” I could start to sing the praises of my journey by saying that it cost me nothing; and this fact deserves to be pointed out. It means that it will straight away be lauded and fêted by those of middling wealth; and there is another class of men with whom it will be even more popular, for this same reason that it costs nothing. - ‘And who can they be?’ - Ah, you mean you have to ask? Rich people, of course! Furthermore, what a grand resource this way of traveling will be for the sick! They won’t need to fear the inclemency of the air and the seasons. - As for the cowardly, they will be safe from robbers; they will encounter neither precipices nor quagmires. Thousands of people who, before I came along, had never dared to travel, and others who had not been able to, and yet others who had never even dreamed of traveling, will be emboldened to do so by my example. Would even the most indolent of men hesitate to set off with me in search of a pleasure that will cost him neither effort nor money? So, buck up then: let’s be off! - Follow me, all you who, because of some mortification of love, or a negligent friend, have been keeping to your apartments, far from the pettiness and perfidy of men. Let all the unhappy, sick and bored people of the whole world follow me! - Let all the lazy arise en masse! And you whose minds are brooding over sinister plans to reform your way of life or retire from it as a result of some infidelity; you who, in some boudoir, have renounced the world for good; you amiable anchorites of an evening, come along too. Take my word for it and leave those dark ideas behind; you are wasting time which you could be spending enjoying yourselves, and you are not thereby gaining any time for wisdom: be so good as to accompany on my journey; we will travel in short marches, laughing all along the way at the travelers who have seen Rome and Paris; - no obstacle will be able to stop us; and, yielding merrily to our imagination, we will follow it wherever it pleases to lead us.” Xavier De Maistre, A Journey Around My Room, 1795 Image : Topographical Exploration of My Living Area (definitely not to scale)

” I could start to sing the praises of my journey by saying that it cost me nothing; and this fact deserves to be pointed out. It means that it will straight away be lauded and fêted by those of middling wealth; and there is another class of men with whom it will be even more popular, for this same reason that it costs nothing. - ‘And who can they be?’ - Ah, you mean you have to ask? Rich people, of course! Furthermore, what a grand resource this way of traveling will be for the sick! They won’t need to fear the inclemency of the air and the seasons. - As for the cowardly, they will be safe from robbers; they will encounter neither precipices nor quagmires. Thousands of people who, before I came along, had never dared to travel, and others who had not been able to, and yet others who had never even dreamed of traveling, will be emboldened to do so by my example. Would even the most indolent of men hesitate to set off with me in search of a pleasure that will cost him neither effort nor money? So, buck up then: let’s be off! - Follow me, all you who, because of some mortification of love, or a negligent friend, have been keeping to your apartments, far from the pettiness and perfidy of men. Let all the unhappy, sick and bored people of the whole world follow me! - Let all the lazy arise en masse! And you whose minds are brooding over sinister plans to reform your way of life or retire from it as a result of some infidelity; you who, in some boudoir, have renounced the world for good; you amiable anchorites of an evening, come along too. Take my word for it and leave those dark ideas behind; you are wasting time which you could be spending enjoying yourselves, and you are not thereby gaining any time for wisdom: be so good as to accompany on my journey; we will travel in short marches, laughing all along the way at the travelers who have seen Rome and Paris; - no obstacle will be able to stop us; and, yielding merrily to our imagination, we will follow it wherever it pleases to lead us.”

Xavier De Maistre, A Journey Around My Room, 1795

Image : Topographical Exploration of My Living Area (definitely not to scale)