industrial metropolis of Spain.
With Madrid as its only national rival in population and progress. El Tibidabo's observation hill is reached by tram
and inclined railway. Barcelona's inhabitants are, in greater part, Catalans, of a different blood and tongue (Catalan)
from other Spaniards. Castilian is, however, the official language of all Spain.
The name of Barcelona is closely linked to that of Christopher Columbus and near the city's Gate of Peace is an
imposing 200 foot monument to the discoverer of the New World. The monument overlooks Barcelona Harbour.
It was to Barcelona that Columbus came overland from Palos, on his return from his first voyage to the New World, since
Ferdinand and Isabella were at that time holding court in the Catalonian metropolis. It was in the royal chapel of
Santa Agueda, now used as an archaeological museum, that Columbus attended Mass with their Catholic Majesties.
Barcelona's great Cathedral is its most notable building. Down in the crypt beneath the high altar of the Cathedral is
the alabaster tomb of Santa Eulaha, patron saint of Barcelona.
Barcelona has three bull-rings, one of which, the largest in Spain, can accommodate 25,000 persons. By a royal decree,
horses wear armour to protect them from being gored. The price of admission to a bull-fight, usually staged on a Sunday,
depends on the reputation of the fighters, the breed of the bulls, and the time of the year.
Las Ramblas
The favourite promenade of Barcelona's residents, 70% Catalan, is the Rambla. It is on the site of the ancient wall
and is in reality a wide shaded walk rather than a boulevard, with narrow one-way traffic streets on either side.
Las Ramblas is a pedestrian's paradise. Facing it are theatres, shops, clubs, restaurants and sidewalk cafés.
Its sylvan canopy shelters refreshment booths, news-stands and comfortable chairs which can be rented for a couple
of centavos.
One section of the Rambla is occupied by the racks of flower sellers, gay with gladioli, roses, carnations, camellias
and violets; another by the bird market, where, under blue-and-white awnings, wise, grey African parrots and
gorgeous-plumed birds of the Tropics fill the air with their chatter and song.
…Where the Rambla and the Plaza de Cataluna meet. Here fine shops, hotels and modern buildings
are flanked by narrow, meandering by-ways that breathe the life of the port.
Another fine thoroughfare is the magnificent Paseo de Colón, a fine palm-planted boulevard running along the
waterfront, past the custom house sheds to meet the Rambla at that part of the harbour known as the Gate of Peace. The
Paseo del Generalisimo Franco, the Triumphal Arch, and the business and residential sections of Barcelona - pride of
the Catalans - are all worth seeing.
The best excursion from Barcelona which can be made in one day is to the shrine of Montserrat, traditional guardian of
the Holy Grail. Montserrat's impressive rock mass, at an altitude of about 4,000 feet, has countless historic and
legendary associations.
Here Parsifal, the pure knight, is reputed to have brought to a successful termination his long quest for the Holy
Grail. On a ledge of a deep cleft perches the famous monastery of Montserrat.
The Mediterranean Sea
THE Mediterranean Sea, so named from its lying between the continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa, is the largest
enclosed sea in the World, and is connected with the open ocean only by the narrow Strait of Gibraltar, nine miles wide.
Since 1869, however, it has been artificially connected with the Red Sea and Indian Ocean by means of the Suez Canal.
The Mediterranean is 2,200 miles long from the Strait of Gibraltar eastward to the Syrian coast.
Its width varies from 500 or 600 miles in some places to less than 100 miles between Sicily and Cape Bon, where it is
divided by relatively shallow banks into two distinct hydrographic basins, the eastern one being the larger. It is
connected with the Black Sea via the Dardanelles, Sea of Marmora, and Bosporus.
The African and Syrian coasts are comparatively even and unindented, whilst the shores of Europe and Asia Minor are cut
up into numerous gulfs and bays, the largest of which is the Adriatic Sea. Various parts of the Mediterranean have been
known by special names, such as the Tyrrhenian and Iberian Seas in the western, and the Levant, Ægean, and Ionian
Seas in the eastern basin.
Many Islands
The principal islands in the western part are Sardinia and Corsica, the Balearic and Lipari Islands. The continental
islands of Sicily and Malta are situated on the banks dividing the two basins. In the eastern regions there are the
large islands of Cyprus and Crete, with the Ionian Islands and the islands of the Archipelago.
The countries bordering the Mediterranean have been the cradle of civilisation, and still this inland sea is
commercially the most important waterway of the World. The area of the Mediterranean is estimated at about 900,000
square miles, or, including the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, at 1,053,000 square miles.
Amazing Geography
The area of land draining into the Mediterranean is estimated at 2,969,350 square miles, or nearly 3,000,000 square
miles. The principal rivers flowing into the Mediterranean are the Rhône, Po, Danube, Dnieper, Don, and the Nile.
On the ridge, between Sicily and Africa which separates the Mediterranean into two basins, there is a depth of 200
fathoms; 2,040 fathoms is the greatest depth recorded in the western, and 2,187 fathoms the greatest in the eastern
basin; the mean depth of the whole sea is 768 fathoms.
The Mediterranean is usually called a tideless sea. At Algiers there is a rise of 3½ inches at springs, and half
that amount at neap tides; at other places the rise and fall is about 18 inches, and in the Gulf of Cabes the range
reaches five feet. There is an extensive red coral fishery and tunny fishery on some parts of the coasts.
The Mediterranean region appears to have been covered by the sea from early geological times, and during Tertiary times
must have had much wider communication with the open ocean.
Monday
20 March 1950
Algiers, Algeria
RMS Caronia is expected to arrive at Algiers on Monday, 20 March, at approximately 8.00am.
ALGIERS, the captal of Algeria, was built about 935 A.D. by an Arab chief. It rises from the seashore up the sides of
a precipitous hill in the form of an equilateral triangle. The apex is formed by the Kasbah, the ancient fortress of
the deys, which is 500 feet above sea level. With the exception of some mosques, the new or low town consists of wharfs,
warehouses, government houses, squares, and streets, principally built and inhabited by the French; while the old or
high town is almost wholly Moorish.
The great glory of the city is the Boulevard de la République, with its magnificent terrace, built in 1860-66
by Sir Morton Peto, at a cost of eight million francs. Here may be found as motley a crowd as anywhere in the World,
denizens of all nations - Arabs, Moors, and Jews; French, Spaniards, Maltese, English, Germans, and Italians.
The shops, too, are occasionally very good. The French have at great expense improved the port,
which is safe and spacious and has a lighthouse.
The original harbour of this city was made in 1525 by connecting with the shore four little islands (hence the name of
the city). Near the great quays is the railway station, connecting Algiers with Constantine and Oran. The town has a
Catholic cathedral, a French Protestant church, an English church, a synagogue, a library, museum, hospitals, theatres,
and banks.
There is a great trade, Algiers being the chief commercial place in Algeria. Algiers has become famous as a winter
residence for Europeans suffering from chest diseases. It fell into the hands of the French in 1830. Population in
1936 was 252,321.
