Voyagers and Voyeurs

Travels in 19th Century France A treasure-chest from the golden age of travel writing. Annotated, humorous highlights from over 100 eye-witness travel accounts (diaries, journals, collected letters, reports, travel guides) written between 1750 and 1918. English and American authors, including some of the most famous literary figures of the 18th and 19th centuries: Dickens, RL Stevenson, James Fenimore Cooper, Mark Twain, Henry James, plus an eccentric host of itinerant parsons, amateur antiquarians, well-heeled aristocrats and ladies of independent spirit. A huge read.  Long before Peter Mayle grumbled his way through A Year in Provence, or Stephen Clarke traced his slippery path through A Year in the Merde, travellers from the English-speaking world were amazed by the curious customs, the strange sights, sounds and smells of France. Complaining about the waiters, the plumbing, admiring the cheeseboards and pretty girls.