Few French left their native province in the first half of the 19th century, other than students who came to complete their studies in Paris. A certain exoticism was associated with the borderlands: Théophile Gautier travelled with Gérard de Nerval through Flanders in 1836 and reported on it in his A Tour of Belgium and Holland; he also published Voyage to Constantinople and Excursion to Greece in 1853. The Voyage to the Middle East is famous because Nerval offered more of a literary and fantastical trip more than a real travel account (although he actually did travel from Egypt to Istanbul in 1842 and 1843).
As for Alexandre Dumas, his First Impressions of a Trip (to Switzerland!) were followed by many others, to the point that caricaturists showed him striding across mountains and seas , carrying on his back a drying rack stuffed with ‘Re-impressions of travel impressions.’