"Le Tour de la France par deux enfants (1877) is a French novel/geography/travel/school book. It was written by Augustine Fouillée (née Tuillerie) who used the pseudonym of G. Bruno. The book was widely used in the schools of the Third Republic, where it was influential for generations of children in creating a sense of a unified nation of France. Its success was such that it reached a circulation of 6 million copies in 1900, It was still used in schools until the 1950s and still in print to this day. It was sometimes known as "the little red book of the Republic."
The story recounts the journey of two young brothers from Alsace, Andrew and Julian Volden, who, following the annexation of the Alsace-Lorraine by the Prussians in the 1870-71 Franco-Prussian War, and the death of their father, go in search of family members through the French provinces. The diversity of the people they meet lead them on to learn more. There are passages on the taste of local foods, the strange patois, mitigated by methodical learning. It is very patriotic and emphasis civic education, geography, scientific, historical and moral youth. The story teaches about monuments and symbols, exemplary lives of inventors, soldiers and patriot benefactors. They are very zealous to learn more about France. The accumulated wealth of knowledge: agriculture, home economics, hygiene ... leads them to establish a perfect farm called "La Grand'Lande," symbolic of the nation of France."
[text–lightly edited–and graphic from Wikipedia.]
