The Discovery of France by Graham Robb
A wonderful adventurous book, ride, walk, and just encounter the hinterlands of France and the adventure of becoming a country, united by a language. It was not easy, nor was the unification of a country and it"s language. All roads led to Paris, and thus the unification began.
I could not help but think of the parallels of the United States becoming a country of many States during the same period of time, as also the unification of Italy. It was a time when unification made sense, so people could be accounted for and the State could grow and be responsible .
Crossing the Alps was an adventure and although the Grand Tour was not mentioned it was easily alluded to in the crossing of the Alps. The horses could not make some of the steep inclines, so a donkey was brought along . The coach would be taken apart, and the donkey would haul it on a travois over the top of the incline, where it would be reassembled for the harrowing ride down the mountain. Robert Louis Stevenson and others took the Grand Tour in this manner, across the Alps to Italy, and back.
Superstition and lack of communication led to the death of one of Cassini's map makers. Spas grew up where people came to take the waters and fed by towns anxious for income more business grew up around the spas. Gossip could travel faster than man, one wondered how that could happen?
Today we think that everyone needs what civilization has to offer, but on is startled back to a one room cottage, with firepit, outside accommodations and uncleanliness. This was life for many of us before the advent of industrialization
Finally, I learned about the start of the Tour de France and I learned why, when I was in Paris in the 1950's the French would seem rude when they barked at me, "Speak French!" I did struggle to speak French, and wondered why they were so rude, after all I was only a "kid", struggling to make myself understood,( as though I could just spout out French)
The railroads, the coach roads, the many people that walked from the outlying areas, all came together in the glittering city of Paris, uniting the languages, the cultures and the ideals, until, we had ...Vive La France!
An interesting journey, worth the time for armchair travelers, that like to accumulate knowledge about the world and its people.
I could not help but think of the parallels of the United States becoming a country of many States during the same period of time, as also the unification of Italy. It was a time when unification made sense, so people could be accounted for and the State could grow and be responsible .
Crossing the Alps was an adventure and although the Grand Tour was not mentioned it was easily alluded to in the crossing of the Alps. The horses could not make some of the steep inclines, so a donkey was brought along . The coach would be taken apart, and the donkey would haul it on a travois over the top of the incline, where it would be reassembled for the harrowing ride down the mountain. Robert Louis Stevenson and others took the Grand Tour in this manner, across the Alps to Italy, and back.
Superstition and lack of communication led to the death of one of Cassini's map makers. Spas grew up where people came to take the waters and fed by towns anxious for income more business grew up around the spas. Gossip could travel faster than man, one wondered how that could happen?
Today we think that everyone needs what civilization has to offer, but on is startled back to a one room cottage, with firepit, outside accommodations and uncleanliness. This was life for many of us before the advent of industrialization
Finally, I learned about the start of the Tour de France and I learned why, when I was in Paris in the 1950's the French would seem rude when they barked at me, "Speak French!" I did struggle to speak French, and wondered why they were so rude, after all I was only a "kid", struggling to make myself understood,( as though I could just spout out French)
The railroads, the coach roads, the many people that walked from the outlying areas, all came together in the glittering city of Paris, uniting the languages, the cultures and the ideals, until, we had ...Vive La France!
An interesting journey, worth the time for armchair travelers, that like to accumulate knowledge about the world and its people.
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