The Strand Magazine, Vol. 17, No. 97, January to June 1899: An Illustrated MonthlyVarious
General
The Strand Magazine, Vol. 17, No. 97, January to June 1899: An Illustrated Monthly
Various
English literature -- Periodicals; Short stories, English -- Periodicals
Madame Flammarion is herself a most enthusiastic balloon-traveller.
Indeed, she has often said that nothing but the practical impossibility
of the feat prevents her living altogether in a balloon. And she
takes much delight in recounting the story of her wedding trip,
which was her first balloon ascent, and of a humorous incident which
characterized it. We shall give Madame Flammarion's account as nearly
as her own words can be rendered in English. The story was told us
in the beautiful garden of the Château Juvisy, the magnificent house
which is now M. Flammarion's home and observatory, but which has been
the resting-place of French Kings in their journeys between Paris and
Fontainebleau, from Henri Quatre to Louis Philippe. Parenthetically
we may say that Madame Flammarion is herself a distinguished person,
and Vice-President of the League of Ladies on behalf of International
Disarmament. This is her story as she tells it:--
I had always wished to make a balloon ascent. The stories and
descriptions I had read had touched my enthusiasm, and already, before
I had entered a balloon, I was, at heart, an enthusiastic aeronaut. To
hang in space above, looking down upon the rolling world below, and all
the little people in it, was for years the height of all my ambitions.
Nevertheless, I never expected to make an ascent in circumstances so
novel and charming as those which actually accompanied my first balloon
experience.
Just before our marriage, in discussing with my future husband the
form which our wedding journey should take, I begged him to choose the
most magnificent and poetical route possible--an ideal route, never
before made use of in the like circumstances. M. Flammarion understood
my meaning at once. Indeed, the same thought had occurred to himself,
though I first gave it expression.
From this moment Flammarion was busily engaged with the aeronaut,
M. Jules Godard, in making preparations for the aerial journey. But
preparations for the wedding itself also claimed attention, and it was
in some part in consequence of Flammarion's desires in this matter that
an odd incident made memorable the first part of our journey.
[Illustration: M. FLAMMARION (AT THE TIME OF THE WEDDING). _From a
Photo. by Alexander Martin, Paris._]
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