The French Cloak - a symbol of 'the tourist gaze'?
In the seventeenth century the Grand Tour belonged to the aristocracy and gentry, but in his study of tourism in the twentieth century John Urry sees 'the tourist gaze' as significant of the 'modern' age. 
The [tourist] gaze of any historical period is constructed in relationship to its opposite....What makes a particular tourist gaze depends upon what it is contrasted with; what the forms of non-tourist experience happen to be. By considering typical objects, one can.....make sense of elements of the wider society with which they are contrasted 31. 
Urry sees this as a way of 'getting at what is happening' in contemporary society 32. He considers the tourist as the 'pilgrim' seeking authenticity - 'a modern version of the human universal concern with the sacred' 33. In his view, this is particularly evident in the search for the 'real lives' of others - especially their working lives - in 'seeking to be a peasant for a day' 34.
Recalling a holiday to France in 1961, Robin Tanner remembers Barron.
In French that was rather English in pronunciation but rich in vocabulary she would talk with a woman and listen to her lurid story. She would search for and find just the heavy iron cooking pot she said she badly needed at home. She would covet basket after basket in some old Vannerie, and in a vulgar-looking Monoprix she would, for sheer fun, buy just the mirror she had always been searching for! 35. 
In Tanner's account of their time spent in France there are references to 'black sprigged and spotted overalls', 'black pinafores....wool....dark grey and oatmeal', 'an honest pair of walnut sabots' and 'time to snatch an apron or two'. In Moulins, 'Barron caught sight of "Antiquites" ....anxious to find the black spotted stuff worn by every old woman in France'. In Sauvigny he wrote,
Above the shop were the large fading letters "Rouennerie". It was now, alas, a butcher's but had once sold printed cottons from Rouen, where Barron in former years has picked up many a treasure, buttons and all 36.
According to Urry tourism is constructed through signs; examples of the typical and traditional 37. In Barron's case, this was a search for signs of 'Frenchness'.
31 John Urry The Tourist Gaze (Sage, London, 2002) pp.1-2
32 Ibid. p.2
33 Ibid. p.9
34 Ibid. p.11
35 Robin Tanner manuscript of paper 'Phyllis Barron 1890-1964 and Dorothy Larcher 1884-1952 - As I Knew Them' given at the Holburne Museum as part of The Bath Festival, 1 June 1978, Newsam Archives, Institute of Education, University of London. Ibid.
36 Unpublished diary of Robin Tanner titled 'Holiday in Dordogne and Auvergne 1961 with Barron', CSC archives. Ibid.
37 John Urry The Tourist Gaze (Sage, London, 2002) p.3
Illustrations
Top left : Cloak, cotton, block printed with alum and iron, dyed in madder, quercitron and indigo, Provence, c.1790-1830, originally Phyllis Barron collection.
Top right (two images): Detail of Cloak, cotton, block printed with alum and iron, dyed in madder, quercitron and indigo, Provence, c.1790-1830, originally Phyllis Barron collection.
8064 copyright Textiles Collection, University for the Creative Arts at Farnham
Left (centre): Resist dyed head scarf, cotton, block printed paste resist, dyed in indigo, printed with alum and iron, dyed in madder and quercitron, French, c. late 19th century, originally Phyllis Barron collection.
8056 copyright Textiles Collection, University for the Creative Arts at Farnham.
Top of page and right (centre): Resist dyed head scarf, cotton, block printed paste resist, Azoic dyes and indigo, French, c. late 19th century, originally Phyllis Barron collection.
8051 copyright Textiles Collection, University for the Creative Arts at Farnham.
Left (below): Resist dyed furnishing, linen and cotton, block printed paste resist, dyed in indigo, French, probably printed in Rouen, c. late 18th century, hand written label, 'Rouen', originally Phyllis Barron collection.
8064 copyright Textiles Collection, University for the Creative Arts at Farnham.