Martine Bailey
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  • Home
  • About the author
  • The Almanack
    • Riddles & Research
  • An Appetite for Violets
    • England
    • France
    • Savoy
    • Italy
  • The Penny Heart
    • Grace
    • Mary
  • Events & News
  • Blogs
  • Reviews
  • Reading Group Questions
  • Contact
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YOUR CART

Savoy to Piedmont 1773
We now came to a new place named Savoy, savage land of high rocks that reached right through the clouds. It was truly the most fearsome sight I ever saw in my life.

In the  pre-Romantic era most travellers found  the empty mountains,  snow and ice of the Alps, a horrific prospect.  Retracing Biddy’s route I travelled from Lyons up to Lake Annecy and on to Chamonix and Mont Blanc. There I was fortunate enough to glimpse Italy from the Aguille du Midi, the highest cable car in Europe at a vertiginous height of nearly 4000m.
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The Grand Tourists were not so lucky, dreading their Alpine crossing into Italy. Carriages would be dismantled and passengers carried across the mountains in chairs carried by local mountain bearers.
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In Savoy the sophisticated food of London and Paris was replaced by plain mountain food – cured meats, dried fruits and cheeses. Tartiflette, a dish made of local reblochon cheese was typical of the limited diet of remote areas and the unfamiliar foods many tourists complained of.
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