At the smaller places, however, though these also
have their _comite des fetes_, one escapes to a great extent from
these disagreeable surroundings.
May, June, and September are the pleasantest months upon the coast
of Flanders, for the visitors are not so numerous, and even in
mid-winter the dunes are worth a visit. Then the hotels and villas
fronting the sea are closed, and their windows boarded up. The
bathing-machines are removed from the beach, and stand in rows in
some sheltered spot. The _digue_, a broad extent of level brickwork,
is deserted, and the wind sweeps along it, scattering foam and
covering it with sand and sprays of tangled seaweed. The mossy
surface of the dunes is frozen hard as iron, and often the hailstones
rush in furious blasts before the wind. For league after league
there is not a sign of life, except the sea-birds flying low near
the shore, or the ships rising and falling in the waves far out
to sea. In the winter months the coast of Flanders is bleak and
stormy, but the air in these solitudes is as health-giving as in
any other part of Europe.
Of late years the Government, represented by Comte de Smet de Naeyer,
has bestowed much attention on the development of the littoral,
and King Leopold II.
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