Winter plus Covid equals an intense case of wanderlust. You don’t have to venture into crowds, however, to satiate it.
Begin with Taschen’s “The Grand Tour: The Golden Age of Travel” ($80), a new book about those great jaunts that young men of a certain means took in the 19th and 20th centuries in particular. (It was the subject of a column by WAG’s own Katie Banser-Whittle here.)
The book reproduces posters, tickets, menus, turn-of-the-20th-century photochroms, as well as quotes from literary travelers like Jules Verne or F. Scott Fitzgerald, that you’ll discover as you “hop aboard” the Orient Express and the Trans-Siberian Railway.
Speaking of Jules Verne, join his not-always-intrepid adventurer Phileas Fogg as his goes “Around the World in 80 Days” on PBS’ “Masterpiece.” It takes a while to get into the series – which co-stars French actor Ibrahim Kola as Fogg’s devoted valet and German actress Leonie Benesch as dogged journalist Abigail “Fix” Fortescue. But British actor David Tennant – known for his roles in “Doctor Who” and “Broadchurch,” yet most memorable to us for his febrile, haunting “Hamlet,” also shown on PBS – gives us a Phileas Fogg who is courageous despite his weaknesses and doubts.
That should give us comfort as we sail forth into this new year.
