Revisiting the sites of a 100-year-old journey along the Basque region

James: 100 years ago this month my grandfather and a friend of his took a cycle trip which went from Bourdeaux, in France, down to San Sebastian, in the Basque region, and then went inland to Lekunberri and onto Jaca before going back to Bordeaux again. As a result of the journey, he wrote a book -which we have entitled "The Charm of Travel" and has not been published other than upon request- and he illustrated it with paintings, drawings and photographs. We thought it would be a nice idea to retrace the journey that he made, following the exact same route.

"We are currently in Jaca, about to go to Cold du Somport into France. We´ve been taking photographs and videos of the same places that he took pictures of. On top of this, my brother is working on a project which involves a multimedia piece.

When did you find "the book"?
J: The book did not exist as such; it was rather a collection of drawings and text that we found amongst our grandmother´s possessions after she died in 1980 or thereabouts. The documents are watercolour drawings, line drawings and guache mainly. We also found photographs that belonged to the same trip but were actually in a very poor condition. Aside from all this, there are about 180 pages of longhand text.

What did you want to get out of this trip?
J: On the one hand, we wanted to contrast our grandfather´s experiences by following the same route and on the other hand, it was just another way of making a holiday. We are aware of the fact that we are travelling in a very different time. There was very little traffic on the road in 1908, whilst cars on roads are one of the most common things these days.

Unfortunately, we cannot say that we have found any of the exact places he stayed at but we did find places where he made his paintings. It is interesting to see how these places have changed over time. It was in this contrast that we were interested. We had already cycle through some of this places when we first set out to cycle through France and Spain in the year 2000 but we did not have the time to complete it and so we decided to come back.

What makes this trip so special that you want to commemorate it by doing it yourselves?
J: It is the only trip of which we have an almost-complete record. It seems that our grandfather made a trip with the same friend every year from 1904 to 1913 and he probably just wanted to go somewhere else. It is clear from the book that he had never been to Spain before; normally he chose destinations which were nearer to England and London, like Holland. We have lots of pictures of those trips but no details and no routes.

Does "The Charm of Travel" reveal anything special about his perception of the Basque Country?
J: I think the different customs amused him. They were very different from what he was used to in England. The book is a compilation of his stories, like the time he was locked out of a house in San Sebastian and had to contact policemen in order to get into the house. Another story narrates his experiences in a cave near Lekunberri where he got lost and subsequently drew a sketch and described the feeling of being lost for several hours.

Have you enjoyed the Basque Country?
J: It´s been a terrific adventure! We have met really nice people and love the countryside we have been cycling through. The food has been excellent too; We were enjoying a meal so much in San Sebastian that we missed the fireworks we had initially planned to see.

Robert, we hear you are currently working on a multimedia project related to this trip, could you tell us more?
R: When we first did the exploratory trip in the year 2000, I was a student in an Interactive Media Masters degree course. I was doing the final project and found the wonderful “book” that my grandfather had written, which I consider it to be a multimedia document in its own right. I started to think how I could turn it into something which was suitable for the 21st century.

After much thinking, I decided to create an interactive installation where the people who come to view the exhibit take part in it and sit on a stationary bicycle which is mounted on a platform – like those professional ones cyclists use. In front of them, there is a video screen with rear projection and in that screen you can navigate through my grandfather´s book by using the functions on the bicycle. You use the handles of the bycicle to turn the pages of the book.

There are also some videos that I recorded with a head-mounted camera of the exact sections my grandfather cycled along. The video installation is controlled by the pedals of the bicycle and depending on how fast you pedal, the speed of the video changes. It´s an interactive experience and an extended version of the one I exhibited in Italy, Tokyo and New York in the year 2000. This time, I am investigating how to work with interactive scent simulation and so on so that I can turn the original experience into a fuller one.

It will be ready to exhibit by next Spring. It would be great if we could take the project along the same route.

"The Charm of Travel" is on sale online.