Patriotism, Pan-Celticism and the Welsh Cultural Paradigm in Travel Writing in French from 1830 to 1900

Abstract

This chapter covers the period when Wales’s Celticness dominated French views. It contrasts travelogues by ‘Celtomaniac’ visitors with those by travellers with other agendas, such as social justice. While industrial locations in south Wales continued to attract French interest, discussion of the Welsh language and culture is now often inseparable from the descriptions of the changing landscape and workforce. A number of these texts describe Eisteddfodau, and discussion of a cluster of travelogues prompted by the visit of a Breton delegation to the Cardiff National Eisteddfod of 1899 considers to what extent these travellers’ idealized expectations of Wales as a role model, in terms of its ability to adapt to modernity while preserving its traditions, are met. Nevertheless, this episode also suggests the extent to which encounters between peripheries remain within and become subsumed by the mediating framework of the relationship with the centre, as Bretons and Welsh negate their reciprocal cultural identities by designating the other as English and French. Both French chapters show Wales going from a little-known quantity to being considered as an intriguing Celtic ‘other’.