A Midsummer Drive Through the Pyrenees
The Project Gutenberg eBook, A Midsummer Drive Through The Pyrenees, by Edwin Asa Dix
How comes it to pass, wondered a traveler, over twenty years ago, that, when the American people think it worth while to pay a visit to Europe almost exclusively to see Switzerland and Italy; when in 1860 twenty-one thousand Americans visited Rome and only seven thousand English; so few should think it worth while to visit the Pyrenees? It is certainly the only civilized country we have visited without finding Americans there before us. Is it accident or caprice, or part of a system of leaving it to the last,—which 'last' never comes? The feast is provided,—where are the guests? The French Pyrenees form one of the loveliest gardens in Europe and a perfect place for a summer holiday. 'La beauté ici est sereine et le plaisir est pur.'
The query is still unanswered to-day. The stream of summer journeyings to Europe has swollen to a river; it has overflowed to the Arctic Ocean, to the Baltic, to the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. The Pyrenees—a garden not only, but a land of sterner scenery as well,—almost alone remain by our nation of travelers unvisited and unknown.
In fortune's empire blindly thus we go;
We wander after pathless destiny,
Whose dark resorts since prudence cannot know,
In vain it would provide for what shall be.
A trip to the Pyrenees is not in the Grand Tour. It is not even in any southerly extension of the Grand Tour. A proposition to exploit them meets a dubious reception. Pictures arise of desolate gorges; of lonely roads and dangerous trails; of dismal roadside inns, where, when you halt for the night, a repulsive-looking landlord receives the unhappy man, exchanges a look of ferocious intelligence with the driver, —and the usual melodramatic midnight carnage probably ensues. The Pyrenees seem to echo the motto of their old counts, Touches-y, si tu l'oses ! the name seems to stand vaguely for untested discomforts, for clouds and chasms, and Spanish banditti in blood-red capas ; to be, in a word, a symbol of an undiscovered country which would but doubtfully reward a resolve to discover.
Edwin Asa Dix
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A DIFFICULT BIT ON THE ROUTE THERMALE.
A MIDSUMMER DRIVE THROUGH THE PYRENEES
EDWIN ASA DIX, M.A.
EX-FELLOW IN HISTORY OF THE COLLEGE OF NEW JERSEY AT PRINCETON
ILLUSTRATED
1890
CONTENTS.
ILLUSTRATIONS.
MAP.
A MIDSUMMER DRIVE THROUGH THE PYRENEES
CHAPTER I.
IN PERSPECTIVE.
II.
III.
IV.
CHAPTER II.
A BISCAYAN BEACH.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
CHAPTER III.
BAYONNE, THE INVINCIBLE.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
VII.
VIII.
CHAPTER IV.
SAINT JOHN OF LIGHT.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
CHAPTER V.
THE CITY OF THE ARROW-PIERCED SAINT;
II.
III.
IV.
V.
CHAPTER VI.
AN OLD SPANISH MINIATURE.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
CHAPTER VII.
AN ERA IN TWILIGHT.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
VII.
VIII.
CHAPTER VIII.
"THE LITTLE PARIS OF THE SOUTH."
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
VII.
VIII.
IX.
CHAPTER IX.
THE WARM WATERS AND THE PEAK OF THE SOUTH.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
VII.
CHAPTER X.
THE GOOD WATERS OF THE ARQUEBUSADE.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
CHAPTER XI.
OVER THE HIGHWAY OF THE HOT SPRINGS.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
VII.
VIII.
IX.
CHAPTER XII.
MIRRORS AND MOUNTAINS.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
CHAPTER XIII.
A COLOSSEUM OF THE GODS.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
VII.
VIII.
IX.
X.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
CHAPTER XV.
THE VALLEY OF THE SUN.
II.
III.
IV.
CHAPTER XVI.
THE INTERLAKEN OF THE PYRENEES.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
VII.
VIII.
IX.
CHAPTER XVII.
OUT TOWARD THE PLAIN.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
FOOTNOTES