"En pays de Galles"

Name of traveller

Édouard Gachot (1862-1945)

Reason for travel

• travelling as cultural tourist, self-improvement

Date of travel

undated, ca. early 1900s

Flint, petite ville minière, dont les maisons, tassées au creux d’une gorge, sont toutes noircies par la fumée des hauts fourneaux. Ceux-ci, mangeant la houille dans vingt brasiers, semblent libres aux flammes qui enveloppent, lèchent, rougissent les murailles, les toits, les cheminées peu élevées et carrées; géhénnes où s’agitent, pour l’accomplissement du service ouvrier, des esclaves demi-nus. (Gachot 422)

Content

• agriculture:
  • notes black sheep
  • seagulls are hunted with guns
• clothing: older women wear tall hats
• history: notes on Conwy Castle
• industry:
  • notes pollution and fumes around Flint
  • describes workers as driven like slaves
• literature: quotes from his own travel notes to add detail to the account
• recreation:
  • Rhyl and Llandudno are busy with tourists
  • walking harpists provide entertainment
• terrain: in the Chester area landscape described as an English Eden: fertile, poetic, dotted with ruins
• transportation:
  • travels by train
  • notes French travellers' fondness for British trains
  • description of Llandudno Junction railway station with 200 trains per day and 500 tourists on the platform
  • impressed by the speed of the Dublin train
  • description of the road on the side of the cliff on leaving Llandudno
• click here to read the full account

Nationality of traveller

French

Language of publication

French

Gender of traveller

Male

Type of publication

essay; travelogue

Citation

Gachot, Édouard. "En pays de Galles." Le Magasin pittoresque 4 (1903): 421-6. Print.