"What an amassment of enormous ships arriving from or parting for mysterious, faraway lands": A French woman travelling in Algeria

[Algeria]. Manuscript travelogue of a French woman in Algeria.

The anonymous traveller's journey begins in Paris on 3 May 1897, when she boards an express train to Marseille; here she meets her travel companion Charles and travels by ship onward to "Philippeville" (Skikda). She notes that she is the only woman on board the ship, which arrives in Algeria on May 6th. The journey continues by train, car and on horseback, leading from Skikda to Constantine, Biskra, El Kantara, Tilatou, Timgad, Batna, Béjaïa, El Kseur, Azarga, Aïn El Hammam (here referred to as Michelet), the Djudjura mountains, Tazmalt, and home to France via Béjaïa and Skikda. It is likely that the lady was accompanying her fiancé or a relative ahead of his deployment in Algeria as a soldier or colonial administrator, as he remained behind in Béjaïa after an emotional farewell, while the author returned to Marseille on 14 June 1897.

The travelogue is rich in descriptions of both inner feelings and external events, and is accompanyied by sketches of high quality. These include portraits of local acquaintances, plant studies, two atmospheric interiors of the Ahmed Bey Palace in Constantine, a detailed architectural sketch of the ancient Roman Trajan's Arch in Timgad, and depictions of ruins and buildings. The author's artistic talent is at evidence particularly in her portraits of three young Algerians from Batna named Amar, Hamo, and Ahmed Ben Ali, but also in her interior sketches. As she frequently mentions her work on various studies which must go beyond what is preserved in the present journal, it is likely that she was a semi-professional, if not a professional artist.

In Biskra the travelling couple meet the French water engineer Henri Jus (1832-1906) who built several artesian wells, and the author mentions that he was locally known as "father of the water". Arriving in Constantine on a Saturday, the author also becomes a witness to local Jewish life: "Upon arrival I walk through the city, it is the day of the Sabbath and the streets are full of dressed-up Jewish women [...]" (transl.). A quite dramatic entry concerns a passage on horseback from Aïn El Hammam to Tazmalt through the Djudjura mountains: the author wonders how their horses "did not drop dead ten times over" and describes how she collapsed in tears upon their arrival in Tazmalt. The following day she woke up "with muscle soreness such as I never suffered before". Her descriptions of architecture and landscapes are often very poetic, like the following impressions from a boat trip in Béjaïa on the last day before her departure: "The coast is splendid; the sheer wall drops almost vertically into waters of a dark, almost black blue, some 100 meters deep. The advancing rocks form promontories and amphitheatres of green, fresh bays. Beyond the great lighthouse [of Cape Carbon] the rock transforms itself into a natural arch to great effect".

Binding shows stains, some damage to margins and broken spine. Minor foxing throughout. With some minor tears. Some pages loose, some blank leaves cut or torn out.