De Montelimar a Constantinople par Mer et Retour a Bicyclette

By Guyot189410 chapters19 imagesFrench

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Contents

• Avant-Propos (opens in a new tab)

  Lieutenant Guyot of the 22nd Infantry Regiment explains that his diary, written each evening on arrival at his lodging, is a plain, unpolished record of what he did, saw and felt, not an attempt at a speed record between Constantinople and Montélimar, but a simple tourist's account of testing his own strength and health.
• Première Partie. De Montélimar à Constantinople par Mer (opens in a new tab)

  Guyot leaves Montélimar by train on 10 February 1894 and boards the steamer Djemnah at Marseille the next day, sailing past Corsica, Sardinia and the Strait of Messina to Alexandria, where he breaks his voyage for a side trip to Cairo and the Pyramids and the Sphinx before rejoining the ship at Port-Said.
• Deuxième Partie. De Constantinople à Montélimar à Bicyclette (opens in a new tab)

  Opens the return leg of the journey: after sightseeing in Constantinople, Guyot sets out by bicycle on 20 March 1894 in a snowstorm, escorted by mounted Ottoman gendarmes through Pera and Yédi-Koulé toward the Adrianople road, beginning the ride back to France.
• En Turquie (opens in a new tab)

  Guyot rides through Ottoman Turkey under a compulsory daily escort of gendarmes (a precaution against tziganes and brigands), passing Makri-Keuy and the road to Andrinople (Edirne) before crossing the frontier near Mustapha-Pacha into Bulgaria.
• En Bulgarie (opens in a new tab)

  Crossing the border, Guyot contrasts Bulgaria's cultivated, orderly villages with the neglect he saw in Turkey, then rides on through Philippopoli (Plovdiv) to Sofia, where money troubles force him to have funds wired ahead before he can continue.
• En Serbie (opens in a new tab)

  Alone now without an escort, Guyot crosses into Serbia at Zaribrod and rides via Pirot, Aleksinatz, Paratschin, Jagodina and Tchuprija along the Morava valley to Semendria (Smederevo), heading for the Save/Danube crossing near Belgrade and Semlin.
• En Autriche-Hongrie (opens in a new tab)

  The longest leg of the return: from Semlin the route runs through Hungary via Buda-Pesth, then across Austria through Vienna, Salzburg's approaches, and the Tyrol (Innsbruck, Kitzbühel, the Arlberg and Bludenz) toward the Vorarlberg border with Switzerland.
• En Suisse (opens in a new tab)

  Entering Switzerland near Rheineck, Guyot rides via Constance, Schaffhausen and the Rhine Falls to Zurich and Lucerne, crosses the Gotthard and Furka passes past the Rhône glacier, and descends the Rhône valley toward Sion and Saint-Maurice before the French border.
• En France (opens in a new tab)

  Guyot crosses back into France at Saint-Gingolf on Lake Geneva, then rides via Thonon, Annecy, Chambéry and Grenoble to Valence, reaching home in Montélimar on 31 May 1894 after more than three months away, greeted by his dogs Tom and Lia.
• Conclusion (opens in a new tab)

  Guyot reflects that the trip taught him the value of speaking foreign languages while travelling, that the French are liked wherever they go, and that however fascinating new countries are, no country can replace France for a Frenchman.