Lucien Fournereau: “Bangkok: Distractions? None!” PERSONALITIES

Lucien Fournereau: “Bangkok: Distractions? None!”

( words)

1894: The display of monumental architecture was a powerful Western means of visualising the East as a land of lost civilizations. It nourished the Occidental notion of a mythical Orient that could be discovered and explored by European colonial engagement in Asia. One of the great ‘visualisers’ of that image was French architect Lucien Fournereau, who created wonderful pen and watercolour reconstructions of what the temples of Angkor may have looked in the 11th century and how they looked now. 

He authored a series of articles, titled Le Tour du Monde. We have first "met" him in our research work in Bangkok, at the Oriental Hotel. He described life in Bangkok in July 1894: ‘Distractions? None, here one does not even find the equivalent of what one has in Saigon, the rue Catinat, so happy and so French. No cafés, a European quarter, hence no visits to pay; my God, how bored one is! What is there then to make life at the Oriental Hotel tolerable? Nothing. Two clubs have been set up in Bangkok: one is English, the other German; one cannot go in except by introduction. Everybody lives at home: the married men with their wives, the single men with their boredom.’ 

He ends his account with the biblical words vae soli (‘woe to him who is alone’). 

Most Popular

Savoy (Baur en Ville)

Savoy (Baur en Ville)

This is Zurich's oldest grand hotel. When it opened on December 24, 1838, it marked a milestone in the history of the hotel industry. In...Read More

Grand Hotel Lviv (Lemberg)

Grand Hotel Lviv (Lemberg)

Grand Hotel Lviv in 1894 Lviv or Lemberg can be metaphorically described as the westernmost city in Eastern Europe or the easternmost city in...Read More

Bergues, Des

Bergues, Des

In our world, it is no longer a given that simple restraint represents true elegance. To be recognized as one of the oldest purpose-built Grand...Read More

Le Royal

Le Royal

In 1923/24, the construction of a 55-room hotel in Phnom Penh was proposed. Architect Ernest Hébrard, who was largely responsible for...Read More

The Mandarin Oriental Bangkok

The Mandarin Oriental Bangkok

Since decades “The Oriental”, as it is affectionately known by travellers from all over the globe, leads the lists of all...Read More