MAJORCA: in the eyes of George Sand
Posted on April 25, 2013
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French novelist George Sand spent a winter in Majorca with her lover, a composer and a pianist, Frédéric Chopin between 1838 and 1839.
Chopin suffered from tuberculosis and according to a doctor, only “enough air, exercise and rest could save him”. However, they did not realize that Mallorca in winter is cold and rainy and his symptoms even exacerbated.
It was not the happiest time in the couple’s lives. ‘Our stay at Valldemossa was torture for him and torment for me’ wrote Sand in her book “Winter in Majorca”, in which she described amazement as well as hardships experienced on the island.
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I have just arrived back from Majorca. Spring, the average temperature of 22°C, one quick rain shower, which only refreshed the air and gave the sea a greyish shade, the year 2013… I would like to compare my impressions from the place with hers. No matter the difference in time, season and circumstances, we looked at the same mountains and cliffs, walked the same streets…
PART I: NATURE alias
The island that makes your mouth be constantly open
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When it comes to Majorcan nature, cheeky George Sand loses her pride, criticism, even words. She writes: ‘Views that leave nothing to be desired, nothing to the imagination. Whatever poet and painter might dream, Nature has here created: vast general effect, countless detail, inexhaustible variety, blurred shapes, bold outlines, hazy depths – everything! Art could never add anything to it!’
If George Sand herself cannot find words to describe what is in front of her eyes when engulfed by Serra de Tramuntana, a Majorcan mountain range, so do I have a right to lose mine. When I do not offer you words, I could give you pictures, which I am definitely not short of. However, it does not solve it either.
You will see meadows bathing in a fresh green colour, with white and black spots on, which are sheep and piggies resting in a shade of wise olive trees with broad intertwined trunks. Above them expand terraces of vegetation in hairpin bends climbing up to the mountains.
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Firstly the mountains still keep their green colour, being home to groves of slender pine trees. Some of the rocks are round and smooth, some rough and sharp. They are powerful and majestic but they still give you a feeling of some kind of friendliness.
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But then peaks come that truly take your breath away. Grey, unapproachable, they scrape the sky and under them lie a deep abyss or rough sea, which would swallow you in a second. These show you the smallness of a human being and fill you with respect and amazement.
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This is what you see on the pictures.. You might find it nice, maybe even beautiful but you will not say 100 times how amazing it is, ‘look at this, that’s incredible’ and ‘hey, here again!”. And the pictures cannot show that at every single corner, after every single turn the scenery in front of you is different and does not stop to surprise you.
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George wrote: ‘Bless be Thou, God, Who has given me good eyes!” My eyes are half-blind so bless Wichterle for inventing contact lenses (a Czech invention, by the way!) … anyway, I share the same feeling. Only with my own eyes, senses and my soul I could absorb all the beauty which was given to me.
George also wrote: ‘Every happy person expects to become still happier by travelling.’ Agreed. I really am!
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Posted in Travelling | Tagged Frederic Chopin, George Sand, Majorca, nature, Serra de Tramuntana, Valldemossa
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