The Season in Ostend The season in Ostend signifies a colourful and unbroken alternation of festivals and public events. For all who frequent this, the largest and most elegant among the Belgian coastal resorts, the motivation, officially at least, is that which otherwise incites most people to visit bathing resorts: the need for peace and relaxation. The person who, through the course of a year, has the sense of being dragged through the stimulating and thrilling round of metropolitan pleasures, who feels the pulse of life and all their resilience stretched to the limit and is, one might say, bloated with culture and refinement, becomes accustomed to profiting from summer weeks of harmonious relaxation in the calm contemplation of nature cut off from these energies. But for the clientele of Ostend it''s different. For them, this summer halt is not a rest, a chance to switch off, on the contrary it''s only another shining link in the endless chain of society distractions, an ersatz for the broiling boulevards of the metropolis, for their theatres, their festivals, their gardens, which summer renders unapproachable. Little by little Ostend has become the unofficial rendezvous-location for the real and bogus aristocracy that one sees floating like a spume above the waves of capitals, everywhere encountering and recognising itself, and for whom a home-town is merely a station in transit from which they seek to reach the great international centres of pleasure. Ostend shelters these welcome guests in high summer, from July to the last days of August. One could speak copiously and endlessly of these days without ever evoking by a single word the happy situation of Ostend, for in the overall canvas, nature is merely a backdrop.

You might say that here nature is only so prodigious in beauty in order to glorify the triumph of modern civilisation and to provide a frame worthy of its perfection, where within is celebrated human beauty and mankind''s conquests in ingenuity. Here, the effect of the shore does not depend on the view extending into the distance over the sea, which bears to you a tangy and healthgiving air, so much as on admiring the extraordinary elegance of the hotels on the front and the splendid outfits of the women gathered there as if they were promenading in the city. The pier, which runs far out into the sea, signals the great achievements of modern technology, the port with its elegant steamships and yachts; the beach is of more interest for the particular style of the bathing costumes and the rather prodigious display of freedom of manners, than through any effect of its own. As has been said, here nature is modest in comparison with the works of men, for culture comes to stand facing her, all-conquering with its last, most important and most refined achievements. The physiognomy of Ostend is naturally the exact mirror of its visitors. People most active throughout the year feel in summer the need for idleness; on the other hand, those without profession, or whose jobs do not detain them, always aspire to some superficial occupation that they may satisfy here through sport or gambling. One fact proves to what extent gambling has become for Ostend a condition of existence: last year when the gaming rooms had to be closed at Ostend and Spa, the Belgian state wanted to award these two towns a compensation package of seven million francs - a decree that for the moment has not come to bear. In any case, the amount of compensation gives a rough idea of the astonishing level of receipts that each season''s gambling gives rise to.

The centre of Ostend''s world of elegance is the Kursaal. This splendid and substantial edifice stands alongside the sea wall, flanked on both sides by rows of the most elegant villas offering a view from the rear over Léopold Park and the town. In the great room, afternoons and evenings, the distinguished public of Ostend attend concerts; particularly in the evening when the men may only appear in society dress or dance attire, and women of all nations compete in the magnificence of their outfits and jewellery, when the vast room is filled to capacity by the noble ranks of the beau monde - and this is true even of the demi monde - in such moments Ostend leaves a veritably grandiose impression, even on the inhabitants of a major city. Every day after the concert they give a ball; but the majority of visitors retire then to the other rooms at the rear of the casino, which form part of the assembly rooms. In the first the gambling is public and open to all; of course, here the turnover is not so high and the most audacious bid for Red or Black is fixed at three hundred francs. Gambling properly speaking takes place at Cercle Privé, the biggest club in Ostend, which nevertheless does not operate a rigorous admissions policy and requests a mere twenty francs for the price of entry. There unfold the most interesting scenes, which from the very next day are customarily the talk of the town; losses and wins of several thousand francs at Roulette. The most sumptuous outfits mix together, sometimes belonging to real princesses, sometimes to princesses of the music hall; one encounters here also numerous cosmopolitan people of whom no one knows anything other than that they frequent all the world''s casinos and are never absent so long as the gaming rooms remain open.

And this scene continues, unchanged, from morning until the dawn of the following day.