The picture is a postcard of the unusual gardens at the chateau of Villandry. It is one of the many much-visited places where you cannot get a good photo, except one for the album to say you have been there.  The theme arrived from my last blog, ‘Why bother? Tourism produces snobbishness of a high degree – seeing things as a privileged visitor, finding that little hideaway inaccessible to the ‘great unwashed’ until a travel agent finds it, then you have to find somewhere else ‘unspoiled’ (if there is anywhere left). The great derogatory term is ‘Joe Public’. Uneducated gawpers. But out of their element even a famous musician will be ‘Joe Public’ at the Taj Mahal among the thousands of visitors. My brother in law, a noted scientist, was a visiting professor in Russia. At Lenin’s tomb he was escorted past the hoi polloi as a special visitor.

I used to get mad with him. We would be near a place noted for its beauty, history, situation. He would have eulogised the place, but not want to see it, it was ‘touristy’. We did go, why is it ‘touristy’? - because it is a ‘must see’. But for meals he would have guide book in hand and only go to ‘listed’ restaurants. We rebelled, poor food, high prices, and disdainful waiters.  I have never seen the Taj Mahal, or the temples of Luxor. The ‘Why bother’ is because, particularly on French TV, they do super programmes on the history, building, archaeology, tiny treasures which are NOT available during a visit.

We have been privileged. Starting in the late 50’s there were so many places, Stonehenge and the valley of the Temples in Agrigento, Sicily, were notable for totally free access, later to preserve them from damage and erosion they could only be viewed from a distance. Internationally famous Art Galleries you could wander round, sit and gaze at a picture. We went with Australian friends to the Amsterdam Art galleries, cost a fortune and you had to shuffle round in a line. (And people got robbed in the queues waiting to get in).

Real ‘spoilers’ are tourists and locals bad behaviour. At Angkor Wat in Cambodia there were hundreds of people but a huge area to wander round. There were signs with a ‘silence’ motif. Not by the Chinese or Koreans. In Siam Rep was a ghoulish monument, a huge glass case with bones from a mass grave from Pol Phot. Koreans would do a ‘me in front of’ or a selfie, giggling, awful. We got to Borobudur, Buddhist, in Indonesia at 6.30 a.m. Not early enough. Boys got there, blocked the best views, asking for money, pencils, our address. From the island of Lombok were the fabulous sunsets over the island of Bali. Sellers of Batik cloths knew exactly where to stand to block or mar your pictures Susannah saw the eclipse of the sun, awesome she said. But nobody could block out the sun. For you, is the object of the journey so important that you can ignore the niggles? 

The Gardener

A Moodscope member