Bathing-suit

THE undersigned would announce to his friends and the public that the above popular BAYSIDE RESORT is now open to visitors. MUSIC in constant attendance; BATHING-SUITS on hand; and ample arrangements made for the comfortable and healthful entertainment of guests.

We stood there, for quite a while, admiring the sight before us, and had it not been for the ludicrous figures and appearances of some ladies and gentlemen in their queer bathing-suits, thrown like a shell hither and thither by the powerful waves, we would have fallen into a profound reverie.

No sooner had I been helped into my bathing-suit than I sprang out upon the warm sand and without thought of fear plunged into the cool water. […] After I had recovered from my first experience in the water I thought it great fun to sit on a big rock in my bathing-suit and feel wave after wave dash against the rock sending up a shower of spray which quite covered me.

A bathing-suit, for example, would be inappropriate and shocking if worn to do the shopping, while swimming in one’s coat and shoes would be absurd for the purpose of swimming, but perhaps apt as a fund-raising stunt.

Sandy and salty from the sea, we reluctantly left Cadaqués and drove north on the narrow N-260, keeping bathing-suits at the ready, and jumping out of the car every chance we could to swim in ever-less-populated coves as we neared the French border.