have you ever travelled to a place...

Kveto from Prague · Post by **Kveto from Prague** » Thu January 29th, 2009, 11:44 pm

because youd read about it in a historical fiction book?

for me, I once went to reggio di calabria in the toe of italy because i liked the description in the italian canton "orlando innamorato" by matteo borado. he described the "fanta morgana" or mirage that is said to occur there of a golden city that appears across the mists. no mirage for us, tho.

I know a guy who loved the description of the sky in war and peace after the battle of austerlitz, when a character was lying on his back looking at the stars. he took a picture of the sky there and made it his screen saver.

anyone else?

Divia · Post by **Divia** » Thu January 29th, 2009, 11:52 pm

Well not HF, but I read Little Women and always wanted to go to Orchard House, the house LMA used as a backdrop for her famous story. Not exotic, but still cool to me.

boswellbaxter · Post by **boswellbaxter** » Fri January 30th, 2009, 12:01 am

I can't think offhand of a place I've visited because I read about it in HF, but I've become intrigued by various places I've read about in other novels, and I've sought them out because of that. I've done my own Dickens tour of London, for instance. (Any Bleak House fans here want to know where the graveyard that Lady Dedlock visits in London is? I can tell you!)

Ash · Post by **Ash** » Fri January 30th, 2009, 12:39 am

After reading Penman's Welsh trilogy, I knew that I had to go to Wales. We did, that next summer, as part of our British trip.

It wasn't planned, but we did visit Alcotts home in Concord. Little Women was my favorite childhood read. We were in Boston for family events, and we decided to go to Concord and voila! I was delightfully surprised not only to find the house, but to find a very lovely special printing of the book.

diamondlil · Post by **diamondlil** » Fri January 30th, 2009, 1:31 am

I haven't managed to yet, but I want to, and there are places that I want to go back to because I would have more of an appreciation for the place now than I did when I initially visited them.

MLE (Emily Cotton) · Post by **MLE (Emily Cotton)** » Fri January 30th, 2009, 2:33 am

Sure. Ive been all over the Gold Rush country because of Gwen Bristow's novels, visited the California missions because of Ramona, toured fort Clatsop and the Columbia River route after reading Sacajawea. A childhood read, Brighty of the Grand Canyon, got me interested in seeing that place, and even hiking down the Kaibab Trail. I visited Montreal after reading Shellabarger's Lord Vanity, and one of the reasons I took time off to do a tour of England, Sotland and Wales is because of the scads of HF set there. Of course it covered Oxford and Cambridge, Stratford-on-Avon, Hampton Court, St. James Place, Westminster Cathedral, the Tower of London, Stonehenge, Gretna Green, Edinburgh, Yorkshire, and on and on. Every place was already alive in my mind from one book or another.

It works in the other direction as well. In the case of places that I go because I have business there, I am more likely to pick up an HF novel in that setting.

pat · Post by **pat** » Fri January 30th, 2009, 4:53 am

Framlingham Castle, gave me goosebumps.

Carine · Post by **Carine** » Fri January 30th, 2009, 6:55 am

Yes, for starters I had to visit Rosslyn Chapel after reading the Da Vinci Code. When I was reading a book about Anne Boleyn, I visited The Tower of London.
After reading Here Be Dragons last December I'm determined to visit north Wales, but that will have to wait a bit.
After reading several books set in Egypt I want to visit it and that is now planned for next March.

And then the other way around, I visited Normandy and seen the Bayeux Tapestry and am now very eager to start Needle in the Blood.
In september we are planning a trip to Carcassonne and I'm now looking for HF about the Cathars.

Madeleine · Post by **Madeleine** » Fri January 30th, 2009, 10:48 am

I've been to Cornwall several times and have managed to visit most of the places mentioned in Du Maurier books - except Frenchman's Creek, which I didn't have time to get to as the weather (yes you guessed it) was lousy! However I've been to Jamaica Inn and driven over Bodmin Moor. I've also been to Lorna Doone country in Devon and looked down on the village where she was shot in the church, and visited most of the towns mentioned in the book. I've been to Stratford-on-Avon several times, Shakespeare isn't really my thing but it's a lovely little town and well worth a visit in its own right.

I've been to the Tower of London but not for a long time (school trip!) and would like to visit Hever Castle (where Anne Boleyn spent a lot of time) at some point. I would also love to go to Carcassonne!

princess garnet · Post by **princess garnet** » Fri January 30th, 2009, 2:57 pm

Paris
To name a few: Notre Dame, Sainte-Chapelle, Conciergerie, Eiffel Tower