# La Fère of Cursed Memory explained — Travel Essays

> Chapter companion for Travel Essays by Robert Louis Stevenson.

## What happens

The narrator and the Cigarette linger in Moy before a short journey to La Fère, where they are rudely turned away from an inn by the landlady. After wandering the town in the rain, they find lodging at Bazin's inn, where the host's kindness and domestic happiness restore their spirits.

## Themes in this chapter

### Human Connection and Community

The kindness of Bazin and his wife restores the travelers' sense of worth after the humiliation at the first inn.

### Social Class and Inequality

The narrator reflects on how a single rejection from an inn can change one's view of society and morality.

### Art and the Artistic Life

Bazin recalls his youth as a decorative painter in Paris and his love of museums, which 'kindles a spark' in a workman.

## Character check-ins

### The Cigarette

Travels with the narrator; reacts with indignation and then pity after being refused lodging.

### Bazin

The innkeeper at La Croix de Malte; a soft-spoken former decorative painter who offers kind hospitality.

### Madame Gilliard

Madame Bazin, who nestles against her husband after a long day's work.

## Key lines

> Quiet minds cannot be perplexed or frightened, but go on in fortune or misfortune at their own private pace, like a clock during a thunderstorm.

A calm mind remains steady through good or bad times, like a clock ticking unaffected by a storm.

_Reflects the narrator's philosophical musings on tranquility._

> Six hours of police surveillance (such as I have had), or one brutal rejection from an inn-door, change your views upon the subject like a course of lectures.

A single harsh refusal at an inn can alter your perspective on social morality as much as a series of lectures.

_Highlights the theme of social class and inequality._

> I will give most respectable men a fortnight of such a life, and then I will offer them twopence for what remains of their morality.

If respectable people lived as tramps for two weeks, their morality would be worth very little.

_Emphasizes the narrator's critique of societal judgment._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/travel_essays_se/chapters/la-f-re-of-cursed-memory
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/travel_essays_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/travel_essays_se/chapters