And yet nothing could have differed more utterly, either, from the real Balbec than that other Balbec of which I had often dreamed, on stormy days, when the wind was so strong that Françoise, as she took me to the Champs-Elysées, would warn me not to walk too near the side of the street, or I might have my head knocked off by a falling slate, and would recount to me, with many lamentations, the terrible disasters and shipwrecks that were reported in the newspaper.
Baina, era berean, ezerk ez zuen lotura ahulagorik benetako Balbecekin nik hain maiz amestu izana nuenak baino, haurtzaroko ekaitz-egun haietan, haizea hain bortitza zenean non Françoisek, Champs-Elysées-etara ninderamanean, gaztigatzen baitzidan ez hurbiltzeko gehiegi etxe-hormen parera, teilaren bat buru gainera eror ez zekidan, eta mintzatzen zenean, intzirika, egunkariek edesten zituztèn ezbehar ikaragarri eta hondoratze lazgarriei buruz.