L'Europe pittoresque: pays du nord

Name of traveller

Jules Gourdault (1838-1912)

Date of travel

undated

La cime maîtresse de la contrée et de toute la presqu’île galloise est le Snowdon, en kymrique Pen-Eriri, ‘pic des Aigles’, qui dresse au sud-est de Caernarvon ses assises d’ardoises traversées de roches porphyriques. (Gourdault 173-74)

Content

• architecture: lauds beauty of ruined castles
• art: contains a great number of highly detailed copperplate etchings by various artists that also appear in the travel account by Alfred Erny
• customs: notes on superstitions and myths, music, triple harp, bardism, eisteddfodau
• history:
  • notes on pre-modern Wales, reaching back to Roman settlements
  • draws parallels with Bretagne
• industry: notes Welsh industry is world leading, but this is not the concern of the tourist 
• language: notes it has been preserved from the past
• literature: references to Arthurian cycle in Chrétien de Troyes (c. 114-c. 1190)
• politics: Welsh idea of equality rooted in Arthurian past
• recreation: touristic exploration of industrial centres in south Wales
• terrain:
  
  • unclear whether, and if so when, he actually travelled to the places referenced in the text
  • stresses wilderness of Welsh landscapes and sense of solitude
  • notes effect of industrialisation: smoke, air pollution
• click here to read the full account

Nationality of traveller

French

Language of publication

French

Gender of traveller

Male

Type of publication

travelogue

Citation

Gourdault, Jules. L'Europe pittoresque: pays du nord. Paris: Hachette, 1892. 164-78. Print.