A Year's Journey Through France and Part of Spain, Volume 2 (1777)

This is pre-revolutionary France and Spain as seen through the wry, sharp eyes of an 18th-century English traveler. Philip Thicknesse arrives in Nîmes still buzzing from his first glimpse of the Roman amphitheatre - that magnificent ruin that had haunted his imagination since childhood. What follows is a journey through the south of France where Roman temples, crumbling arenas, and ancient streets become the stage for his incisive observations on local customs, artistic beauty, and the peculiar dynamics of provincial life. He logs his encounters with vivid particularity, including a memorable lodging situation involving a beautiful woman revealed to be his landlord's mistress - a detail that tells you everything about Thicknesse's talent for stumbling into the human comedy. His reflections on decay and grandeur, on what remains versus what has vanished, carry an elegiac weight given what awaits this world just a dozen years later. This is travel writing as intellectual adventure: curious, opinionated, and utterly of its moment. For anyone fascinated by the pre-revolutionary texture of Europe, or by the art of seeing places clearly, Thicknesse is an excellent companion.