France

France is a transit country in Candide, but the travelers’ passage through it turns geography into a test of expectation. After reaching its coast, Candide and Martin move through Bordeaux and consider Paris on their way toward Venice; Martin’s earlier experiences there supply a darker counterpoint to Candide’s hopes of reunion with Cunegonde.

Arrival and Route

Candide and Martin first descried the coast of France while reasoning together at sea. Their arrival brings the country into the story as a waypoint on a longer journey: Candide intends to reach Venice, where he expects to find Cunegonde, and Martin agrees to accompany him. Candide has little independent curiosity about France after his time in El Dorado, but the route to Venice passes through it.

At Bordeaux, Candide stays only long enough to sell some of the pebbles from El Dorado and hire a chaise for the two travelers. He is reluctant to part with the Red sheep of El Dorado, which he leaves to the Bordeaux Academy of Sciences. The Academy makes the sheep’s red wool the subject of a prize question; the winning scholar’s elaborate calculation concludes that the sheep must be red and die of the rot. The episode brings an exotic remnant of Candide’s earlier travels into contact with a learned institution, making the institution’s confident explanation part of the satire.

Martin’s France and Paris

As the coast comes into view, Candide asks Martin about France. Martin answers with broad, differing characterizations of its provinces: some inhabitants seem foolish, others cunning; some appear simple, others eager to display their wit. He reduces the country’s prevailing pursuits to love, slander, and empty talk. These are Martin’s judgments, not an impartial description of France, and their sweeping form suits his generally bleak view of human conduct.

Martin has also been to Paris, which he recalls as a confused multitude in which people seek pleasure but rarely find it. His account is anchored in a short and punishing stay: pickpockets robbed him at the fair of St. Germain, he was mistaken for a robber and imprisoned for eight days, and he earned money to return to Holland on foot by working as a corrector of the press. He says that he knew the city’s scribbling, political, and religiously fanatical crowds, while allowing that polite people may also live there. The qualification does little to soften the force of his experience; Paris reaches the reader through a sequence of theft, wrongful imprisonment, and precarious work.

Candide’s Passage Through the Country

Candide initially says he has no desire to see France: after spending a month in El Dorado, he wants above all to behold Cunegonde again. His priority shapes the journey, keeping France subordinate to the reunion he seeks. Still, the travelers they meet at inns are all bound for Paris, and their repeated destination gives Candide the desire to see the capital. Since Paris is not far out of the way to Venice, he revises his plan without abandoning its purpose.

The account of France therefore moves between Candide’s practical itinerary and Martin’s assessment of what the country offers. Bordeaux provides the necessary chaise and a scene of mock-academic certainty; Paris, first encountered through Martin’s memory, carries the accumulated disappointments of urban life. France remains a passage toward Italy rather than the resolution of Candide’s search, but that passage briefly redirects his attention from the hoped-for reunion to the capital’s reputation and crowds.