Don Quixote's Delusions

A humorous and affectionate look at modern Spain. Miranda France spent a year living in Madrid in 1987, when the post-dictatorship ebullience was at its height. Over ten years later she makes a return journey through the great cities and towns of central Spain, renewing old friendships.

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When in 1987 Miranda France spent a year living in Madrid, the post-dictatorship ebullience was at its height - pornography and soft drugs were legalized alongside more basic freedoms, such as divorce, party-affiliation and kissing in the street. In 1999 she returns to make a journey through the great cities and towns of central Spain Madrid, Toledo, Segovia, Salamanca and others. Much has changed in 10 years. But much has also endured, as she learns from people she meets, who include a private detective, a shepherd, various nuns, belly dancers and a Castilian separatist. She also discovers that Cervante's "Don Quixote", published in 1605, and the most translated book after the Bible, helps to explain the Spanish character: todays Spaniards still suffer from Quixotic delusions and are as stubborn, inflexible and unrealistic as they have always been.