George Sand et les Baléares : d’un amour contrarié à l’invention d’un imaginaire littéraire touristique

George Sand and Frédéric Chopin’s trip to the Balearic Islands at the end of the 1830s had all the makings of a missed opportunity. It marked the beginning of a thwarted relationship between France and the archipelago that owed much to the account that George Sand made of it a few years later. As the starting point of a literary and media construction, her writings on the island were quickly taken up by the press, contributing to shaping the image of the archipelago for the French. This media coverage reveals multiple issues, which have as much to do with the invention of a tourist imagination as with the vision that France nourishes of neighbouring Spain and its literary crystallisation. It was only years later, at the end of the century, that the image forged by the Sandian narrative was slowly reversed and that the island of Mallorca, which had become a tourist destination, happily exploited the aura given by the two lovers’ visit—no doubt against their will. El viaje de George Sand y Frédéric Chopin a las Islas Baleares a finales de la década de 1830 podría ser el de un desencuentro. Marcó el inicio de una relación frustrada entre Francia y el archipiélago que debe mucho al relato que George Sand publica unos años más tarde. Sus escritos sobre la isla fueron el punto de partida de una construcción literaria y mediática que inspiró rápidamente a la prensa, contribuyendo a configurar la imagen del archipiélago para los franceses. Esta mediatización pone de realce múltiples cuestiones, que tienen tanto que ver con la invención de un imaginario turístico como con la visión que Francia tiene de la vecina España y su cristalización literaria. Solo años más tarde, a finales de siglo, la imagen forjada por la narrativa sandiana se fue invirtiendo lentamente y la isla de Mallorca, convertida en destino turístico, explotó felizmente el aura que la estancia de los dos amantes había dejado, a su pesar sin duda. George Sand and Frédéric Chopin’s trip to the Balearic Islands at the end of the 1830s had all the makings of a missed opportunity. It marked the beginning of a thwarted relationship between France and the archipelago that owed much to the account that George Sand made of it a few years later. As the starting point of a literary and media construction, her writings on the island were quickly taken up by the press, contributing to shaping the image of the archipelago for the French. This media coverage reveals multiple issues, which have as much to do with t