Since when am I pretentious? And actually I'm not sure that example is the most pretentious thing done in the first half of the 20th century. For instance the family every year gave a very significant contribution to the police Christmas ball as thanks for them doing a stellar job looking after us during the year---although all well off families used to do that.
And my great grandfather used to take a very long lunch break (something like two hours) because he didn't want to eat lunch in the office and hence drove back home to eat lunch and then, at least in his later years, take a nap before returning to the office. Perhaps also playing a few hands of Ombre during the lunch break if one of his brothers happened to have stopped by. Heck there was even made a law trying to prevent him "abusing" the system for personal gain, though said law utterly failed in its purpose---bloody socialists who can't take industrious men making money in ingenious ways.
I think those two things might be worse pretention wise.
At least we didn't name the many streets we made after ourselves; they got really good names actually. (Also speaking of that then when my grandfather was a small child he at some point drove his three wheel bicycle to one of the many places my great grandfather was developing and there he was told by a worker who saw him, that when his father had given him such a nice and expensive bike he shouldn't drive it around in the mud overseeing the work. I've always found that funny; I guess bikes were expensive back then, though it might also have been the worker not wanting to risk the boss' son getting hurt on the construction site.)
Oh sure; though I still found it hilarious. Also before the government essentially expropriated them all (they essentially told all owners: "what a nice beachhouse you have; would be a shame if something should happen to it") there used to be multiple beachhouses along that coast line---all with private beaches of course (until the socialists passed a law forbidding you fro fencing off your private beach and allowing anybody to not just walk through it but also stay for as long as they wanted...)---so it could have meant any of them. Although afaik our beachhouse was the only one which had a plantation connected to it.
It was a different branch of my family which was deeply involved with the resistance. Though this branch might well have helped some from time to time---don't know. It was not something you talked about during the war for obvious reasons and aside from the last of my grandfathers cousins (born 1917 or 1918) who might still be alive (don't know; she was a few years back at least), there's nobody still alive who were adults when the war broke out.
And the beach house was acquired way before WWII, so it's purpose indeed was for lounging. That, and the other beach houses, pretty much were the permanent residences for large parts of the family during the summer.
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