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Paris to the Pyrenees: A Skeptic Pilgrim Walks the Way of Saint James par David Downie

2014; American Association of Teachers of French; Volume: 88; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/tfr.2014.0054

2329-7131

Alice J. Strange,

Religious Tourism and Spaces

Reviews 245 follow-up.A lively coming-of-age story relevant for students,teachers,and professionals of all sorts, including those entrenched in corporate structures and fellow travelers on “LinkedIn” (29). Southwestern University (TX) Aaron Prevots Downie, David. Paris to the Pyrenees: A Skeptic Pilgrim Walks the Way of Saint James. New York: Pegasus, 2013. ISBN 978-1-60598-432-2. Pp. xviii + 317. $27.95. Downie undertakes the French portion of the pilgrimage Way of Saint James from Paris to Roncesvalles, Spain, a distance of 750 miles, longer than the remaining distance to Santiago de Compostela. The title is catchy but misleading, since the only connection to the pilgrimage is the itinerary and the projected route, which is abandoned less than halfway through the trip. Nonetheless there is value to what is achieved, namely a detailed visit to a little-known region of rural France. Downie and his wife Alison Harris begin with a symbolic nod to the Tour Saint-Jacques in Paris, a traditional French starting point of the pilgrimage. They take a train to Vézelay, bypassing the urban development around Paris where the pilgrimage trail is hopelessly buried. From Vézelay, their path follows an ancient Roman road that today is part of the grande randonnée network of hiking trails, with convenient topographical maps. The work’s strongest feature is the account of the month of hiking through the rugged, isolated countryside of Burgundy, where traces of the Gallo-Roman past are visible. Each day of hiking concludes overnight at a country inn. Downie finds the region’s French inhabitants to be reclusive and unwelcoming, but he makes the acquaintance of colorful characters among the innkeepers, the couple’s primary conversation companions. Most are former city dwellers or semi-retired foreigners, primarily Dutch. The sparsely-populated Morvan region seems left behind by modern life, enabling the hikers to feel closer to its vivid early history. During each day’s hike, Downie muses about the lively adventures of Celtic, Gallic, and Roman inhabitants. His imagination is stimulated by daily reading of Julius Caesar’s Conquest of Gaul, partly composed at the now-abandoned town of Bibracte. At the hill fort of Alésia, Vercingétorix fell to Caesar. More recently, the area was a center of the Resistance during the Occupation. As president, François Mitterrand actively sought to foster his legacy as a Resistance hero in this area and perhaps even as the heir to Vercingétorix. Unfortunately the hike and the narration are interrupted when a chronic back injury forces Downie to return to Paris from Mâcon. After weeks of recovery, the couple resumes the project, bypassing two hundred miles of central France and resuming at Le Puy-en-Velay, another traditional starting point for the pilgrimage. To fulfill the promise of the title, they hike another two months and complete the trek over the Pyrenees, but this phase is only briefly sketched in an epilogue. The couple clearly prefers the solitary section of the northern route to the pilgrimage crowds in southern France and in Spain. In sum, the work offers an instructive account of the first third of the French pilgrimage route, significantly enhanced by the photography of Alison Harris. It has definite appeal for the general reader with an interest in French travel. The author seeks to evoke the past in remote sections of Burgundy, a historically rich region where the spirits of ancient inhabitants may still be sensed by modern pilgrims. Southeast Missouri State University Alice J. Strange Heinrich, Christoph. Nature as Muse: Inventing Impressionist Landscape. Denver: Art Museum, 2013. ISBN 978-0-914738-91-6. Pp. 167. $35. Heinrich presents fifteen essays about paintings on display at the Denver Art Museum’s Passport to Paris exhibit (Oct. 2013–Feb. 2014). As his title indicates, he focuses on the development of Impressionist landscape painting from its forerunners in the early nineteenth century to Post-Impressionists like Cézanne and Van Gogh as well as American artists who were followers of Monet and other Impressionists. He points out the influence of artist and teacher Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes at the beginning of the century. Although working in the classical tradition...