2 - At First Sight
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 October 2009
Summary
When we meet a new person, first impressions, fallacious though they can be, count for a great deal. The same is true when we travel to a place we have not known before. A first glance perceives differences and scans landscapes and people for the signs of exoticism that will justify the journey. These first impressions often leave the strongest marks, those that one remembers most clearly when it comes to writing down one's memories and reflections.
The French travelers who arrived in the United States were no exception to this rule, and the strength of these first images is evident in their accounts: New York and its bay, Chicago and its sprawling size, monumental Washington, the hum of San Francisco by the Golden Gate, or the power of the Grand Canyon. A marvel of nature, an evening's special light, or the physiognomies of passers-by thus anchored down the first impressions. Pierre de Coubertin was particularly enthusiastic about natural sites:
… the banks of the Hudson, the mass of the Niagara tumbling down, the panoramic views of Quebec or Montreal, the Potomac seen from Washington's Capitol, and the sparkling sunsets of Florida are forever present in my memory.
The marquis de Chanteloup-Laubat for his part emphasized the urban landscape:
No description can give us an exact idea of the American city, built in a checkerboard pattern, covered by an immense network of metal wires, cut by numbered streets, congested with vehicles of all kinds, and crisscrossed by elevated trains that clatter overhead on high steel scaffolds.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Fascination and MisgivingsThe United States in French Opinion, 1870–1914, pp. 50 - 86Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2000