Moving to Majorca

by Robert F. Burgess

Release Date: 27 April, 2000

Edition: Mass Market Paperback

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Majorca adventure.

I have known the writer R.F. Burgess 50 years ago when we both studied in Neuchatel Switzerland and was most surprised that he wrote this most interesting book about travelling with his wife by motor scooter from Neuchatel to Majorca. His narrative is very descriptive and the reader easily visualises the travel to and the events and life on that island. I particularly liked his inclusion of the sojourn of G.Sand and Chopin there as they were subject of an essay I wrote in my French Literature course.

"New Majorica Travel Book is Great !"

BRAVO! A wonderful book about the island of Majorca! The author, Robert Burgess, and his wife, Julie, spent time there when Majorca was still a quiet, romantic, picturesque spot in the Mediterranean. This is an account of their trip one winter from Switzerland to Milan, Italy, where they purchase a motor scooter and travel 700 miles across the Rivieras to Spain. And then by boat to Majorca. Every mile of their trip is marked by unusual people or events encountered along the way, including their getting lost and their battling the Mistral when no one else would venture out into it. But it's on Majorca where the story really gets interesting. They rent a villa on a deserted part of the island where water is caught in a roof catch basin, and the cheapest beverage is either wine or island-made champagne. I found the chapter on Valldemosa especially interesting as it describes the very rooms where George Sand and Chopin lived for a winter in a monastery there. The reader can't help but be touched by the happy details from Chopin's letters, despite his suffering from tuberculosis even as he continues to compose his music. And I won't even mention the fishermen, or Pap struggling to catch the islands biggest "un-catchable" fish, El Se�or, with the help of his faithful greyhound aptly named Fugly. Those characters brought tears to my eyes, and they weren't all from laughter! Anyone who enjoys reading about good travel adventures with the kind of humorous characters that often make books about living abroad so popular, will love this one!