Mémorial de Sainte-Hélène

Name of traveller

Emmanuel, comte de Las Cases (1766-1842)

Reason for travel

• visiting Wales during his time in exile from French Revolution

Date of travel

between March 1802 and May 1803

Je gravis des sommités tout à fait sauvages et d'une hauteur prodigieuse: j'atteignis des chaumières que je croyais appartenir à un autre univers. (Las Cases 411)

Content

• architecture: Welsh cottages described as if belonging to a different universe
• people:
  • travels with unidentified companion
  • description of the visit embedded into a conversation with the exiled Napoléon Bonaparte (1769-1821)
  • encounter with a Welshman who asks for news of France and Napoléon
• recreation: engages in mountaineering activities
• terrain:
  • reference to wild, high mountains of Wales
  • Welsh uplands as peaceful retreats from sounds of revolution
• click here to read the full account

Nationality of traveller

French

Language of publication

French

Gender of traveller

Male

Type of publication

autobiography; biography

Citation

Las Cases, Emmanuel. Mémorial de Sainte-Hélène. Suivi de Napoléon dans l'exil. Et de L'historique de la translation des restes mortels de l'empereur Napoléon aux Invalides. vol 1. 1822-3. rev. edn. Paris : Ernest Bourdin, 1842. 411. Print.