Our Sentimental Journey through France and Italy
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Citation
Joseph and Elizabeth Robins Pennell. Our Sentimental Journey through France and Italy. 1888. cyclearchive.com, https://cyclearchive.com/books/our-sentimental-journey-through-france-and-italy-j-and-e-pennell-1888/
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Contents
- The Pennells explain that their ambition was to ride a tricycle from London to Rome, that they went by boat and train where riding was hard, and hope to show that Sterne-style travel can be had again on a tricycle.
- A letter to Laurence Sterne, dated London, 1888, dedicating the history of the journey to his shade and noting that the route he made famous was followed by tricycle rather than post-chaise; it ends with a visit to his grave in the Bayswater cemetery.
- A dispute about French roads leads the Pennells to take their tandem tricycle across the Channel; the chapter covers the train to Dover, the Calais-Douvres crossing and the shilling landing tax and heavy freight charges.
- The first evening in Calais at the Hotel Meurice: the customs deposit on the tandem, being stared at in cycling dress, a Franciscan monk, a regatta at the pier and J.'s sketches of town gates after Hogarth.
- Leaving Calais over the pave, they follow the river through Guignes to the hills beyond, fight trouble with the luggage-carrier at Marquise, pass Boulogne and Wimille, and meet a Gipsy cart at Pont-de-Brique.
- Evening at the Boarding-House of Neuchatel: a fat landlady, a hunting party served dinner first, and the Pennells given an omelette in a back room and a closet to sleep in.
- A morning of advice from a little tailor, then a ride south through Dannes to Etaples against the wind, with bad oil bought there, ending at the gate of Montreuil.
- Montreuil, which they find dull and unlike the town of Sterne's La Fleur; the beggars and hotel-keeper they meet there and the wind on the plain beyond.
- The road to Nampont, where Sterne's dead donkey lay, the search for the post-house, and a syrup at the village's new cafe.
- The poplar road through Airon and Nouvion to Abbeville on the day of Admiral Courbet's funeral, when the tricycle is caught in the returning procession and every hotel is full; a room is finally won above a stable.
- A day in Abbeville seeing the Church of St. Wulfran, the house of Francis I and grotesque carvings in the old alleys.
- Mr. Ruskin's printed condemnation of bi- and tricycles is quoted against them, and J. says they must go on.
- A late start from Abbeville, a railway crossing, Pont Remy, and a sandy by-road to Amiens against the wind that drives them to take the train, with a quarrel over the tricycle in the luggage-van.
- Amiens: an excellent dinner at the Hotel de l'Univers, the canals of the Somme, the morning market on the embankment, the cathedral and the staring workmen.
- The ride south from Amiens over poplar-lined upland roads against the wind, a pedlar's cart, a funeral party at Breteuil and a cafe proprietor's promise of level roads to St. Just.
- Dinner at the Cheval Blanc, St. Just, with six commercial travellers and the landlady: talk of hotels, route recommendations written onto the Pennells' route-form, and a heated argument about naturalising foreigners settled over backgammon.
- Leaving St. Just through Fitz-James and Clermont, they decide to take the train at Beaumont to avoid the pave, and are drenched by rain and mud near Neuilly.
- Soaked arrival at an inn in Beaumont kept by an English landlady, who dries their clothes, lends dressing-gowns and serves a private dinner; the luggage-carrier has broken.
- By train from Beaumont, a blacksmith's poor repair of the carrier, and a change at St. Denis, where the tricycle cannot go on the Ceinture line.
- Crossing Paris by cab from one station to another, wheeling the tricycle through the boulevards and lunching at the Gare de Lyon cafe, then taking the train to Melun.
- From Melun the Pennells ride to Chailly and Barbizon, mending the luggage-carrier, and visit Millet's house, the artists' inn at Siron's and the studios, with J.'s remarks on painters and posing peasants.
- A ride through the Forest of Fontainebleau among rocks, heather, ferns and pines, ending when the tricycle breaks down on a steep hill.
- A night at Fontainebleau and a late morning visit to the Palace instead of the forest.
- A Sunday ride to Nemours, where food is refused, past Fontenoy and the Loiret border, with the first vineyard, to Montargis.
- Evening and morning at the Hotel de la Poste, Montargis: the town's church, castle and river, a religious procession, and the landlady's story of two velocipedists.
- A hard day against the wind from Montargis to Cosne, with a pedlar selling at an inn, Briare and the first view of the Loire, and at Neuvy a Frenchman on a tricycle who is an agent for the maker.
- Refused at the Hotel d'Etoile at Cosne, they find a room at the Grand Cerf through a landlady's kindness and dine among commercial travellers who discuss English food.
- The ride along the Loire through Pouilly to La Charite, with a sketch of the old church doorway, then on to Pougues-les-Eaux and Nevers.
- Out of Nevers in rain and wind, the road improves at St. Pierre and the Bourbonnais country; they look for the places where Sterne met Maria as Moulins comes in sight.
- Moulins: a poor hotel, an American bar, and the table d'hote where a guest tells of cavalry feats and quarrels with the landlady.
- From Moulins to La Palisse and La Pacaudiere: peasants and ploughmen asking about the tricycle, a fair in La Palisse and the climb to the heights over the Cevennes.
- A hurricane at their backs carries them from La Pacaudiere to Roanne, St. Symphorien and over Mt. Tarare toward Lyons, with a near collision with a child and another bone-shaking spill.
- The tired arrival at Lyons: Sterne's story of Amandus and Amanda, a post office visit, and a tricycle agent in whose company J. boasts of imaginary records.
- The ride out of Lyons toward Vienne, past French army manoeuvres with cannon, cavalry and a stormed fort.
- Vienne: J.'s collapse and recovery on soup, the cathedral, Roman gateway and amphitheatre, and a tricyclist on the quay who gives them route advice.
- Misled by the Vienne tricyclist's directions they get lost on poor roads, ask unhelpful peasants, take a meal at a feast-day inn and head for La Cote St. Andre.
- The Hotel de la Poste at Rives, where an unfriendly maid and noisy diners greet them, and J. reports that they cannot go on.