The Discovery of France

by Graham Robb

  link new Saint Aygulf: Bérenger-Féraud, III, 515.

  link Saint Greluchon: S. Bonnard; Weber, 348. Also Sand (1866), 17.

  link ‘You were a just man’: Renan, 17.

  link ‘A blacksmith came too’: Renan, 58.

  link If the saint refused: Weber, 347; Bérenger-Féraud, I, 461 and 452–3.

  link took the side of authoritarian regimes: Ralph Gibson, 271.

  link Hedgehogs: Sébillot (1882), II, 97.

  link slice a living white dove: Pineau, 177.

  link magic luminescent herb: Déguignet, 79.

  link list of every folk remedy: Loux and Richard.

  link scraping the mouth: Déguignet, 83.

  link sessions in the smithy: e.g. Vuillier, 511–18.

  link road-mender at Nasbinals: Ardouin-Dumazet (1904); also Mazon (1882), 390.

  link Clermont d’Excideuil: Ralph Gibson, 138.

  link throwing balls of wool: Peuchet, ‘Haute-Vienne’, 43; Stendhal, 309 (Uzerche).

  8. MIGRANTS AND COMMUTERS

  link Madrid to Paris: Blanqui, 237–8.

  link ‘like Robinson Crusoe on his island’: Stendhal, 12.

  link art critic Auguste Jal: Jal (1836), I, 35–8.

  link Le Havre heard about the fall: Lefebvre, 79.

  link local tailor: Lefebvre, 82.

  link arrest of the royal family: Braudel, III, 252; Julia and Milo, 470; Ploux (2003), 30.

  link Waterloo: Dumas (1863–84), II, 83–5.

  link ‘Do not ask . . .’: Balzac, X, 1073 (Les Marana); see also Ploux (2003), 33 (3.5 hours to Bicêtre).

  link victory at Cenabum: Anon. (1848); Caesar, Gallic War, VII, 1; also VI, 3; Cestre. Cf. aerial telegraph: Soulange, 137.

  link Maps of the Great Fear: Lefebvre, 198–9.

  link Massif Central . . . bypassed: Boudin, 348–52; Planhol, 287 and 289; Weld (1850), 57.

  link rumours died out: Lefebvre, 201.

  link suspected a well-organized plot: Hazareesingh, Legend, 51.

  link Charlieu: Lefebvre, 86–7.

  link one-fifth of the total surface: Peuchet, ‘Finistère’, 11; etc.; Assemblèe Nationale, II, 7.

  link Beauvais to Amiens: Goubert, 89; also Malaucène: Saurel, I, 57–60.

  link fragile capillaries: Braudel, III, 228–32; Peuchet, ‘Calvados’, 10.

  link ‘My road lay through’: Stevenson (1879), 56.

  link Voie Regordane: Moch, 49–50. The name may be related to the Gaulish rigo, ‘king’.

  link Stevenson could have bought: Moch, quoting R. Thinthoin, 49–50.

  link ‘The little green and stony cattle-tracks’: Stevenson (1879), 38.

  link Brownian motion: Planhol, 186–7.

  link south and east of the line: Hufton, 72; Planhol, 242 and 285–9.

  link ‘Crabas amont, filhas aval’: Moch, 68.

  link From the . . . Cantal: Weber, 279; Wirth.

  link army handbook: État-major de l’armée de terre, 118.

  link processions of young girls: Dureau de la Malle, 250; also Gildea, 10.

  link loues or louées: N. Parfait, in Les Français, Province, II, 104–5; Masson de Saint-Amand, 129.

  link bands of little boys: Campenon, 64–7; Drohojowska, 128–30; Hufton, 98; Ladoucette, Histoire; Peuchet, ‘Jura’, 14.

  link In Paris, they found their way: A. Frémy, in Les Français, I, 145–52, and G. d’Alcy, ibid., Province, III, 135; Gaillard; George; Drohojowska, 128–30, 131–3; Perrot, 231; Raison-Jourde (1976 and 1980); Tombs, 238; Weber, 282.

  link pedlars’ baskets: Babeau (1883), 80–81; http://montlhery.com/ colporteur.htm (May 2002); also Fontaine, 107; Weber, 280.

  link botanizing tourists: Ferrand (1903), 109.

  link Bearnese pedlars in Spain: Hufton, 89.

  link pretend to be pilgrims: Babeau (1894), II, 103; Hufton, 125; cf. Manier, 35.

  link Deceit ... a speciality: Fontaine, 107; Hufton, 83–4; P. Roux, 211.

  link Smuggling . . . Nice: Pachoud, XLIII, 312.

  link Catalans and Roussillonnais: Hufton, 298–300.

  link pretending to be pregnant: McPhee (1992), 23.

  link More than twelve thousand: Hufton, 291.

  link ‘Eggs, bacon, poultry’: Pinkney, 33.

  link ‘maisons de lait’: Martin and Martenot, 489–90.

  link closer ties with Spain: Duroux; P. Girardin, 447; also A. Legoyt, in Les Français, Province, II, 214; Moch; Raison-Jourde (1976), 187–8.

  link ‘improving an uncultivated corner’: Balzac, IX, 407.

  link ‘And so, dear friend’: Fontaine, 26.

  link oil-, soap- and perfume factories: Audiganne, II, 242–3.

  link law on child labour (1840): e.g. Simon, 50; Bouvier, 56; A. Fremy, in Les Français, Province, I.

  link articles de Paris: Larousse, VIII, 726.

  link ‘He stopped in a little square’: Balzac, IV, 29–30.

  link insulated from the lands: Weber, 43.

  link Bureau of Wet-Nurses: Kock, I, 7–16; Sussman.

  link Saint-Oradoux: Clément, 7.

  link starving cobblers: Hufton, 97.

  link Poor regions like the Vercors: Planhol, 390–91.

  link apprentice’s Tour de France: Arnaud; Perdiguier (1854 and 1863); also Ménétra; Planhol, 288–89.

  link ‘Route of the Tour de France’: Arnaud, 12–16.

  link laws and regulations: Malepeyre.

  link three out of every four Compagnons: Arnaud, 295.

  link the gruelling journey: Nadaud, 24–39; Tindall. Other details from Cavaillès, 161; Girault de Saint-Fargeau; Grandsire (1863); L. D. M.; Murray; Orlov, I, 24; Peuchet, ‘Creuse’, 23; Raison-Jourde (1976), 84–5; Sand (1844), 45; Sand (1856), VIII, 6.

  link peasant ... to Poitiers: Gazier, 1879, 70.

  link coucous: Duckett, XVII, 405; Larousse, V, 290.

  link ‘Encore un pour Sceaux!’: Jubinal, 317.

  INTERLUDE

  link smuggler dogs of Peronne: Lavallée, V, ‘Somme’, 23–4; cf. V. Gaillard, in Les Français, Province, II, 58. The dogs were ‘bergers picards’, not directly related to the later breed of that name.

  link nail-makers’ dogs: Barberet, IV, 190; Rayeur (illust.); Barker (1893), 113–14; also in Jura: Lequinio, I, 275–6.

  link dog-carts: MP, 1908, p. 300; 1911, p. 167.

  link ‘I celebrate those calamitous canines’: ‘Les Bons chiens’, Baudelaire (1975–76), I, 361.

  link Cows and horses lived next door: e.g. Huet de Coëtlizan, 409.

  link ‘a very motley and promiscuous set’: Alison, II, 22; also Dumont (1890), 426.

  link fed until they died: Perrot, 529.

  link kiauler, tioler: Rolland de Denus, 327 and 421; Sand (1846); Weber, 430–31.

  link animals conversed with humans: e.g. Webster (1901), 103.

  link The hunter would wrap himself: Dusaulx, II, 186–7; also Veryard, 111.

  link village school for bears: www.midi-pyrenees.biz/mp/ariege/ariege erce.htm

  link ‘I have nothing’: Montaran, 237–8.

  link ‘the purgatory of men’: Audiganne, II, 100–01.

  link dogs of Brittany and Maine: Hufton, 291–2.

  link Paris’s dog markets: Janin, 235–6.

  link percheron horses: Dumas (1847), 28.

  link Cossack horses: Peake (‘A Trip to Versailles’).

  link ‘thirty-league beasts’: Anon. (1846), 47.

  link being kind to animals: e.g. Fréville.

  link Society for the Protection of Animals . . . Grammont Law: McPhee (1992), 256.

  link shooting dolphins: Busquet; Roberts, 45–6.

  link marmots pulled each other: Lavallée, II, ‘Drôme’, 25.

  link chamois and bouquetins: Chaix, 200 (quoting Abbé Albert).

  link ‘Though the profit is small’: Saussure, II, 153.

  link ‘We are living on bear and chamois’: Sand (1856), VIII, 131.

  link Russia and the Balkans: Planhol, 388.<
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  link young lynx near Luz: Dusaulx, II, 13–14; Saint-Amans (1789), 75; also Brehm, I, 302.

  link Eagle hunters: Ladoucette (1833), 33.

  link ‘A peasant was holding it’: Chateaubriand, II, 14, 6.

  link flocks of doves: Weld (1859), 225–9.

  link public-information: Anon. (1851); also MP, 1883, p. 407 and 1887, p. 114.

  link stealing birds’ eggs: Anon. (1851); MP, 1862, p. 402; 1868, p. 366; 1884, p. 303.

  link berry bushes at the door: Mazon (1878), 192.

  link ‘You may pass through the whole South’: Smollett, letter 20; also MP, 1868, p. 366.

  link Deforestation and hard winters: e.g. Crignelle, 225–37.

  link Normandy . . . inundated with wolves: Brehm, I, 482.

  link price on every wolf: Deferrière, 435 (report by Dupin, Préfet of Deux-Sèvres); Sonnini, 167.

  link a kind of addiction: Leschevin, 326–27; Saussure, II, 152.

  link his game-bag his ‘shroud’: Saussure, II, 151.

  link black Camargue bulls: Brehm, II, 665–6.

  link A horse . . . ‘Napoléon’: Brehm, II, 324; MP, 1841, pp. 250–51.

  link Barry . . . the Saint Bernard: Brehm, I, 406–7; MP, 1846, p. 200.

  link epidemic in 1820: Brehm, I, 404–6.

  link special railway carriages: McPhee (1992), 256.

  link Transhumance: F. Bernard; J.-E. Michel, 198–206; Peuchet, ‘Bouches-du-Rhône’, 10.

  link ‘sheep in their thousands’: Pliny, Natural History, XXI, xxxi, 57.

  link ‘it is an honour to know’: Blackburn (1881), 239.

  link conical thatched hut: Baring-Gould (1894), 112 (drawing).

  link lone sheep: e.g. Maupassant (1884), 77.

  link sheep . . . form battle lines: Bourrit, 335.

  link ‘a smile of life’: Mariéton, 401.

  link ‘looking more like Arabs’: Sand (1856), VIII, 136.

  link ‘The owner of this beautiful animal’: Dusaulx, I, 159–60.

  link knew exactly when to leave: Lequinio, I, 384–5; also Peuchet, ‘Jura’, 9; Legrand d’Aussy, 281; Mariéton, 401.

  9. MAPS

  link evening of 10 August: Meridian expedition: accounts in Delambre and Méchain; researched and recounted by Alder.

  link Dammartin-en-Goële: Alder, 26–7.

  link Tuileries Palace: Alder, 21.

  link cranky measures: Burguburu; Peuchet, passim; etc.

  link ‘a stone pyramid called the Meridian’: Alder, 109.

  link ‘The instruments were laid out’: Delambre, I, 33–4.

  link ‘demolished all those steeples’: Delambre, I, 73–4.

  link Bort-les-Orgues: Delambre, I, 80.

  link Puy Violent: Coudon.

  link attack of wild dogs: Alder, 241.

  link Cassini’s expedition: Cassini de Thury (1750 and 1754); G. de Fontanges; Gallois; Konvitz; Pelletier; Pelletier and Ozanne.

  link ‘When one considers’: Cassini de Thury (1750), 9.

  link knowledge of cheese: Konvitz, 14.

  link army’s own geometers: Konvitz, 39 (in 1762).

  link government map: Département du Mont Blanc (cy-devant Savoie). Décrété par la Convention Nationale le 27 novembre 1792; Reverdy, 123.

  link ‘He set up three stations’: Pelletier, 97–100.

  link Many local names: Ronjat; Whymper, 21.

  link ‘Names had to be given’: Cassini de Thury (1750), 10.

  link a camera lucida: Mérimée (1941–64), I, 309–10.

  link ‘Several Bretons seated’: Bray, 225; see also Brune, 149.

  link Saint-Martin-de-Carnac: Cazals, 162; Dainville, 134.

  link map of the Moon: Launay. However, paths around the family château at Thury-en-Valois are picked out in green and seem to form a masonic symbol.

  link Loiseleur-Deslongchamps: Cosson; Delambre, I, 305; etc.

  link looked like Joan of Arc: Monteil, I, 149.

  link last year’s chestnuts: Monteil, II, 37.

  10. EMPIRE

  link ‘In the Ardennes’: Wairy, 148–50; see also Argenson, 198 (Marie Leczinska in 1725); Beauchamp, I, 181 (Napoleon to Montier-en- Der).

  link ‘Having no paths to follow’: Thiébault, II, 11–13.

  link ‘changed with the seasons’: Pelletier, 108. The first road maps date from the early eighteenth century: Arbellot (1992), 775; Konvitz, 114; Reverdy, 7.

  link ‘Grand Chemin de France’: e.g. Fodéré, I, 158.

  link ‘nations have great men’: Baudelaire (1975–76), I, 654.

  link most maps for travellers: e.g. Coutans; Ogée.

  link Aubervilliers: Coutans.

  link ‘I have often heard tell’: Mérimée (1941–64), I, 288–9 (2 July 1834).

  link places . . . close together: Dupain-Triel, 3–4; Peuchet, ‘Hautes-Alpes’, 16.

  link could be folded up: Pacha, 37.

  link ‘I took the diligence to Soissons’: V. Hugo, ‘Voyages’, p. 32.

  link memorizes the Cassini map: Sand (1872), 122.

  link signs of map mania: Anon. (1855); Anon. (1856).

  link ‘At a bend in the road’: M. Proust, I, 177–8.

  link Pyrame de Candolle: C. Malte-Brun (1810), 240; also Bentham’s expeditions in 1820 and 1825.

  link Charles de Tourtoulon: Plazanet.

  link Carte de l’état-major: Coraboeuf; G. de Fontanges; V.-A. Malte-Brun (1858 and 1868).

  link ‘Always on foot’: Anon (1843), 206; also Anon. (Nov. 1835); P. Buache, Carte minéralogique (1746); Tableau d’assemblage des six feuilles de la Carte géologique.

  link ‘broad, continuous bands’: Anon. (1843), 27–8.

  link ‘limits of these natural regions’: Anon. (1843), 208.

  link lacked basic information: Ardouin-Dumazet (1882); Josse, 471; Webster (1901), 343.

  link ‘five mountain ranges’: Stendhal, 60.

  link M. Sanis: Barbié du Bocage.

  link relief models of the Alps: e.g. H. d’Angeville, 7–8.

  link geodesic survey: Bourdiol.

  link Bordeaux Geographical Society: Ardouin-Dumazet (1882), 103–4.

  11. TRAVELLING IN FRANCE, I

  link high-speed goods: Cavaillès, 245.

  link load pulled by one horse: Price, 270.

  link wooden planks: Duby, III, 183.

  link the corvée: Babeau (1878), 236–8; Cavaillès, 87–96; Flour de Saint-Genis, 11; Martin and Martenot, 415–16; Robillard de Beaurepaire, 24–5; Sonnini, 79–80; Vignon, 14–24.

  link ‘Thus, whenever M. le Marquis’: Cooper, 313–14.

  link châteaux of the Loire Valley: Hufton, 189–90 and n. 3.

  link undercut the local farmers: Cavaillès, 120; also the Cahier de Doléances of Maron, Meurthe-et-Moselle, no. 23.

  link vigorous lobbying: Peuchet, ‘Creuse’, 38.

  link innovation of . . . Trésaguet: Cavaillès, 90.

  link Most French roads: Robillard de Beaurepaire, 14.

  link ‘Setting aside the depths’: Durand-Claye, 90.

  link Généralité of Rouen: Robillard de Beaurepaire, 14.

  link ‘In travelling to the point’: Cavaillès, 282.

  link sandstone slabs: Marlin, I, 274.

  link The richer the soil: e.g. Duchesne (1762), 208; Pradt, 106–7.

  link statue of Louis XIV: Goubert, 90.

  link Baron Haussmann: Haussmann, 52 (Poitiers); 67–71 (Yssingeaux); 90–91 (Nérac). 221

  link ‘Couldn’t I be sent’: Haussmann, 91.

  link Roman roads had been marked: e.g. G. Delisle.

  link ‘moderate-sized colony of moles’: Mirabeau, 183.

  link stretches of Roman surface: Lavallée, ‘Bouches-du-Rhône’, 10 (Arles); Legrand d’Aussy, 36–37 (Clermont); Saint-Amans (1812), 214 (Arcachon); Bizeul (Saintes), 259; Saint-Amans (1799), 22 (Aiguillon); Grad, 614–15 and Reinhard (Sainte-Odile); Jourdain, 191 and Mérimée (1941–64), II, 253 (Chalindrey); Peuchet, ‘Deux-Sèvres’, 36; Abgrall (Qu
imper). 222

  link ‘the avenues of the city of Paris’: Cavaillès, 57.

  link ‘consider the main route’: Cavaillès, 54 and 58.

  link a person in Moulins: Weld (1850), 54.

  link edict of 1607: H. Gautier, 194; also Assemblée Nationale, II, 7.

  link travelled with his own crew: Goubert, 90.

  link crosses, posts or pyramids: H. Gautier, 194; Veuclin. 223

  link Orry and . . . Trudaine: Arbellot (1973), 766–9.

  link lined with trees: Lecreulx, 8–10; Marlin, II, 135.

  link branches of apple trees: Duchesne (1762), 208.

  link In Toulouse: Forster, 67.

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

  link ‘incomparably fine’: Young, 25.

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

  link Governor of Brittany: Trévédy, 5.

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

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

  link Tarare hill: e.g. Bouchard, 95.

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

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

  link Col de Tende: J. Black, 31.

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

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

  link Italian pedlars and beggars: Fortis, I, 371.

  link nineteenth-century regulations: Préfecture du Calvados.

  link grenadier from the Vivarais: Volane, 154–5.

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

  12. TRAVELLING IN FRANCE, II

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  link waterproof cushions: Bayle-Mouillard, 249–51.

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

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