Page 49 - Livre Beau Rivage Palace

about the Beau-Rivage in the Baedeker guides barely changed to the modes of transport available at the time. Some places could him to enjoy to the full the impressions that Switzerland will awaken in they gradually reached a prime position from which they could
until 1928. The entry in the 1908 Joanne guide reads as follows: be approached by stagecoach, on horseback or on foot, others his traveller’s soul.’ (Baedeker, 1859, p. III) censure either. How did hoteliers react to a situation that could
‘Beau-Rivage* (establishment of the very first order; enlarged, comfortable; by train or boat and, since the turn of the twentieth century, by It seems that no hotelier is beyond criticism, and the guidebook work to their disadvantage? To find the answer would require
rooms from 5 francs from 15 March to 1 November, from 4 francs the motor car. Unlike the train, the car’s movement was not subject to authors love to relate all their own unfortunate experiences of feeling a survey based on much more evidence than we are studying
rest of the year; table d’hôte lunch at small tables, 4 francs, idem dinner, 5 the complications and limitations of the rail network and it could cheated or exploited having been charged for services which did here. However, there were a number of possible solutions, two of
francs; served in the restaurant 5 and 7 francs; baths, 2 francs, full board find its way through the much less restricted system of minor not materialise. These might include a candle that scarcely burned, which can be gleaned from the sources we have to hand. Firstly,
from 12 francs summer, from 10 francs winter; magnificent garden; tennis; roads. Consequently, the guides were obliged to revise their pages a trunk not taken to the station, a servant who should have been establishments could refuse to advertise in a guide. Secondly,
concerts; bathing area; large [a car symbol indicates an ‘autogarage’], and their manner of presenting a region or destination – all this there to guide the visitor but failed to appear. They also resent being and more controversially, they could bribe the author. Karl
very well situated on the edge of the lake.)’ (Joanne 1908, p. 55 of the quite apart from the fact that the car gave access to more places charged according to their appearance or nationality. According to Baedeker, who rarely missed an opportunity to educate or edify
practical information section) and also redefined its occupants’ relationship with space. Murray, British travellers regularly pay more in Switzerland than the players on the contemporary tourist scene, declared his own
This entry coinciding with the very height of the belle Reading travel guides not only provides a whole range of their French and especially their German counterparts, on the incorruptibility in 1859: ‘In response to the many letters received from
époque, which in the much-abbreviated original French appears information on buildings and other sights worth seeing; it can pretext that their purses are better lined and that they are harder to maîtres d’hôtel, some accompanied by money or foodstuffs which were of
more like some kind of coded message, makes it clear that the also tell us a lot about cultural and aesthetic trends and habits. please. Baedeker frequently complains of being overcharged – he course immediately returned to the senders, the author hereby declares that
services offered to tourists were continuing to develop. Here, two In the case of Ouchy, it also enables us to trace the dramatic asks for itemised bills on the eve of his departure in order to check his recommendations cannot be bought by any direct or indirect means.
points stand out – meals and the garage. In a description which developments in the local hotel infrastructure which began in them – and tells how one night he left his clothes and boots outside He has but one aim, to be of use to travellers, he has no other interest.’
obviously struggles to remain brief, it is a little surprising to read the 1870s. These are reflected in the guidebooks, which gradually his bedroom door and never saw them again. Joanne, meanwhile, (Baedeker, 1859, p.v)
that guests choosing to eat at the table d’hôte will be seated ‘at included more and more names of hotels and boarding houses remonstrates angrily with hotelkeepers who, on seeing a traveller On the other hand, where would the guides have been
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small tables’, and that it is also possible to dine in the restaurant. considered worthy of recommendation by the authors. We see arrive on foot with a rucksack on his back refuse to let him stay or without hotels and hoteliers? They would probably have resembled
In fact, two catering styles are operating side by side here. The the former fishing village expand and become a place designed consign him to the smallest room for which they proceed to charge a stagecoach with a wheel missing or a rickety chair. For what use
tradition of tables d’hôte, large, long tables around which all the to appeal to the more sophisticated middle-class visitor. Around an exorbitant price. would it be for a guide to recount the history of such-and-such
guests at an inn gathered, is combined with the novelty of separate 1900 it was to be absorbed by the fast-growing city of Lausanne While these seasoned travellers have a great deal of practical a castle and describe the feeling of viewing it from a particular
tables enabling diners to share only with people they knew, thus and begin a new life – as a district of the city itself. advice to offer hoteliers, they also have plenty for travellers. As vantage point, or to tell the story of what happened there to a
avoiding any mixing of social classes. Certainly, many travellers Baedeker writes in 1852: ‘Moreover, the manner in which foreigners are friend of the author’s, or to suggest possible routes and means of
mindful of their social status had problems with this arrangement, TRAVEL GUIDES AND HOTELS: A MUTUAL DEPENDENCY treated depends on their own conduct. Those who travel escorted by heavy transport, without saying where the traveller could eat or sleep?
since it meant they were unsure whether they could converse Travel guides and hotels were part of the same tourist industry trunks, who make a lot of noise, who criticise the room and the bed, who In this respect, hoteliers had considerable power over the guides
with their table companions without demeaning themselves. The which started to develop in the first half of the nineteenth century. find fault with food and drink, who constantly ring the bell to satisfy all and the travel industry in general. In the end it was co-operation
practice of splitting the table d’hôte into small tables would be Each needed the other. The guides needed the hotels in order to offer their petty demands, cannot complain if the bill is high; however excessive between the guides and certain hotelkeepers that restored the
short-lived, since it duplicated the work of the restaurant while their readers everything they required while travelling. The hotels it may seem in recollection, it may in fact be too modest. […] We have to balance of power – co-operation that relied on pure practicality
making less money. As for the garage, listed under the newly needed the guides to publicise them. However, the relationship learn to take things as they are, and […] not to sulk if everything does and a lot of persuasion, as witnessed by references to magnificent
coined term ‘autogarage’, its presence here is a reminder of how between the two was sometimes a troubled one and the guides not run as smoothly as it would at home. Anyone who takes pleasure in gardens or terraces and splendid views.
the motor car, whose effect on the way people travelled had been bore evidence of this. In the beginning, guidebooks were written condemning everything that is not done in the same way as in his own Nevertheless, despite this – at times – very strong antipathy,
felt since the early twentieth century, posed a genuine problem by authors who were seasoned globetrotters and therefore tended country would be better off staying there.’ (Baedeker 1852, pp. xv-xvi) there were certain subjects on which the guides regularly rushed
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for the travel guides, forcing them to make major amendments. to sympathise with the traveller. In 1859, Karl Baedeker clearly By not coming down in favour of either guest or host, the to defend hoteliers against cantankerous customers, especially in
In order to stay in tune with a changing world, guidebooks, part states the purpose of his book: ‘The author aims above all to free the guides quickly came to occupy a commanding position vis-à- matters of quality and prices. Even in the late eighteenth century,
of whose task was to advise travellers on how to move from one traveller from the inopportune and often invisible influence of servants, guides, vis the contemporary tourist industry. Like referees observing the Switzerland was already reputed to be an expensive country and
place to another, have always had to adapt their recommendations carriers and even innkeepers; to help him become independent and enable game from the sidelines and educators trying to instruct both sides the guides did all they could to put things into perspective. They

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