The Discovery of France (58 page)

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In Toulouse: Forster, 67.

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Flanders: Barbault-Royer, 93; Lavallée, V, ‘Jemmapes’, 23.

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‘incomparably fine’: Young, 25.

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Soon after Bourganeuf: Marlin, II, 141–2.

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Governor of Brittany: Trévédy, 5.

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army handbook: État-major de l’armée de terre, 161.

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Reventin slope . . . Laffrey incline: Stendhal, 147 and 395.

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Tarare hill: e.g. Bouchard, 95.

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flattened these monsters: Cavaillès, 198; Lavallée, V, ‘Rhône’, 3–4.

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route taken by Hannibal: e.g. Whymper, 52 (elephant inn sign at Ville-Vieille).

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Col de Tende: J. Black, 31.

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‘In execution of His Majesty’s orders’: Cavaillès, 188–9.

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‘to have drawings made’: Ladoucette, ‘Anecdotes’, 73.

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Italian pedlars and beggars: Fortis, I, 371.

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nineteenth-century regulations: Préfecture du Calvados.

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grenadier from the Vivarais: Volane, 154–5.

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‘warehouse of universal commerce’: Pons, de l’Hérault, 292 and 298.

12. T
RAVELLING IN
F
RANCE
, II

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‘the harmonious arrangement’: Strabo,
Geography
, IV, 1,2.

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plank boats: also the Loire: Barker (1894), 147–8; Hufton, 121; Leca.

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Tiny rivers: Cavailles, 264; Cobb (1970), 283.

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report on the Dordogne: Peuchet, ‘Dordogne’, 8.

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first person ... to descend the Rhône: Boissel; Peuchet, ‘Ain’, 5.

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Perte du Rhône . . . blown up: Reclus (1886), 328.

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daily passenger boat (Yonne and Seine): Restif, 274; L. Bonnard, 77; Cobb (1975 and 1998); Frye, 97.

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Diligences: e.g. Carr, 32–3; Murray, xxv–xxvi.

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waterproof cushions: Bayle-Mouillard, 249–51.

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‘I should not want to travel’: Taylor, 362–3.

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‘the incommodious throng’: Gasparin, I, 30.

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four white hooves: Mistral (1906), 189.

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‘my poor little carriage’: Stendhal, 135; also Assemblée Nationale, XXXVI, 310 (22 Dec. 1791).

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salvo of abuse: Courtois, 45; Cradock, 260; Fleutelot, 11; Masson de Saint-Amand, 92.

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‘The deck was littered with nutshells’:
L’Éducation sentimentale,
part I, ch. 1.

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between Rouen and Paris: Roland de La Platière, 13.

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Raft trains: Lavallée, V, ‘La Roër’, 8–9; Peuchet, ‘Rhin-et-Moselle’, 5–6.

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Pont-Saint-Esprit: e.g. Coulon, 162; Smollett, letter 9; Thicknesse, I, 59; etc.

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voyage down the Loire: Stendhal, 219–26.

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mail boat from Toulouse: Mercier-Thoinnet, 24.

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‘For those who have long been jolted’: Murray, 455.

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Saint-Simonian reformer: Chevalier (1838), 215.

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‘A vivacious old man’: Stevenson (1878), ‘To Landrecies’.

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wine-laden boats: Martin and Martenot, 411.

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hundred and seventy boats that plied the canal: Forster, 69–70.

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stepping stones: Hubscher, 376 n. 77.

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pastor touring Provence: Frossard, I, 80.

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‘consider making a will’: Weber, 198 n. (quoting G. Garrier).

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‘rough and low-bred’: Murray, xxv.

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notoriously bribable: Barbault-Royer, 170–72; Blackburn (1870), 239.

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‘arrayed in the green tail-coat’: Stevenson (1879), 14.

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swamp dwellers of the Marais Poitevin: Lagardelle, 210.

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shepherds on stilts: Saint-Amans (1812), 35 and 66; also Administration centrale des Landes, 2; Best, 354; Lawlor (1870), 545; Tastu (1842), 297.

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snow-shoes . . . Crampons: Saussure, I, 479; Chaix, 77; Ladoucette (1833), 140.

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schlitteurs
: Grad, 23–6; Robischung, 88; Valin.

244 ‘We felt as though we were swimming’: Saint-Amans (1789), 29–30; other accounts: Dusaulx, I, 171–2 (Pyrenees); Thévenin (Vosges), 76–7.

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bicycles and skis: skis were introduced to the French Alps in 1891 by Henri Duhamel, who had acquired a pair, with no instructions, at the Paris Exhibition of 1878.

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‘They simply slid back down’: Mistral (1906), 222.

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speed records: Arbellot (1973) (times from Paris); Aynard; Chevalier (1838), 305–7 (diligences); Viard (mail timetables). E.g.: in 1721, Saint-Simon (127–37) went from Paris to Bayonne in seventeen days; in 1815, Théodore Aynard (117) went from Lyon to Paris in six days; in 1843, letters took five days to reach Paris from Finistère, parts of the Auvergne and all the Mediterranean and Pyrenean provinces, six days from parts of the Basses-Alpes and between six and nine days from Corsica.

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‘What was I to do?’: Wille, I, 50; also Maclean, 180: ‘some of us, having set off on foot before the diligence, walked the whole stage [nine miles, from Cavignac to Saint-André-de-Cubzac], and had breakfasted before the others arrived.’

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railway engineer: Aynard.

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emperors travelling in Gaul: L. Bonnard, 12.

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Drouet kept an account: V. Hugo, ‘Voyages’, pp. 990–93.

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profit on uneaten meals: Bernhard, 56; A. Duval, 43 n.; etc.

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Orléans was a candle: V. Hugo, ‘Voyages’, p. 751.

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Nerval set off: Nerval, III, ‘Voyage au Nord’.

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‘So here I’ve been’: Hugo to Vigny, 20 July 1821.

13. C
OLONIZATION

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‘more quickly than a human heart’: ‘Le Cygne’,
Les
Fleurs
du Mal
.

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ocean-bathing . . . at Dieppe: Duplessis, 321; Perrot, 302.

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toured the Vendée: Nettement; Walsh.

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‘
THE MINISTER OF THE INTERIOR
’: Ploux (2003), 33.

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sent out a proclamation: Nettement, III, 127–8.

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road-building programme: Cavaillès, 184 and 202–3; H. Proust; Weber, 196.

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military routes . . . of the Cévennes: Cavaillès, 60; Dainville, 78; Foville (1894), II, 95; figure 13.

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‘the first person to come along’:
Mon
cœur
mis
à
nu
, xxv: Baudelaire (1975–76), I, 692.

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Brouage in 1772: Marlin, IV, 295.

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Napoléonville: Anon. (1856); Savant, 43, 74 and 61 (on Pontivy-Napoléonville).

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mass internal migration: e.g. Cleary, 11–12; A. Joanne (1869), I, lx; Moch, 22.

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grooves cut by the barges’ cables: Mistral (1896), 3.

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tiny houses: Audiganne, II, 150–51; Jordan, 33–4; Lavallée, I, ‘Bouches-du-Rhône’, 60; Marlin, I, 94; Michot de La Cauw, 31; Pachoud, XLIV, 162–3; Plumptre, II, 194–5.

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‘Wherever one looks’: Stendhal, 713.

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labyrinth as large as a city: Coyer, I, 109.

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more than twenty thousand: Pöllnitz, IV, 103.

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mazets
,
baraquettes
, etc.: Audiganne, II, 150–51; Aufauvre, 147; Moch, 86; S. Papon, 10.

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‘The host is never satisfied’: A. Legoyt, in
Les
Français
,
Province
, II, 223.

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thirty thousand Parisians: Perrot, 301.

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deserted banks of the Seine: Smollett, letter 6.

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cliff-dwellings: Baring-Gould (1911), 39.

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cave near Tours: Capitan, 581.

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‘the extinction of poverty’: Bonaparte.

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France’s first railway: Caron, 85; Blerzy, 656–7.

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‘the sky is perfectly visible’: Tonnellé, 514.

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‘rivers of coal-smoke’: ‘Paysage’,
Les
Fleurs
du
Mal
.

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clan traditions: Audiganne, I, 163–8.

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pre-industrial landscape: e.g. Planhol, 240.

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Sotteville and Saint-Sever: Audiganne, I, 55.

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elderly people: C. Malte-Brun (1823), 269.

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Aubin: Monteil, I, 63–5.

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Burning Mountain: Peuchet, ‘Aveiron’, 4; Monteil, I, 58.

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its neighbour Cransac: Barker (1893), 337–8.

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‘find at Decazeville’: Larousse, VI, 218.

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phylloxera aphid: e.g. Bouvier, 56; McPhee, in Crook, 143; Moch, 47.

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tracts of land . . . reclaimed: McPhee (1992), 223; Sutton.

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colonies of orphans: Anon. (1849).

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‘a damp hospital’: Reclus (1886), 76–7.

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swamp fever: F. Pyat, in
Les Français, Province,
II, 236.

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the Double: Barker (1894), 246–7.

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Craponne and Pierrelatte: Duby, III, 195.

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‘untilled and arid Crau’: Mistral (1859), VIII, 25.

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Rivesaltes: see Grynberg, 202–7.

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flower-pot without a hole: About, 107.

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tree-planting . . . since prehistory: Mortemart de Boisse.

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‘You ask how I found the Landes?’: Guignet, 140–41.

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yellow-skinned tribe: e.g. Rosenstein, 347–54; Saint-Amans (1812); V. Gaillard, in
Les Français, Province
,II, 113–15.

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‘The urban Landais’: V. Gaillard, in
Les Français, Province,
II, 120.

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In the Corbières: McPhee (1999).

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effects of deforestation: Dugied; McPhee (1999); Museon Arlaten; P. Chevallier; also Fauchet, 11–13; Grangent, 21.

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tour of inspection: Dugied, 3 and 17.

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Picardy and Flanders: Duby, III, 197.

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In the Pyrenees: Buffault, 343 (the ‘chemin de la mâture’).

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talking in whispers: Dusaulx, I, 108.

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Restoration of Mountain Terrains: Museon Arlaten.

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‘The French Alps’: Reclus (1886), 88.

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‘the ruins’: O. Reclus (1886), 89.

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Chaudun: Museon Arlaten.

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‘when the people left the village’: M. Chabre, www.retrouvance.com/histoire.htm

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‘controlled reintroduction’:
Bois-Forêt.Info,
26 Sep. 2002.

14. T
HE
W
ONDERS OF
F
RANCE

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borrowed from English: e.g.E´ gron (1830), 17, where the word is explained in a note.

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routes south from Paris: described by Leduc.

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‘Long legs, thin body’: Taine (1858), 282–3.

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21 June 1741: Windham (1744).

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visitors to Chamonix: Durier, 52; Ferrand (1912), 6; Windham (1879); Bruchet.

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Dijon and Langres: Durier, 52; La Rochefoucauld d’Anville, 31.

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excellent impersonators: Leschevin, 326; Saussure, II, 165–6.

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‘terrible havock’: Windham (1744), 6–7.

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You must imagine’: Windham (1744), 8.

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‘What did you think of the horrors?’: Dusaulx, I, 57; also L. Bonnard, 59; Fortis, I, 111; Jourdan, 141; Peuchet, ‘Hautes-Alpes’, 6.

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‘I had imagined a mountain’: Desnoues, 16.

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‘corpses of the mountains’: quoted in Orlov, II, 90–91.

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‘Such uncouth rocks’: letter to Richard West, Turin, 11 Nov. 1739.

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‘one could hardly mention’: Moore, I, 186.

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Those people don’t understand’: Fortis, II, 237.

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excruciating silence: Achard (1850), 281–2.

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the first to scale: e.g. a wooden cross on the Pic de Rochebrune in 1819: Ferrand (1909), 41.

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Santiago de Compostela: Melczer, 90–91.

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‘to form one’s taste’: Piganiol de La Force, I, vi. Cf. Louette.

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‘the barrenest Plain’: Breval, 1–2.

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monuments that had . . . ceased to exist: e.g. Piganiol de La Force; J.- P. Papon.

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‘M. Robert went to the trouble’: Marlin, III, 65 and 148; Hesseln, IV, 369–70; also J.-P. Papon.

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‘eternal snow’: Barron,
Rhône,
224–5; also Flaubert, 355; Girault de Saint-Fargeau, 490; Murray, 444; Peuchet, ‘Vaucluse’, 7; Pigault - Lebrun, 44.

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‘clumps of bulrushes’: Barron (1888), 23.

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Pont du Gard . . . deserted: e.g. Richard and Lheureux, 12–13; Thicknesse, I, 63.

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a year’s stay in Paris: Dutens, 17.

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Seven Wonders of the Dauphiné:e.g. Chorier, I, ch. 12; Saugrain, 125; Wraxall, I, ch. 7.

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‘intercede there, as is customary’: Melczer, 97.

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‘a walk that is pleasing’: Girault de Saint-Fargeau, 72.

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‘use your drawing pencils’: Briand, x.

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‘natural curiosities’ of France: Depping (1811), 606–14. Other lists in Girault de Saint-Fargeau, p. xiii ff. and La Roche, the first to use a star system for ‘those Articles one would most regret missing’.

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Valenciennes . . . Quiberon: Lavallée, ‘Nord’, 18; ‘Loire-Inférieure’, 3.

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‘The barracks are magnificent’: Lavallée, III, ‘Meurthe’, 12.

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‘the air oftentimes reverberates’: Lavallée, I, ‘Côtes-du-Nord’, 8.

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Ariège in 1800: Mercadier de Bélesta, 60–65.

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‘Cathar tourism’: Mercadier de Bélesta, 64.

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‘twelve years have elapsed’: Birkbeck, 3.