A Real Romance
Living in the Haute Savoie connects you to Romance in a big way. I’m not talking about the Valentine’s Day type of romance. I’m talking ‘Romance’ with a capital R. Passion, raw emotion, and the occasional craggy rockface.
We took the plunge and moved to the Haute Savoie a few years ago, leaving big city life behind us. We swapped a view of a busy main road in wet and windy Glasgow, for a view of Lake Geneva and the Jura mountains.
However, we’re not the first to be captured by the distant snow-capped peaks or the golden sunsets, by the wild storms or the soft greens of the alpine meadows.
In the footsteps of the true Romantics
The shores of Lake Geneva have welcomed the British for centuries. From pilgrims heading to Rome for salvation to sensation-seeking young aristocrats on the Grand Tour. From the asylum-seeking Lisle and Ludlow, responsible for the death warrant of Charles I, to writers such as Edward Gibbon and William Beckford.
The French and Swiss Alps were a magnet for poets, artists, and writers from all corners of Europe at the turn of the 18th century.
Two of the greatest 18th-century writers and philosophers, Voltaire and Rousseau, drew disciples of the Enlightenment from around the world to their homes on the lake. Also known as the Age of Reason, this innovative period emphasised rational thinking and the advancement of science and technology.
For ordinary people, however, this time of growth and expansion was less about the intellectual and more about grinding poverty in the rapidly industrialising cities of Europe.
The Romantics swept into this era of huge political and social upheaval, revolution, and war like a breath of fresh air.
While science sought to identify and catalogue nature in a rational way, the Romantics breathed life into it. They captured the very essence of sublime landscapes on a profoundly emotional level.
The French and Swiss Alps – Cradle of the Romantic Movement
Lake Geneva, Mont Blanc, and the Alps sparked the creative genius of Romantic poets such as Byron and Shelley.
Byron wrote prolifically here during the summer of 1816, including some of his most famous works. ‘The Prisoner of Chillon’, the ‘Third Canto of Childe Harold’, and the apocalyptic poem ‘Darkness’.
Mont Blanc is the monarch of mountains;
….. on a throne of rocks, in a robe of clouds,
With a Diadem of snow
by George Gordon Byron
Percy Shelley wrote ‘The Hymn to Intellectual Beauty’ on the lake, while his wife Mary was inspired by the lightning storms of that summer to begin her supernatural novel ‘Frankenstein’.
Coleridge penned the ‘Hymn before sunrise in the Vale of Chamouni’ celebrating the beauty of Mont Blanc,
companion of the morning-star at dawn
Countless artists, including the illustrious J.M.W Turner, attempted to capture the sublime landscapes and the sheer power of nature in their works.
Their experiences of nature weren’t filtered through the lens of a camera or a smartphone, as ours often are. Their passion and connection to the natural world still shine through in so many diaries, journals, and paintings centred around the majesty of the Alps and Lake Geneva.
A Short Romance?
The Romantic Movement was relatively short-lived (1790’s – 1840s) and slowly made way for the hard-headed business-minded Victorians. Its emphasis, however, on the individual and his place in the world and on the power of the imagination is of lasting importance.
The ability of nature to affect our moods and emotions was seen in a new light and changed the way that people looked at the world around them forever.
Reinventing the New Romantics
The popularity of programmes about nature, and the iconic status of people like David Attenborough, show that we’re still passionate about our surroundings. We can still stand in front of a landscape and look in awe at the beauty of the natural world.
We can admire its timelessness, its ability to absorb shock and upheaval and yet still bounce back. Nature offers us a sense of stability. Those mountains have been there for millions of years and will still be there whatever the future holds for us.
One thing I think all of us have learned recently is the value of our outdoor places.
Property Trends in the Haute Savoie
Is it true that people are being tempted to swap the daily grind of urban life for a simpler life in the countryside?
I asked local estate agent, Theo LePennec if he’d seen a general trend. ‘Definitely’, he said ‘the property market has seen a considerable rise due to the recent pandemic. It’s pushed a lot of city dwellers from Île de France (Paris), and the Grand Est (the Strasbourg region), towards the countryside.
For the moment, the market’s very buoyant and there’s a lot of demand for the few properties available.
Are you one of those people who loves getting out of the city? Do you relish the peace and quiet of the countryside? Are there times when you feel awestruck by the sheer beauty of the scenery around you?
So, come and join me in the New Romantic movement
You might not be able to up sticks and move to the mountains, but you can still dig out the hiking boots, grab a bike, or just take a sandwich.
Find a view you like and soak up the atmosphere. Maybe you’ll be inspired to paint, or sketch or write too. if so, you’ll be following a long Romantic tradition.
