Grab the nearest book meme
Sep. 25th, 2008 11:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kedamono1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 42.
3. Find the first full sentence.
4. Post the text of the next seven sentences in your journal along with these instructions.
5. Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.
Anxious to reach the capital as soon as possible, most Tourists followed the direct post-route to Paris, stopping perhaps at Chantilly to visit the castle of the Price of Condé, and to see his famous gardens, 'laid out in the most elegant taste', with their canals and fountains and waterfalls, the ornamental birds flying about the walks and the aviaries almost hidden in the groves. They might stop again at St Denis to see the white marble sepulchres of the French kings in the Benedictine abbey, the tomb of Marshal Turenne, and Paolo Poncio's bas reliefs of the victories of Louis XII. If they went to the abbey they would be shown the French crown jewels, Charlemagne's golden crown, his diamond-encrusted sword and spurs and his ivory chess men, Roland's hunting horn, the sword of the Maid of Orléans, and a variety of holy relics which John Evelyn conscientiously listed as 'a nail from our Saviour's Cross ... a box in which is some of the Virgin's hair ... some of the linen in which our blessed Saviour was wrapped at his nativity ... some of our Saviour's blood, hair, clothes, linen ... one of the thorns of our blessed Saviour's crown ... with many other equally authentic toys, which the friar who conducted us would have us believe were authentic relics.'
Having quickly marked these items down in his note-book, the Tourist turned impatiently towards Paris
The entrance into Paris was beset with formalities and hindrances. There were barriers with iron gates stretching across every approach road, and, once these were passed, there were tiresome and meticulous custom officials in the Bureau du Roi who examined every part of the post-chaise as well as the visitor's baggage for forbidden articles. Also while the search was being conducted, and throughout the drive from the Bureau to his hotel, the Tourist would be besieged by elegantly dressed young men, wearing earrings and bag-wigs, who pleaded in broken English to be employed as valets, who thrust through the windows of the chaise references written in English by their previous employers, and who, after demanding fifty or sixty sols a day, would eventually agree to accept thirty, or 2s 6d in English money.
-- From The Grand Tour by Christopher Hibbert, published by Putnam, ©1969
2. Open the book to page 42.
3. Find the first full sentence.
4. Post the text of the next seven sentences in your journal along with these instructions.
5. Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.
Anxious to reach the capital as soon as possible, most Tourists followed the direct post-route to Paris, stopping perhaps at Chantilly to visit the castle of the Price of Condé, and to see his famous gardens, 'laid out in the most elegant taste', with their canals and fountains and waterfalls, the ornamental birds flying about the walks and the aviaries almost hidden in the groves. They might stop again at St Denis to see the white marble sepulchres of the French kings in the Benedictine abbey, the tomb of Marshal Turenne, and Paolo Poncio's bas reliefs of the victories of Louis XII. If they went to the abbey they would be shown the French crown jewels, Charlemagne's golden crown, his diamond-encrusted sword and spurs and his ivory chess men, Roland's hunting horn, the sword of the Maid of Orléans, and a variety of holy relics which John Evelyn conscientiously listed as 'a nail from our Saviour's Cross ... a box in which is some of the Virgin's hair ... some of the linen in which our blessed Saviour was wrapped at his nativity ... some of our Saviour's blood, hair, clothes, linen ... one of the thorns of our blessed Saviour's crown ... with many other equally authentic toys, which the friar who conducted us would have us believe were authentic relics.'
Having quickly marked these items down in his note-book, the Tourist turned impatiently towards Paris
The entrance into Paris was beset with formalities and hindrances. There were barriers with iron gates stretching across every approach road, and, once these were passed, there were tiresome and meticulous custom officials in the Bureau du Roi who examined every part of the post-chaise as well as the visitor's baggage for forbidden articles. Also while the search was being conducted, and throughout the drive from the Bureau to his hotel, the Tourist would be besieged by elegantly dressed young men, wearing earrings and bag-wigs, who pleaded in broken English to be employed as valets, who thrust through the windows of the chaise references written in English by their previous employers, and who, after demanding fifty or sixty sols a day, would eventually agree to accept thirty, or 2s 6d in English money.
-- From The Grand Tour by Christopher Hibbert, published by Putnam, ©1969
