Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Preface
- Maps
- 1 Travels, December 1857–January 1858
- 2 Rome, January–May 1858
- 3 Rome, May–December 1858
- 4 Rome, January–May 1859
- 5 Travels, May–October 1859
- 6 Rome, November 1859–July 1860
- 7 Travels, July–September 1860
- Postface
- Bibliography
- Record of Villa Medici Inmates in Bizet’s Time, 1858–1860
- Index of Artists and Architects
- Index of Places and Persons
- Plate section
1 - Travels, December 1857–January 1858
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 June 2021
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Preface
- Maps
- 1 Travels, December 1857–January 1858
- 2 Rome, January–May 1858
- 3 Rome, May–December 1858
- 4 Rome, January–May 1859
- 5 Travels, May–October 1859
- 6 Rome, November 1859–July 1860
- 7 Travels, July–September 1860
- Postface
- Bibliography
- Record of Villa Medici Inmates in Bizet’s Time, 1858–1860
- Index of Artists and Architects
- Index of Places and Persons
- Plate section
Summary
The group of five talented young men who left Paris on Monday 21 December 1857 consisted of Charles-Joseph Colin (see Plate Ib), a composer and oboist aged twenty-five who had shared First Prize with Bizet in the 1857 Prix de Rome competition; Charles-François Sellier, a painter aged twenty-six, that year's Prix de Rome winner in painting; Jules Didier (see Plate Ia), another painter aged twenty-six, with the First Prize for landscape painting; Joseph Heim, aged twenty-seven, winner of the the architecture prize, whose father, a painter, had won the Prix de Rome in 1806; and Georges Bizet, composer, much the youngest of the party at nineteen, winner of the prize in composition for that year.
They left the Gare de Lyon on the night express at 8.30 p.m. and arrived in Lyon at 7.30 the next morning. A journey that now takes less than two hours then took eleven hours, with many changes en route. Their journey within France could be undertaken by train as far as Marseille, although to see the Fontaine de Vaucluse and the Pont du Gard they would have had to make excursions by road.
Journal
Monday 21 December 1857 Paris
Left Paris at 8.30 p.m. (express train)
Tuesday 22 December Lyon
Reached Lyon at 7.30 a.m. (Hôtel des Courriers). The museum (whose director is M. Bonnefond1) has two Peruginos, a fine Flandrin, a Heim. Left Lyon at 4 p.m., arrived at Vienne at 5 (Hôtel du Parc).
Wednesday 23 December Vienne, Valence
Old theatre. St Maurice Cathedral. Tomb of Augustus and Livia. Bridge from which there is a good view.
Left Vienne at 10.30, reached Valence at 2.15. Cathedral, Pendentive, Château de Crussol, (Hôtel de France, chez Maître Gervit). Departure at 11.00.
Thursday 24 December Orange, Avignon
Arrival at Orange at 2 o’clock in the morning (Hôtel des Princes). Roman theatre (well preserved), above the theatre the Montagne du Cirque, statue of the virgin, Roman triumphal arch. Left Orange at 2.00, arrived in Avignon at 3.00. Avignon (Hôtel du Palais Royal). Villeneuve-les-Avignon on the other bank. Notre-Dame des Dômes, cathedral, Popes’ Palace, town hall, old bridge with old chapel to St Bénézé, splendid view of the mountains, theatre, St Pierre, St Martial.
- Type
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- Information
- Bizet in ItalyLetters and Journals, 1857–1860, pp. 1 - 17Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2021