Travels through the South of France and the Interior of Provinces of Provence and Languedoc in the Years 1807 and 1808Pinkney, lieutenant-colonel (Ninian)
History
Travels through the South of France and the Interior of Provinces of Provence and Languedoc in the Years 1807 and 1808
Pinkney, lieutenant-colonel (Ninian)
France -- Description and travel
The whole party, and myself amongst the number, left Tours in this
enviable state of spirits; the sun shone brightly, but a refreshing
breeze, and intervals of the road well shaded, softened an heat, which
might otherwise have been oppressive. Mr. Younge and myself rode on each
side of the carriage, and travelling slowly, as our proposed day's
journey was short, enjoyed at once the scenes of nature, and the
conversation of these lovely women.
"The next village we shall come to," said Mademoiselle St. Sillery,
"will be a singularity. Unless we were with you, you might perhaps pass
through it without seeing it. You might pass through the midst of three
or four hundred inhabitants without seeing either house, man, woman, or
child."
"You are speaking of Mont Louis," said Mr. Younge.
"Yes," replied Mademoiselle, "but I will not anticipate Monsieur's
gratification by more fully informing him."
Mr. Younge, in the course of this conversation, gave me some important
information with respect to the climate of this part of France. I have
entered it in my note book as nearly as possible in his own words, and
therefore shall give it as such.
"If an American, an English, or a Swedish gentleman, wished to settle in
France," said he, "I would recommend above all provinces either
Tourraine or the Limosin. What the country is as to natural beauty, and
as to fertility of soil, you may see through every league; it is that
mixture of the wild and of the cultivated, of the field, of the wood, of
the vineyard, and of the garden, which is not to be equalled in Europe,
and which has rendered this part of France the favourite of painters and
poets from time immemorial. Here the Troubadours have built their fairy
castles, have settled their magicians, and bound their ladies in
enchanted gardens; and even the popular superstition of the country
seems to have taken its tone and colour from the images around.
Tourraine, and all the country on the banks of the Loire, has a kind of
popular mythology of its own; it is the land of fairies and elfins, and
there is scarcely a glen, a grove, or a shady recess, but what has its
tale belonging to it. What one of the French poets has said of the
Seine, may be said with more truth of the Loire--all its women are
queens, and all its young men poets. If Mademoiselle St. Sillery were
speaking," continued he, smiling at this young lady, "she would say,
that love reigned triumphant amidst the charms of Nature.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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