LOT & QUERCY. Manuscript, "Voyage de Rocamadour... - Lot 59 - Conan Belleville Hôtel d'Ainay

Lot 59
Go to lot
Estimation :
400 - 500 EUR
Result without fees
Result : 1 350EUR
LOT & QUERCY. Manuscript, "Voyage de Rocamadour... - Lot 59 - Conan Belleville Hôtel d'Ainay
LOT & QUERCY. Manuscript, "Voyage de Rocamadour du 12 au 18 août 1854". Title and 16 pp. in-8, on paper with an embossed figure. Manuscript relating the trip of Alexis de Gourgues with his children from Le Bugue, in the Dordogne, on the banks of the Vézère, to Rocamadour, passing by the castle of Fenelon in Sainte-Mondane, Souillac, Turenne, etc. It is written by one of the children [probably Marie-Nathalie (1833-1862)] as a letter to their mother. The title page bears this ironic title: "Beginning of the journey around the world to Roc Amadour". Excerpts: "After a hard climb we reached the entrance to the castle of Fénelon. A wall surrounds it, 4 towers protect it, and everywhere the ivy covers its ruins. You think it is deserted? Yes, it is abandoned; a ghost of life occupies this lordly manor alone. In a silent courtyard, an old woman, bent over her stick, disgusting of dirtiness, even more repulsive by her wickedness than by her abject air denotes, repels the stranger, forbids him the entrance of the apartments where Telemachus was written [] ". Arrival at Rocamadour. "Ugly gray walls crisscross the country with the same uniformity until the foot of Rocamadour. Then we looked around us. A narrow gorge, squeezed between two mountains of rock, gives way to a widening stream. The view of the church leaning against a rock presents a superb aspect, on the top the house of the missionaries crowns the summit. One street makes up the entire town, once flourishing, now reduced to misery. The type of its inhabitants is ugly and common, they have no industry but small cheeses of milk of goats and sheep, which they send in the department. Their dirtiness exhales in the air a nauseating smell. We went to bed at the Boule d'Or, above us stayed about twenty travelers with noisy voices [] ".
My orders
Sale information
Sales conditions
Return to catalogue