En Galles

Name of traveller

Claude Moal

Reason for travel

  • study trip abroad as holder of a Zellidja Travel Grant

Date of travel

25 July to 15 August 1947

L’arrivée au Pays de Galles, à travers les sapins de la Forêt de Dean... // Au soleil couchant, ces hautes terres font beaucoup d’impression. Après les plaines de la Severn, leur masse assez inhospitalière semble étrange. Wales: l’Etranger. (Moal n.p.)

Content

  • art: includes a hand-drawn map of Wales, minus Anglesey, showing the stations of the journey and various landscape sketches
  • customs:
    • is intrigued by Welsh graveyards
    • praises Welsh hospitality and kindness
    • wants to visit the National Eisteddfod in Colwyn Bay, but does not have enough money to get in; meets the Breton delegation; compares the Eisteddfod to the Olympic Games
    • the interior of Welsh houses is very different to those in Brittany
    • finds artistic activities in Wales more of an intellectual than manual nature; Welsh proclivity for poetry and music; praises involvement of all classes
    • is impressed by the breadth of musical culture
    • concludes that Welsh culture surpasses the comparatively primitive Breton culture
  • diet: owing to rationing, he has to visit the Food Office to get his food stamps
  • literature:
    • sees Welsh literature as more inward-facing perhaps as a result of geographical isolation
    • surprised by lack of similarities between Welsh and Breton legends
  • people:
    • swaps currency with a man who is set to travel to France
    • stays with different groups of Scouts in their camps
  • terrain:
    • is impressed by the Welsh countryside with its beautiful valleys and hills
    • increasingly mountainous and heavily wooded landscape towards Betws-y-Coed; compares the rocky valleys around Capel Curig to lunar landscapes
    • finds Snowdon looks larger than its actual size
    • is struck by the coastal landscape
  • transport:
    • modes of travel: hitchhiking; on foot
    • enjoys the ease of hitchhiking

Nationality of traveller

French

Language of publication

French

Gender of traveller

Male

Type of publication

report; travelogue

Citation

Moal, Claude. En Galles. 1947. Rapports de premier voyage Zellidja jusqu'en 1974; 135. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris. MS.

Entry created: 21 September 2016
Entry last updated: 30 September 2016