Tourism Traces

Rothesay

In the old days .... of tourism, that is .... it was Not Done in Britain to be seen removing clothes in order to put on swimming costume. Hiding behind a towel on the beach was not enough. Bathing machines like this one in a display at Rothesay on the Scottish Isle of Bute had to be used. They could be wheeled down to the water so that the ever-so-discrete bather could change inside and step down straight into the sea. Horses would pull the shed-on-wheels back up the beach after being used.

Some women's garments were designed to spread out on the water to act as a kind of umbrella, hiding any fabric clinging to the body in the water. Both sexes wore neck to ankle attire. It was all part of the effort at selling the seaside to the middle classes in Victorian Britain. The Georgian ruling classes of the days before had gained a reputation for immorality savagely criticised in cartoons of the day and Victoria and Albert led a movement aimed at being seen to be clean living. Well, sea bathing would have helped that.

So long as there was no hint of public nudity, of course.
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Paris - As Old As You Feel

In the left bank area of St Germain-Des-Pres is what claims to be the very first coffee shop in the world. Named after its Sicilian founder, Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli, it is known now as Le Procope. The cafe began life in 1686. Over the years it witnessed many changes in France and was used by the people who helped bring them about, such as Voltaire and the young Napoleon. Benjamin Franklin came from America to drink coffee here. In 1989 the restaurant was redesigned in the style of the eighteenth century. It has inside the feel of a spacious - and quite opulent - house, with several rooms set out for diners to use. The area around is lively and full of interest, with the Sorbonne university close by and numerous bookshops and publishing houses. It may be over three centuries old, but it's as full of life as ever.
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A Case Study

On the Rue St Honore, close to the Place Vendome, is the shop of Goyard, Malletier, or in other words Goyard: Trunk Maker. The fascia still shows in gold letters the travel goods for which the shop was famous: steamer trunks and baskets, and the claim "dresses carefully packed". Around the area are other shops serving the wealthy, many of whom come to Paris as tourists.

Maison Goyard is the oldest maker of trunks still in existence, having been a company under that name since 1853. Edme Goyard had joined the Maison Morel which itself dated back to 1792. When his son Francois bought that shop in 1853 it was renamed for himself and his father. Although no longer owned by the family (in the 1990s it was bought by the Signoles family) the business still makes trunks and sells them through a small number of outlets world wide. They are made to order in Carcassone in the south of France. Famous customers have included Madonna, Karl Lagerfeld, Gregory Peck and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, whom it must be said was also quite famous for his cases.
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An AA Phone Box

Where would our transport network be without electronic communications? The moving of people requires the moving of messages. Railways needed the telegraph. Airlines needed radio. Neither got far without the other.

As people took to the car they had to have some kind of means to summon help in an emergency. The Royal Automobile Association and the Automobile Association were set up to help the motorist. In 1911 the AA placed its first roadside telephone kiosk as Ashtead in Surrey. The first 'sentry boxes' had been for patrolmen to shelter in bad weather. They had telephones inside for their use. Soon AA members were able to have their own key to open the roadside boxes in order to use the phone to summon help from their Association. Fire extinguishers and maps were also available inside. Over the years a network sprang up around the country and the RAC followed suit.

In the 1970s the boxes began to be removed, slender post-mounted phone units taking their place. Almost as that happened, the mobile phone revolution was under way and it has meant that even those post-mounted phones have gone. No-one was using the boxes; people who are likely to be AA and RAC members are highly likely to have a mobile, and non-members too, the remainder relying on ordinary public call boxes, though they, too, are slowly on the way out in many locations.

Some 21 wooden AA boxes remain, often listed as being of architectural importance within their particular surroundings, such as the one pictured, seen in the Lake District in 1987. Hope it's still there.
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