A MIDSUMMER DRIVE THROUGH THE PYRENEES
by
EDWIN ASA DIX, M.A.
Ex-Fellow in History of the College of New Jersey at Princeton
Illustrated
New York & London G.P. Putnam's Sons The Knickerbocker Press
1890
[Illustration: A DIFFICULT BIT ON THE ROUTE THERMALE.]
"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 beaute 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.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
IN PERSPECTIVE
CHAPTER II.
A BISCAYAN BEACH
CHAPTER III.
BAYONNE, THE INVINCIBLE
CHAPTER IV.
SAINT JOHN OF LIGHT
CHAPTER V.
THE CITY OF THE ARROW-PIERCED SAINT
CHAPTER VI.
AN OLD SPANISH MINIATURE
CHAPTER VII.
AN ERA IN TWILIGHT
CHAPTER VIII.
"THE LITTLE PARIS OF THE SOUTH,"
CHAPTER IX.
THE WARM WATERS AND THE PEAK OF THE SOUTH
CHAPTER X.
THE GOOD WATERS OF THE ARQUEBUSADE
CHAPTER XI.
Table of contents (by pages)
- 1: A Midsummer Drive Through the Pyrenees by Dix
- 2: Relief map of the central pyrenees
- 3: One visits the Alps to be in the tide of travel
- 4: He has not been to the Pyrenees
- 5: The nucleus of Biarritz is old
- 6: Biarritz had become too popular
- 7: Illustration BEACH AND VILLA EUGENIE AT BIARRITZ
- 8: Or watches the waves at Biarritz
- 9: The menacing crescent of the Armada
- 10: Once peculiarly popular with Biarritz
- 11: Every one went to Bayonne en cacolet
- 12: A breack is its Gallicized English name
- 13: As Basques and Bayonnais were always fighting
- 14: While Quieret had his throat cut
- 15: Pe de Puyane said that the merchants
- 16: Uttered this saying 'Fine festival for Bayonne folk
- 17: Depositing their salvers and retiring to make way for others
- 18: They are the favorite promenade of Bayonne
- 19: This is the road once famous for the cacolet
- 20: But the idea of pique nique is soon borne in upon her
- 21: On their morning way to Biarritz or Bayonne
- 22: And our breack sweeps by into the central square
- 23: These fueros lasted in substance even up to 1876
- 24: Every Basque is ex officio a nobleman
- 25: Algarreki jouanen guiuc Elhurra hourtzen denian
- 26: Basques were the first whalers
- 27: Lies the famous pass of Ibaneta or Roncesvalles
- 28: N'i ad castel ki devant lui remagnet
- 29: ' Ganelon rose in front and cried
- 30: The affianced of Roland 'Where is my Roland
- 31: It is necessary to change cars at Irun
- 32: The citadel was once counted first
- 33: And the cabmen mildly independent
- 34: The citadel hill is known as the Monte Orgullo
- 35: And the stroll down to the Alameda very pleasant
- 36: The hornwork and the land front below the curtain
- 37: Fuenterrabia lies near the mouth of the Bidassoa
- 38: Beyond a doubt Fuenterrabia is old
- 39: I seriously recommend this purchase in Fuenterrabia
- 40: Connecting there for Orthez and Pau
- 41: The prudhommes were strangely puzzled
- 42: Who tells us most about Orthez and Gaston
- 43: Gaston himself was a type of the time
- 44: 'the Count de Foix has at this moment a hundred thousand
- 45: When the Duke of Bourbon made a three days' visit to Orthez
- 46: Gastonis nomen gratum fert auribus omen
- 47: And we are at the Hotel Gassion
- 48: And over toward the coteaux we see the village of Jurancon
- 49: Pau seems to show little of artistic building enterprise
- 50: Pau in the season is a British oligarchy
- 51: And this active province of Bearn kept pace
- 52: He was a Bearnais from sole to crown
- 53: These we made haste to throw down with the petard
- 54: The King of Navarre took inconceivable pains in this siege
- 55: Henry as a model of renounced ambition is a failure
- 56: With delight Pau watched her merry monarch
- 57: You must enjoy Morlaaes wholly for its past
- 58: Coarraze can be reached by rail also
- 59: We are on the way to Eaux Chaudes and Eaux Bonnes
- 60: We find our breack awaiting us
- 61: The breack has just come in sight
- 62: The torrent is noisily roaring
- 63: In the tidy parlor blazes a wood fire
- 64: 'But when the Countess of Biscay
- 65: Our breack comes pompously to the terrace by the hotel
- 66: And so descending to Panticosa and the plains of Aragon
- 67: It competes even with that at Laruns
- 68: The season has already reached Eaux Bonnes
- 69: Equally inevitable with the berret
- 70: So this is the principality of Goust
- 71: We have been to Pau and Eaux Bonnes
- 72: This exile life of Goust tells its patient lesson
- 73: The vinaigrette dragowomen as energetic as commonly
- 74: Promenade Horizontale until eight
- 75: The Route Thermale was the result
- 76: And at its head in the mountains lies Cauterets
- 77: As you walk out from the inn at Arrens toward the monastery
- 78: It is now that the Route Thermale shows its mettle
- 79: A biography summed up in an act
- 80: A few towels are bleaching in the sun
- 81: One could take the train from Argeles to Pierrefitte
- 82: Made many excursions into Bigorre
- 83: The Erle Count of Foiz sayd aloude
- 84: And Mirat promptly sent it to Charlemagne
- 85: It is all strikingly like Laruns
- 86: Cauterets confirms its first good impressions
- 87: Conspire to be especially attractive in Cauterets
- 88: Rabelais used to come to Cauterets
- 89: We strike the Viscos from the list of necessaries
- 90: This is the favorite short drive from Cauterets
- 91: The shanty is not too primitive to vend refreshing drinks
- 92: And when I happen to mention an exploit of Whymper
- 93: Cantouz and Guilhembert by name
- 94: Illustration THE LAC DE GAUBE AND THE VIGNEMALE
- 95: This statement presumably refers to rural freeholders only
- 96: The ride down to Pierrefitte is quick and exhilarating
- 97: The response to our advances is so hearty and direct
- 98: As at Larroque and Lannemezan and here at Luz
- 99: Witchcraft was charged to the Cagot
- 100: Mainly concentrated round Lourdes and at Bagneres de Bigorre
- 101: The cliffs of Gavarnie form the Spanish frontier
- 102: And explore the route toward Troumouse
- 103: It takes effect even here in the Gedre solitudes
- 104: We are an hour in approaching the Cirque
- 105: Which is invisible from the Cirque itself
- 106: It was but a few days after Mme
- 107: The Pic de Bergonz shall be our goal
- 108: The Monne at Cauterets was within our grasp
- 109: No one at Luz was found to say a good word for Bareges
- 110: No one visits Bareges for pleasure
- 111: But more shiveringly still of Bareges
- 112: We are only intellectually cognizant of this Pic du Midi
- 113: And certain appetites for omelet fade swiftly away
- 114: The Coustous is doubly lined with arching trees
- 115: Bigorre is of no mushroom growth
- 116: Ernauton de Sainte Colombe and Le Mengeant de Sainte Basile
- 117: Having taken off their helmets
- 118: Led the wretched cit off to Lourdes through crooked by roads
- 119: Our Tourmalet conveyances have long since gone back
- 120: The Campan Gave is sufficiently wide to be called a river
- 121: And three miles thence to Arreau
- 122: We drive off toward Luchon after the survey
- 123: These in Luchon seem not to feel envy
- 124: And Luchon resented them the most acridly
- 125: Luchon is undoubtedly over petted
- 126: The base of the Entecade is six miles from Luchon
- 127: And path to the port de venasque
- 128: The highest point of the Maladetta
- 129: Which opened out below us from the Entecade
- 130: Sipping its liqueurs and tasting its ices
- 131: Into two main classes aperitifs and digestifs
- 132: Not making a night's break as before at Arreau
- 133: The Pic du Midi de Bigorre will loom up beyond it
- 134: And at the left the summits of the Maladetta
- 135: And hurried out to the Coustous