Luzula

I had three whole days with garonne in Paris! On the first day, we went to the Hotel de la Marine, which is a museum of an 18th century house by the Place de la Concorde. This was quite interesting, there was a lot of the interior and furniture left, and the audio guide was good. Why were beds so short? I know people might have been shorter then on average, but not that short, surely? Sadly the museum did not include the servants' quarters and we were informed that those now contained the offices of FIFA and Chanel... After that we had intended to go to a museum with a display on the history of clothing and fashion with many 18th century clothes, but were very disappointed that it was closed (the website had not said so). /o\

The day after, we went to Versailles, which was...an experience. It is huge, including the garden and parks and peripheral buildings. The gardens were interesting to compare with those at Stowe--much more rigid and geometrical, and we had fun trying to find the nook where Keith and Ewen made out in one of hyarrowen's fics. Why the extremely high hedges in some parts of it? I found that oppressive.

In the palace itself there was not much furniture (I suppose it was looted in the revolution?) but tons of paintings, so we could improvise our own history-of-fashion course. We got fairly good at guessing the decade between 1600 and 1830. *g* Extremely high poofy hairstyles for women? 1770's. Still high but with some curls hanging down, and shortening waistcoats for men? 1780's. Women's hair small and close to the head with ringlets and men's stockings no longer folded up over the bottom of their breeches? 1750's. Huge colorful bowties for men? 1710's. Etc. We could even see what working-class people were wearing occasionally. Wow, some of the 17th century high-heeled shoes were pretty cool, one guy had black shoes with high red heels. Paintings of Napoleonic-era men look odd to me, they were often painted with their pants extremely tight with no visible genitals, almost as though they were women in men's clothes. Sort of the opposite of the codpiece. Of course before the coat and waistcoat receded so high in the front, men were able to have breeches that were loose and comfortable instead of those tight ones, because they couldn't be seen...

At Versailles we were also disappointed that we could not see the servants' quarters. Most walls were extremely thick and obviously had passages inside of them, with concealed doors leading in. Why not show those spaces?

We spent our third day writing and beta-reading and brainstorming stories, which was both fun and productive. Some future parts of my current longfic WIP are now much more clear to me! \o/ Today I am spending the whole day on the train to Copenhagen. So relieved that I did not get any covid symptoms during my trip! Though I have developed a very annoying itchy skin rash that has not yet responded to antihistamines and hydrocortisone cream (though I've only treated it for 24 hours). My theory (and that of the pharmacist) is heat rash. Cannot sleep because of the itching. /o\ (No, it does not match symptoms of monkey pox.)

So on the 29th, regshoe and I arrived in London with the Caledonian Sleeper in the morning, and parted. She is a lovely travelling companion and I am so glad we could go to Scotland together for fannish squee and birdwatching! ♥ We also did beta-reading of each other's WIP:s, and I got to hear dramatic readings of her Flight of the Heron/White Cockades fic, with new cliffhangers each day. *g*

I was spoiled for choice as for what to do while in England, and hesitated between the Portsmouth Historic Dockyards and going to Rye for a museum on (among other things) smuggling in Sussex, obviously with 18th century relevance, and some birdwatching, as well as visiting the Sussex house that D K Broster and her particular friend Gertrude Schlich lived in for many years together. Thanks to regshoe to doing the detective work in tracking it down! Obviously it's just a private house, and one couldn't be too creepily stalkerish in going to it. In the end I went to Portsmouth, as one of the museums in Rye was closed, and also it would have been more travelling and walking. But I look forward to regshoe's eventual report on that house.

At the Portsmouth Historic Dockyards I did the Navy museum, which had lots of interesting stuff, but clearly my historical interest is very fannishly mediated:
Painting of random mid-19th century admiral: eh, who cares.
Painting of random mid-18th century admiral: oh, that is clearly a 1740's waistcoat!
Painting of the 1762 battle of Havana: eeee, that's the battle where I had Keith get injured in one of my fics, and then get the yellow fever (for maximum hurt/comfort)!

I did to go the Mary Rose museum, but it turns out my interest in Tudor England is almost nil.

The HMS Victory, however, was awesome and definitely the highlight of the day! I love how you can walk around inside it and see how everything works, though I am sad that the masts and rigging are down because of the scaffolding for repairs, and you can't go on the upper deck. And it had awesome nerdy guides that could answer all your questions about how everything worked! \o/

Further British foods had:
Bread pudding: well, that's an odd dish! But I liked it fine.
Sticky toffee pudding: oh, yum!
Cullen Skink (smocked haddock, potato and leek soup): yes, good!

Bird species seen: 66. This is mostly regshoe's doing! Only new species for me so far is the black crow, but I have high hopes of the Isle of Rum.

Okay, further trip report:
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We did Morar today, I'll report from that in the next one...

British foods had so far:
Fish and chips: yes, good.
Haggis with neeps and tatties: surprisingly delicious! Have eaten twice now.
Steak pie: in my opinion, the word "pie" means that the pastry should enclose the filling, not be perched on top of it. regshoe thinks so as well. Otherwise, yes, that was okay.

regshoe also thinks I should try various puddings, which I will when I get the opportunity.

Okay, now to the actual subject! Have more photos, now with book quotes.

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Impressions of London:
OMG, this heat is unreasonable. /o\ More bearable when one is on the river bus, though. I'm glad there's an old British lady acting as tour guide to her (presumably) tourist friends pointing out all the buildings and features so I can listen in. She seems to be a Harry Potter fan.

I went to Greenwich, which was nice. Climbing the rigging of the Cutty Sark was fun, though expensive, and it would have improved the experience if the climbing guides had been able to answer more questions about how the rigging worked. Oh well. National Maritime Museum: interesting and also blessedly air-conditioned. I never got to the Observatory before closing time; I suppose there is a reason that the meridian is not painted on the pavement outside, namely to make people pay money to go in and photograph themselves on it.

First impressions of the Highlands:
I never realised the extent to which two invasive and introduced species have spread here! And I really resent how that obscures and changes the historical landscape. There are so many ugly spruce plantations and clearcuts here. /o\ Worse than in Sweden, because they're not even native here. And then there's the rhododendron: the hillsides are purple with that, instead of heather (well, the heather's there too, but not blooming yet). Not surprised it thrives; the climate is much like the Pacific Northwest.

In a way, I suppose one could see the spruce plantations as the culmination of what some of those improving 18th century estate owners were doing: they were so proud of their larch plantations and whatnot. But aesthetically and biologically I detest them. (A note here that I love the Norway spruce in its proper environment in the boreal forest!)

We passed through Fort William and looked at the site of the fort, of which there is sadly nothing left but bits of a wall. Now we are in a hostel in Invergarry. We took a walk and twenty meters from the house, I found heaps of the oceanic lichens Lobaria pulmonaria, Lobaria virescens and Degelia plumbea just growing there on a goat willow! OMG, AND WHAT IS THAT, IS THAT A STICTA LICHEN?? *dies of excitement* Those are extinct in Sweden!! Er. I'm sure regshoe was laughing at me.

We looked at the ruins of Invergarry castle, and imagined Keith Windham limping past it on the shore below, nervously looking to see whether anyone would come out. He probably could not care less about the Sticta lichen; if anything, he was disgusted by the water dripping down from it onto his head. <3

Now on the train between Copenhagen and Hamburg, will be in Paris tonight. I don't know how I spent my whole life not knowing that Köln = Cologne? Number of people wearing masks so far: one (me). No, wait, now some more pople are putting them on, but ffs, they don't work if they're not over your nose. Or under your chin. At least I have the good sort of mask. (ETA: Now we are in Germany and almost everyone has a mask.) Also, I am annoyed that it's impossible to use dictation on the train; I'll have to save my hands up, sigh.

Spent last night catching up with a fannish friend in Copenhagen, who since I met him last has written a Ph D thesis on fanvids, wow.

Lieutenant Hornblower by C S Forester (1952)
Read on sanguinity's recommendation. I tried a Hornblower book once before, the first one written chronologically, but that one didn't stick, I think because I was unfavorably comparing it to O'Brian. This one is better written and is a fun Age of Sail adventure. The first part where they're stuck with an abusive captain is appropriately claustrophobic. And yes, I can see the Bush/Hornblower! : ) I don't know that I'm going to be actively fannish about this, though, or at least that's my prognosis. Though sanguinity, I'll certainly read your fic when you finish it! And if you have any other fic recommendations, I'll take them.

Spear by Nicola Griffith (2022)
This feels a bit thin compared to the richly layered Hild, but it is a novella, after all. I was enjoying it from the start, but it didn't really take off for me until the main character met Nimue. I liked the remixing of Arthurian canon, and the background Arthur/Guinevere/Lancelot.