Coinciding with the publication of a new novel called After the Honeymoon by Janey Fraser, we take a voyage around the world of passion and discover some great honeymoon destinations for cultured couples
You only have to ask yourself whether the young nun Maria would have forsaken her duty to God and run off with Captain Von Trapp had his house been in Croydon as opposed to Salzburg? Or whether the intensity of intellectual fire between writers Simone de Beauvoir and Jean Paul Sartre would have inflamed such an enduring passion had they shared in a garret in Gerards Cross as opposed to Paris’s Rive Gauche?
Often uncrowded, remote simplicity is the key to unlocking an emotional floodgate between two people, as shown with one of the 19th century’s great romantic couples; George Sand and Frederic Chopin.
They chose to embark on their intense, turbulent relationship in the remote mountain village of Valldemosa in Mallorca where they spent several months in a deserted monastery. The picturesque romanticism and glorious coastline captivated the pair, and inspired Chopin to complete 24 Preludes, his dramatic Scherzo in C sharp Minor and Polonaise in C Minor all on a hired Mallorcan piano.
Robert Graves’s love affair with Mallorca
Over a century later ‘I Claudius’ author Robert Graves rediscovered the island finding solace at nearby Deia with his great love, American poet, Laura Riding. Like Sand and Chopin, Graves and Riding endured a tumultuous affair, which ended in London in 1939. But Graves’s passion for Mallorca endured long after his relationship with Riding. He returned and remained there until his death in 1985. A simple stone marked ‘Robert Graves: Poeta’ stands in a churchyard at the top of the hill overlooking acres of olive and citrus groves.
Sand and Chopin never returned to Mallorca, transferring their passion to Nohant, Sand’s country house in Berry, deep in the heart of France’s Loire Valley.
Today the remote, rambling estate is open to visitors and stages an annual Festival of Romantics in memory of the 19th century writer. Chateau Nohant remains a shrine to her and Chopin who wrote many great works there. Visitors cannot fail to be captivated by the luscious, chateau-speckled region that spellbound many other writers including Balzac.
Tragedy at Mayerling
One of the most tragic love stories of the 19th century was played out in the romantic, forested hills of the Vienna Woods when Crown Prince Rudolf, the young son of Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph, took his life and that of his beloved at his lodge at Mayerling.
Even before he met the 15-year-old Baroness Vetsera, the scenery around Baden and Modling near Vienna captivated Rudolph. He even wrote of its beauty: ‘on a beautiful June evening, when the last rays of the sun throw golden light on the rounded crest of the hills.’
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The Vienna Woods
The couple’s sensational story, which was made into a film, continues to inspire and intrigue. A romantic half-day excursion takes you through the southern part of the Vienna Woods, passing the Roman City of Baden through the valley Helenental to the lodge, which is a commemorative chapel.
Driving by the Holdrichsmuhle, where Franz Schubert composed his song the Linden Tree, you arrive at the Seegrotte, from where you can take a boat ride on the largest subterranean lake in Europe. Afterwards you leave the Vienna Woods and return to the city, passing the Liechtenstein Caste.
Scott and Zelda’s Cote d’Azur
Glittering coastlines, remote woodlands and forests and moody landscapes have historically inspired grand passion. During the 20th century it was France’s Cote d’Azur that fired the imagination of such literary figures as Ernest Hemingway whose novel The Garden of Eden was set there and Scott Fitzgerald whose Tender is the Night was inspired there. Although Scott and Zelda – perhaps the only literary couple know by their first names – married in New York in 1920, they moved to France four years later so Scott could work on The Great Gatsby.
Even though they burned their way through life on two continents until alcoholism and madness snuffed out their partnership, their devotion to each other and their love of the ribbon of coast between Antibes and St Tropez never died.
The glorious beaches and Alpine backdrop between Nice and Cannes inspired Scott to write, “In the early morning the distant image of Cannes, the pink and cream of old fortifications, the purple Alps that bounded Italy, were cast across the water and lay quivering in the ripples and rings sent up by sea plants through the clear shallows.”
For them the Cote d’Azur’s exotic beauty and rich variety provided the perfect stage on which they could play out their hugely dramatic lives. The allure of the South of France had continued to attract theatrical and high profile couples whose relationships have ended in tragedy including Dodi Fayed and Diana, the late Princess of Wales.
Yeats’s unrequired love played out in Dublin Bay
For others the stage for grand passion has been far on the wilder shores of love. In the case of 19th century Irish poet William Yeats, the bleak landscape of Ireland and clifftops of Dublin Bay inspired his unrequited love for Maud Gonne, a young beauty who was more in love with the Irish cause than the young poet.
Even so Yeats pursued her tirelessly all over Ireland, finding one place of mutual harmony at Howth. Here they wandered along the cliffs at Dublin Bay’s northernmost point where they had each played in childhood, and where Maud had confessed she had always been happiest. “I prefer it to the Mediterranean,” she told him.
They could see as far as the Wicklow Mountains on a good day and Wales across the Irish Sea. Now Howth is a popular day trip destination for Dubliners, and although much of the interior of Howth Head is developed there is still a footpath running all the way round the coast. In Yeats’s Rose Cross Lyrics, Maud was always the rose and also, as he wrote somewhat tellingly: ‘Eternal beauty wandering on her way.’
Romantic places to stay
Vienna
The Imperial Hotel, palatial grandeur reflecting Vienna at its most regal, 30 minutes from the airport and close to the opera house. Visit www.imperialvienna.com
Mallorca
La Residencia Hotel, Deia (owned by the Orient Express group) A Classic Double room from £249 per room per night, including tax and breakfast, based on two people sharing. Visit www.hotel-laresidencia.com or call the Orient-Express reservations on 0845 077 2222.
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The Loire Valley
Auberge de la Petite Fadette, Nohant, stunning, fairytale hotel in main square. Visit www.aubergepetitefadette.com
Dublin
The Merrion, quiet, elegant and exclusive and away from the stag and hen night drag. visit www.merrionhotel.com
Salzburg
The grand five-star Sacher Hotel (partner to Vienna’s famous Sacher Hotel) overlooks the river and Salzburg old town. Visit www.sacher.com
Cote d’Azur
Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc, upon which F Scott Fitzgerald based the Hotel des Etrangers in Tender Is the Night. Situated on tip of Cape d’Antibes surrounded by 22-acres of gardens. Magical. Visit Hotel Du Cap-Eden-Roc
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