Of Monasteries and Mountains

[selenak]

Having successfully mastered the art of the Peugeot driving - honestly, it wasn't the various gears per se, I did learn to drive that way, not on automatic, I am that old; it was the secret of the reverse! - I was set to chauffeur my mother around the island. Well, we planned various tours, and on Tuesday, we did the first. Which led us to Valdemosa, boasting of a Carthusian monastary where Chopin and George Sand spent a winter (which was the vacation from hell - it rained, they didn't get along with the locals, and their relationship was falling apart, but we did get one and a half books by G.S. and the Preludes out of it) as well as a charming small town, then to Port de Soller (lovely harbor) and then through spectacular mountain roads roughly following the outlines of the coast to Poncella, then back across the country so we could see some more blooming almonds to Santa Maria. En route, we also stopped by at Deia (where Robert Graves spent his last 30 years and is buried; he also made sure no bus is allowed to drive through or park there, but cars are okay, which was good for us) and Miramar (one of the Habsburg archdukes, Ludwig Salvator, nabbed a monastary and made it his home for the holidays; again, spectacular view).



The Carthusian Monastary of Valdemosa








Library








George Sand's manuscripts and no, not Chopin's piano, but one where concerts are played in his honour:





View of the village:





A bit from the village, and my mother:









Deia. Now English (And Scottish, and Welsh, and Irish) people on my list, isn't that where you'd go if you said "Goodbye To All That", too?





This reminds me. A while ago likeadeuce asked me whether I didn't think Robert Graves was something of a dick, and revealed Pat Barker's novel Regeneration as the source of that opinion. Well, quoth I, while the novel is indeed a great one, it IS a novel and the Graves parts (he's only a minor character in it anyway) struck me as very much what happens if a fanfic author has an OTP (in Barker's case Sassoon/Owen) and doesn't want anyone to be as important or shock, even more important and connected to one of her guys, so she bashes that annoying person TPTB Real Life provided. Mind you, not that Graves was without dickish behaviour in other circumstances, but talking about the WWI era, and specifically the part Regeneration deals with, no. The reason I went and visited his grave, though, was because I love some of his poems, adore I, Claudius and will always be grateful to him for writing it, and yes, was fascinated when reading Goodbye to all that.








Graves' house in Deia is actually open to visitors. Just not on the day I visited, because there was a complete electricity fallout. Curses!


And here we have Miramar. Ex monastary, as I said (founded by one of the two local clerical heroes, Ramon Lull, no less), and then reduced to a vacation spot for the Habsburgs. Ah, well.




But the view!



On to Port de Soller, which is a lovely harbour, obviousy.








And then it was mountain road time!










Lastly, because they just are so pretty, one more:

Comments

[wee-warrior.livejournal.com]

Just lovely. I'll never understand why so many people go to Mallorca only for partying, when it is so amazingly beautiful.

Oh, Chopin and Sand! Yay for early gender-bending couples!

Well, quoth I, while the novel is indeed a great one, it IS a novel and the Graves parts (he's only a minor character in it anyway) struck me as very much what happens if a fanfic author has an OTP (in Barker's case Sassoon/Owen) and doesn't want anyone to be as important or shock, even more important and connected to one of her guys, so she bashes that annoying person TPTB Real Life provided.

Hee. I'm reading it just now and it is a really good book, although I must admit that the real life circumstances of Sassoon and Owen's insta-friendship/mutual crush/epic romance/presumably all of the above really look like a romantic screenplay gone wild, so I can see why Barker would be tempted to concentrate on that. (As for Graves, he mostly strikes me as incredibly pragmatic to Sassoon's idealistic frustration so far. Does he get more dickish later on?)

I hope you and your mother continue to have fun and be able to relax somewhat. Don't let the Peugeot overwhelm you!

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Re: early gender-bending: have you ever read the Gustave "Madame Bovary, c'est moi" Flaubert/ George Sand correspondance? He addresses her as "chère Maitre" - which the German version makes into "liebe Meisterin", not being able to use the female adjective and the male noun, and the whole thing is just fun to read on every level - popular novelist versus ultra-artistic super critical novelist, vivacious old lady versus gloomy man who feels aged somewhere in his 30s, busy family woman (with her sons and grandchildren, and still writing novels, of course) versus hermit, and G.S. as something like the last surviving Romantic versus Flaubert the realist/naturalist.

"Pragmatic" is not a word I'd use for WWI era Robert Graves, is all. (Nor the later one, actually, though he was trying then - but any man who has the kind of crazy personal life he had during the 20s is seriously lacking in pragmatism.) For starters, he was as shell-shocked as Sassoon and Owen, though managed to keep himself out of a hospital. (In retrospect, that might have been a mistake.) Also, leave it to R.G. to think saying "I have hallucinations, too" makes him a credible witness when testifying for Sassoon. But Barker needed someone to play the "now do be sensible, Siegfried, we're not going to change anything anyway" role, and she didn't need another soldier-poet in an intense relationship with Sasson, hence the basically two Graves scenes we get and their content.

[wee-warrior.livejournal.com]

Re: early gender-bending: have you ever read the Gustave "Madame Bovary, c'est moi" Flaubert/ George Sand correspondance?

Nope. *puts on list* I believe to remember reading that she used to call Chopin her wife, more or less jokingly, but I may have made that up. They must have been quite an interesting pair, though.

ut Barker needed someone to play the "now do be sensible, Siegfried, we're not going to change anything anyway" role, and she didn't need another soldier-poet in an intense relationship with Sasson, hence the basically two Graves scenes we get and their content.

I confess that I interpreted these entirely different, namely as Graves being concerned about his friend and thus doing everything to get him into a hospital instead of prison...now, I'm also someone who doesn't think pragmatism is bad, so it could just be my interpretation merrily overriding authorial intend to my heart's delight. So far I also have the feeling that Prior is more of a main character than either Sassoon or Owen, but that might of course change.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Prior is; he's also the central character of the entire trilogy, and entirely fictional, which is why his characterisation is completely up to the author. *g*

[kathyh]

Sounds like you've driven round half the island already :) I've got a travel book about Mallorca written by an Englishman in the 1930s and they travelled to most places by hiking or riding on donkeys as the roads were more or less non-existent. Hard to imagine now!

I've always felt rather sorry for the poor monks of Valldemossa who had to put up with Chopin and George Sand. Not the easiest of visitors.

Now English (And Scottish, and Welsh, and Irish) people on my list, isn't that where you'd go if you said "Goodbye To All That", too?

Most definitely, yes. I thought Deia was stunning and the simplicity of Graves' grave very moving.

Lovely photos. Many thanks for sharing.

ETA: And I meant to say that your mum looks great and I can't believe this trip is her .. birthday present :)

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Not the easiest of visitors.

And don't forget the kids. *g* (George Sand's, that is.) Though actually, having read George Sand's correspondance with Gustave Flaubert in her old age, I must say she sounds like a very good visitor to have, one who really enjoys travelling and is very good humoured (she's endlessly trying to cheer up Flaubert and pointing out the things to enjoy in those letters, and she's still travelling, albeit not to Mallorca, just within France).

My mum says thanks!

[timeofchange.livejournal.com]

I'm longing to go to Mallorca now. Your photos are so excellent.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Thank you, and here's hoping that you'll make it! So worth a visit.

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

Do young Germans learn on automatics now, then? In the UK if you learn on an automatic you need to take a second driving test if you ever want to drive a manual, so it's not common.

Sorry, but banning people from using public transport to your home (presumably from snobbery about Teh Disgusting Lower-Class Daytrippers?) does make you a dick, by my estimation.


My first ever foreign holiday, at three, was to Port de Soller. Was the tramway running?

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I'm not sure, since it's been *cough* twenty years since I learned, and back then, we had the same rule - i.e. if you learned on automatics, it said so in your licence and you needed to take a second test if, etc. But today, there are hardly any non-automatic cars left, so I wonder!

Public transport: let me clarify - buses get to Deia itself, they're just not allowed to drive in the old city centre, which is good because those streets are TINY (or is the right word "tight"? "slim"? "narrow"?) and a bus would entirely block them, keeping out not only cars but people. Graves' home, otoh, is NOT in the bus-free zone, it's outside of the city core, which means buses can drive there. So it's not like he can be accused of self interest. (Unless one postulates he liked using the bus himself?)

Tramway at Port de Soller: yes, it's running!

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

Ah, I misunderstood you about the buses, probably because there are some twentieth-centiury writers who one can imagine thinking that way.

[likeadeuce.livejournal.com]

A while ago likeadeuce asked me whether I didn't think Robert Graves was something of a dick, and revealed Pat Barker's novel Regeneration as the source of that opinion.

Heh, you know, it's funny because I've actually read "Goodbye" -- at least, I'm pretty sure, I read excerpts from it for a college course --,' but the fictionalized version stood out in my mind more for some reason. Oh, the power of pushy shippers!

Lovely pictures, as always, and I'm glad it's not too wintery here or I might just stare at these all day.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

But, but, but you told me Virginia isn't wintery at all i.e. I couldn't ski there?

Anyway: glad you like the photos. And I'm still amused about the power of pushy shippers, too.*g*

[likeadeuce.livejournal.com]

Cold sometimes; snow rarely :).

[shezan.livejournal.com]

Hahahahaha! The FIRST thing my mother told me about Mallorca was the "holiday from hell" story. (Which she interspersed with the Danieli Follies when George Sand was cheating on Chopin - or was it Musset? - in the Riva dei Schiavoni loggia of Room 7.)

LOVE your pictures, as always.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

The Danieli Follies was Musset. Chopin was later.*g*

And thanks. I'm having a splendid time!

[vaznetti]

I had no idea Mallorca was so pretty! I suppose so long as you avoid the summer it's actually a nice place to visit.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Indeed it is. I mean, there are tourists here now, too, but really a minimum; our hotel is two thirds empty, for example.

[thepouncer.livejournal.com]

The lust and acquisitiveness I felt upon beholding the books in that library was quite startling.

What a lovely town. Now I want to visit *g*

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Now I'm starting to wonder whether the Mallorca Tourist Board has been secretly hypnotizing me to advertise for them. *g* No, seriously, it's full of wonderful places to visit, and Valldemossa is certainly one of them!