I am rereading an excellent travel book about Andorra, Monaco, San Marino
and Leichtenstein, that I bought years ago.
The Little Tour, Giles Playfair & Constantine Fitzgibbon, Cassel, 1954 and
reprinted by Travel Book Club, n.d.
The authors visited the 4 countries and cover their history and then-current
circumstances. It is very funny, and poignant in places.
One author had tried to set up an equivalent to Radio Luxemburg in Vaduz in
1937. The other knew Monaco pre-war, and had a friend die on him there in
the winter of 1939.
They also despised the Spanish border guards at Andorra, who were Franco's
bullyboys.
Very interesting read, to have the countries dicussed not as a tourist guide
but as an anecdotal descriptive piece, based on the trip in 1953 , and
pre-war visits.
There is an interesting bibliography of early works on each country in the
back.
Ther original Cassel edition has 5 or 6 photos of each country, including
one of the Andorrran border crossing from France. The road connection was
only built in the 1930s. Being so recently post-war, the survival of each
during WW1 and WW@ is discussed. Ie why Liechtenstian wasn't Anschlussed by
Hitler, and Andorra under the Vichy.
The TBC reprint is identical in every way, down to the dustjacket, but lacks
the photos.
Copies are available on www.abebooks.com
Well recommended. It even mentions Moresnet in passing in the conclusion,
which was my first introduction to that area.
BW
_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at
http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp