Les Sables Dolonne

LES SABLES D'OLONNE, a seaport of western France, capital of an arrondissement of the department of Vendee, on an inlet of the Atlantic seaboard, 23 m. S.W. of La Roche-sur-Yon by rail. Pop. (1931) 13,258.

Sables was founded by Basque or Spanish sailors and invaded by the Normans in 817. Louis XI. in 1472 granted the inhabi tants various privileges, improved the harbour, and fortified the entrance. The town was captured and recaptured during the Wars of Religion and became a nursery of hardy sailors and privateers. In 1696 Sables was bombarded by the combined English and Dutch fleets.

The town stands between the sea on the south and the port on the north, while on the west it is separated by a channel from the suburb of La Chaume. There is a fine beach. To the north of Sables extend salt-marshes and oyster-parks, yielding 6,000,000 to 8,000,000 oysters per annum. Sables has a 17th century church. The port, consisting of a tidal basin and a wet-dock, is accessible to vessels drawing 16 ft. at neap tides, but is dangerous when the winds are from the south-west. The lighthouse of Barges stands

a mile out at sea to the west. The inhabitants are employed largely in sardine and tunny fishing; there are imports of coal, wood and petroleum. Boat-building and sardine-preserving are carried on. The town has a sub-prefecture.

LES

coast village of France in the department of Boaches-du-Rhone, 24 m. S.W. of Arles by rail. Pop. (1931) 598. It is the object of an ancient pilgrimage due to the tradition that Mary, sister of the Virgin, and Mary, mother of James and John, together with their black servant Sara, Lazarus, Martha, Mary Magdalen and St. Maximin fled thither to escape persecution in Judaea. The relics of the two Maries, said to have been buried at Saintes-Maries, are in the apse of the fortress church, a 12th century building. Two festivals are held, one in October, the other in May, unique for its gathering of gipsies who come to do honour to the tomb of their patroness Sara.