Gautier, Théophile, 1811-1872 -- Travel -- Spain; Spain -- Description and travel; Spain -- Social life and customs -- 19th century
happy effect to the large outlines and the misty and severe tints
of the mountains. I dwell particularly upon these trees, because
nothing is more rare in all Spain, and henceforth I shall hardly
have occasion to describe any.
We changed mules at Oyarzun, and at nightfall reached Astigarraga,
where we were to sleep. We had not yet had a taste of a Spanish
inn. The _picaresque_ and "lively" descriptions of Don Quixote and
_Lazarille de Tormes_ occurred to our memory, and our whole bodies
shuddered at the very thought. We made up our minds to omelettes
adorned with Merovingian hairs and mixed up with feathers and
birds' feet, to gammons of rancid bacon with all the bristles,
equally adapted for making soup or brushing boots, to wine in
goat-skins, like those which the good knight de la Mancha cut so
furiously into, and we even made up our minds to nothing at all,
which is much worse, and trembled lest all we should get would be
the fresh evening breeze, supposing we were not obliged to sup,
like the valorous Don Sancho, off the dry air of a mandoline.
Taking advantage of the little daylight that remained, we went to
look at the church, which, to speak truth, was more like a fortress
than a temple; the smallness of the windows, formed like loopholes,
together with the solidity of the buttresses, gave it a robust and
massive appearance, more warlike than pensive. This form occurs
in every church in Spain. All around stretched a sort of open
cloister, in which was hung a bell of immense size, which is rung
by moving the clapper with a rope, instead of putting in motion the
vast metal capsule itself.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account