The Motor Routes of France: To the Châteaux of Touraine, Biarritz, the Pyrenees, the Riviera, & the Rhone Valley
1910
The year is 1910. The automobile is barely a decade old as a practical conveyance, and France stretches before you like a dream waiting to be discovered by road. Gordon Home, himself an early automobilist, guides you through wheat plains and mountain passes, past feudal châteaux and into sun-soaked fishing villages. This is not merely a travel guide but a portal to a vanished era when every journey felt like an expedition, when the French countryside revealed itself slowly through the windshield of an open car, when stopping for lunch meant discovering an inn that had served the same menu for generations. Home offers practical wisdom, hotel recommendations, road conditions, local inquiries, but his real gift is capturing a moment when the modern age first touched old Europe, when the freedom of the automobile meant discovering a France that had remained hidden for centuries, accessible only to those patient enough to trace its back roads.
