Un abbé voyageur à travers la France hérétique (1659)
Jean Le Laboureur, a Catholic priest, accompanies Renee du Bec-Crespin, the widow of Marshal de Guebriant, as her secretary on a journey towards the Spanish border where the Treaty of the Pyrenees is being negotiated. She dies unexpectedly in Perigueux in September 1659, but the journey goes on, now headed by the young wife of the Marquis of Vardes, captain of the Royal Regiment of the Cent Suisses, who follows the court. Among the many comments about the provinces through which the travellers slowly proceed, the manuscript contains remarks about antique monuments (Bordeaux, Nimes), famous pilgrimage destinations (Sainte-Baume) as well as remarkable castles and parks (Cadillac). As a Catholic the author is shocked by the huge destruction of churches and monasteries caused, during the recent religious wars, by the “heretics” as he refers to the Protestants. He is also concerned by the vitality of the Protestant communities, which remain numerous and powerful, especially in the south-west and south-east of the kingdom.
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