Beth Anderson

Hi all <BR> <BR>I've heard so much grumbling about the dearth of good topics lately, I thought I would try to come up with a new one. I tried, anyway... <BR> <BR>so, tell us all: have you ever read a book and tried to follow in the characters' (fiction or non) footsteps (a la James Joyce in Dublin)... <BR> <BR>or are you a rabid fan of (name here) so that you have tried to visit where they lived/worked/played/loved (as a pilgrimage/tour of sorts...) <BR> <BR>in short, have you followed any sort of 'themes' for any visits - 'let's hit all the Van Gogh homesteads/ateliers/haunts, <BR> <BR>or 'let's make a trip around touring WWII battlefields in Italy'... or have you gone on a pilgrimage to see where Gramma lived as a child... <BR> <BR>what was special to you about your trips? <BR> <BR>thank you all! <BR> <BR>Beth

Arthur

Good topic! I did part of a trip to England visiting various Charles Dickens sites - the house in Bloomsbury, plus places he referred to in Chatham, Rochester, and Broadstairs. Also did one visiting various sites in Dick Francis books - New Market, Lambourn, etc. <BR>

mimi taylor

O.K. Beth, I'll go first. As a couple my husband and I visit ed Normandy for the landings and cemetaries <BR> <BR> <BR> <BR> <BR> <BR> <BR> <BR>O.K. Beth, I'll go first. With my spouse, it was the emotional visit to Normandy for all the D-day places. For me, my visit to Colette's village and house in Burgundy, and the local castle that they turned into a museum dedicated to her. To the village outside of Orange where one of my "hero" JB Fabre lived and house and garden are now a museum. Fabre was an entomologist. <BR> <BR> <BR> <BR> <BR> <BR> <BR>

Betsy

I've read quite a bit about Tudor England, so while I was in London last summer I took a say to walk through the areas of London concentrated around the Globe Theater. I also spent a day at Hampton Court and sneaked on a private tour that was fantastic.

Graziella

Lots of people do this, so I am claiming no originality but it is has been a source of great pleasure for me and my husband: We follow Piero de la Francesca route, including Firenze, Sansepulcro,Arezzo, Urbino,....still a few to go.

Mariarosa

Well, not a lofty "pilgrimmage," but when I was in acollege, studying abroad in Paris, my friend and I paid a tribute to a young, in-love-with-life Hemingway. We read A Movable Feast and spent an afternoon/evening going to 6 of the bars that he mentions in the book, and ordered the exact drinks he had, which was mostly a lot of eau-de-vie, some wine, some beer (at Brasserie Lipp). It was awesome!

jules

I have been to Santiago de Compostella and have placed my hand in the worn marble of the 'tree of Jessee" where thousands upon thousands other did after they arrived from the terrible pilgramage from Europe. I was very moved and thoughtful of how very much we care about our spirit, and the love of God.

RJD

Way back in 1968 Kenneth Clark did a thirteen part televison series entitled "Civilization" that gave an overview of the art and history of western Europe. It began with Clarke standing on the Pont des Arts in Paris and describing his view of civilization. He toured Roman works, the art of the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, etc. <BR>It can be, for those open to the experience and to the connection between history and art, a wonderful primer on the things to see and do on many trips. The tapes of these programs are sometimes available in public libraries. Try any one of them or all of them. You're in for a treat.

StCirq

I didn't plan last year's (brief) trip to the Cévennes BECAUSE of Robert Louis Stevenson, but it soon became almost impossible to avoid his traces when there, and as I had read Travels with a Donkey, I could really appreciate how rugged and remote the terrain must have been for him and what an influential experience it must have been for him, how utterly different and wild, and how it must have impressed the heck out of him and possibly scared him, too. I was also taken by how much influence he had on the area - If a world-renowned writer writes a book about your remote corner of France, you revere him forever. <BR> <BR>And although I've not yet reached Santiago de Compostella, I've certainly popped into at least a dozen "stops" along the way, noting how very long and arduous the route for those pilgrims must have been and how in the "hottest" spots, like Rocamadour, the mayhem of tourists and selling of cheap religious trinkets so very well mimics what was going on in medieval times. <BR> <BR>I've also tried to make it to as many Eleanor of Aquitaine sites as possible - the most moving being Fontevraud l'Abbaye, where she and Henri II lie side by side. The problem with these French royalty is, however, that they really moved about a LOT! To really cover their tracks would be travel wizardry. I once tried to devise a tour that would cover Jeanne d'Arc's tracks and gave up - I would have needed a lot more vacation time than I had.

steve

Inspired by DIck Francis' novels, went to the Gold Cup in Cheltenham last year. Also visited nearby Lambourn. Had previously visited Newmarket

kalena

My pilgrimage this year was to Pont-Aven, where Gaugin lived and painted for several years before traveling to Polynesia. His musings on humanity and the artistic spirit are beautiful, and can be found at the small museum in town. <BR> <BR>As a kamaaina of Hawaii, it was a pleasure to see how Gaugin idealized a simple life-style and a love of nature before traveling to Polynesia. The residents of Pont-Aven have a lovely open quality to them as well. It was the highlight of our trip. <BR>

Martha

To Steve; <BR> <BR>Dick Francis is my all time favorite author! I am jealous of your trip to Chelthenham. We are planning a rather spontaneous trip to England (in two weeks) the first thing I did after we decided to go was to see if it was the Steeplechase season, which sadly it isn't it - next trip. <BR> <BR>My email address is DF inspired

RosemaryM

Dear Beth, <BR>All my trips to Britain are literary or historic pilgrimages. To a certain extent anyway. I too am a Dick Francis fan and last year I saw Lambourn, Hungerford and the Ridgeway track. I have stood in the homes of Shakespeare, Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, Charles Dickens, and seen the graves of all of them, as well as Sir Walter Scott. I have walked on the Cobb in Lyme Regis, thinking of Louisa Musgrave and her fall in Persuasion, and Meryl Streep in the French Lieutenant's Woman. On Dartmoor I recalled the Hound of the Baskervilles and I have had a drink in the Jamaica Inn in Cornwall. One of our favourite places was Shrewsbury, ficticious home of Brother Cadfael in Ellis Peters' novels. We did several Brother Cadfael drives around the area, seeing the places he would have seen. To me, Britain is like the pages of my favourite books. Sorry, I am running on a bit. Good thread. <BR>Rosemary

s.fowler

I've done this twice -- both in London. <BR> <BR>After reading Henry James, "The Golden Bowl" I visited as many of the locations mentioned in the book as I could. <BR> <BR>At one point I was a bit of a Virginia Woolf "maven" -- so, of course, I visited as many of the locations in Bloomsbury as I could -- unfortunately at least one of them is now a block of flats!

elvira

Americans in Paris - I trekked to the spot where John Paul Jones died, where the treaty was signed that ended the American Revolution, where Hemingway lived, Gertrude Stein lived, then to the gravesites of Gertrude Stein, Jim Morrison and Lafayette (I know, French guy, but he's adopted by us). <BR> <BR>Nureyev - when he was alive, I wandered his neighborhood in Paris, hoping I'd run into him (crazy, but true), and after he died, to Ste Genevieve des Bois to visit his grave. <BR> <BR>Traced the route that Diana took the night she died. <BR> <BR>Tracked down the spot where Ossian is supposedly buried (also the home of the Little People, if you believe such things, not that I do, of course). <BR> <BR>Found the supposed quarters of the real d'Artagnan, plus several other places mentioned in the Three Musketeers. <BR> <BR>And, it goes without saying, the D-Day beaches, for not only the history, but inspired by something Dan Rather said on a documentary about that event: <BR>"One day, in June, when they were very young, they saved the world"

Beth Anderson

wow, thanks everyone! This is great. Also, a help to those of us who may want to do something similar. <BR> <BR>any other inspirations out there? <BR> <BR>Beth

Linda

I was a student worker at the Armstrong-Browning Library at Baylor University (largest collection of Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning in world) so, of course, I had to find their homes in London and Florence as well as other places in their poems--finally got to Hamelin for the Pied Piper.

Claudia

[First off: Linda, please share the Florence address of the Brownings; I'll make that part of my next pilgrimage.] <BR> <BR>This is a great question. As I thought about what I would have to contribute, I realized I've done this sort of thing often. <BR> <BR>Rome: Tosca sites. <BR> <BR>Rye: I love EF Benson's "Lucia" books, so I made a special trip to Rye last fall to trace the characters' steps and see the landmarks for myself. Sadly, ground zero, the house where EF Benson himself lived (as did Henry James and Stephen Crane at other times), was closed for the season. I will simply have to go back.... <BR> <BR>In London, aside from the usual literary stops, I also wanted to track down a lot of the places used and mentioned in the "Rumpole of the Bailey" series. "Froxbury Mansions" (I figured out where his flat is from one TV episode where you can see the building across the street); the Gloucester Road tube station; Inns of Court; the Old Bailey; Criminal Court; various wine bars (as stand-ins for Pomeroys); Fleet Street; opera at Covent Garden (and a drink in The Crush Bar); and dinner at Rules. And to think there are still plenty of spots I didn't get to see! <BR> <BR>(That's enough for now.)

Book Chick

As a lot of you folks know, I attended school in Florence for a while. But when we started to study the papacy of Avignon, I knew I had to go there. Guided by Petrarch's description of "an impious Babylon", I sated my curiosity in the Papal Palace & tried to imagine the pillow slips, lined in sable. It was pretty cool! <BR>BC

Katherine

Not quite pilgrimages but fun books I read while "in-country" where Hemmingway's "A Moveable Feast" while in Paris (stayed next door to his address) and my all time favorite, The Agony and the Ecstasy (Irving Wallace) in Italy. Also, "A World Lit Only by Fire" (don't recall the auther) about the Church in Italy.