It includes the travel articles that Henry James made during his year of residence in Paris, including the chronicle of his only two visits to Spain. Christmas in 1875 is spent in Paris, whose atmosphere is vividly portrayed. Ruan, Honfleur, Le Havre and Étretat are his next stays. From there he goes to Spain, the land of Cervantes, where he visits San Sebastian twice and has the opportunity to witness a bullfight "more pleasant than virtue or decency would allow him to recognize." Thus, James has the opportunity to describe from the architectural acrobatics of the Cathedral of Chartres to the turbulence of the Third Republic, from the cliffs of Normandy to the jubilation of Reims, from the massified Biarritz to the castle of Varennes