According to Prince von Bülow, Memoirs, 1849–1897, trans. G. Dunlop and F. A. Voigt (1932), Ch. 34, it is said that at a naval review at MacMahon gazed long at the Mediterranean and then exclaimed thus. However, cp. Eugène Labiche, Le Voyage en Chine (1865), act 3, sc. 2: J'aime la mer, mais que d'eau... que d'eau!...https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Patrice_de_MacMahon