Voyage de Paris à Dublin: à travers la Normandie et l'Angleterre en 1789

The career of Coquebert de Montbret encompassed the world of diplomatic relations under Louis XVI, the upper ranks of the Napoleonic bureaucracy where he was Secretary General of the Ministry of manufacture and commerce, and, during the Restoration, geologist and geographer with the Académie des sciences. Diplomat, scientist, statistician, editor, and professor, Coquebert de Montbret lived widely and well through perilous times. In 1789 he was sent to take up his post in the diplomatic service in Dublin, where he remained until 1792. The current volume, edited and annotated by Isabelle Laboulais-Lesage, consists of notes taken from two journals recounting his voyage from Paris to Holyhead during the first year of the French Revolution.

The purpose of these notes is not altogether clear. At times Coquebert de Montbret seems to be preparing a guide for future travelers, while elsewhere he would appear to be accumulating data regarding the various features of the countryside he traverses. He tells us for example that although he had been assured the contrary, the British were loathe to change the currency he had brought into the kingdom, preferring to lose a sale rather than accept his écu. "This is a useful tip for travelers," he remarks. Elsewhere he accumulates information about the topography, geography, agriculture, manufacture, and social mores along his path from Paris to Rouen, to Dieppe, across the Channel to Brighton, London, and eventually Holyhead before arriving in Dublin. He notes the cost of travel per mile in a British two-horse cabriolet, the customs formalities at each stop along his way, and such minutiae as the nomenclature of British bell-ringing. His account is punctuated with numerous anecdotes and observations, such as: "The petulance of the English people and their tendency to take advantage is the cause, it seems to me, of the arrogance of the great, of the etiquette of all social classes, of the privacy of individual lives, of the women's prudishness, of the lack of access to public facilities, of the paucity of decoration in public gardens and finally of the severity with which Sunday is observed."

Coquebert de Montbret was an inquisitive observer and a systematic thinker. The entries in his notebooks, enhanced by Laboulais-Lesage's careful and informative annotation, offer much valuable material for the reader interested in day-to-day reality in France and England toward the end of the eighteenth century.