The Discovery of France (Graham Robb, 2007)

This book is subtitled "A Historical Geography from the Revolution to the First World War."

As I keep reading more French history and novelists, this type of book comes into focus. I liked it a lot, a very different look at France. The author claims to have traveled 14,000 miles through France over the course of several years - by bicycle. I can believe this would provide some unusual perspective.

There are countless interesting items. Overarching theme: what we think of as "France" might more accurately be thought of as a smallish area surround Paris; the rest is broken up into a large number of "pays", let alone larger regions - each with long histories, traditions, cultures, etc. Most didn't speak French, or think of themselves as French at all.

After the Revolution, the government actively sought to imbue the entire country with a national spirit, standardize the language etc. But it sounds like students learned "French" similar to how students learned "Latin" - something to be forgotten immediately after graduation.

Items:

1. Pagan beliefs lingered. An explanation of Lourdes in terms of local fairies; benefits of tourism. Local saints and cults (often overlays of pagan predecessors) stronger than other forms of religion.

2. Trips by early map-makers - surprised by hostility, unfamiliar dialects (or languages), unfamiliar terrain.

3. Royal roads - otherwise local bypass. Built for royal convenience - you almost always had to pass through Paris to go anywhere.

4. Early tourism, including to the Alps. Tourist spots - spas - often inventing their own histories and therapeutic powers. No one interested in hanging out by the sea until tourism. Contact between the tourists and the locals (reminding me of Proust when his character stayed seaside).

5. Descriptions of the propaganda (often directed at school children) following the loss of Alsace and Lorraine in 1870 - makes it more believable how this was such a hot topic prior to World War I.

6. The effect of bicycle - four million in France prior to WW I. Opened up the world to folks who previously knew almost no one outside their immediate zone.

7. The mind-numbing boredom of winter in French Alps for poor persons - limited food, limited oil for lamps, generally unable to even read, nothing to do - this is hard to imagine.

8. The famous French cuisine - again, Paris-centered. Most others were too poor. This author thinks many of the regional specialties are pure marketing.