The Normandy-born writer, Marie-Catherine le Jumelle de Barneville (1651-1705), better known as Madame d’Aulnoy in the circles of Arts, published Relation du Voyage en Espagne, in 1691. This book gathers her impressions of a journey to our country, which she probably made between the years 1678 and 1690. The widely known work has been highly praised in the 19th century by French intellectuals, and it seems that it had contributed a great deal to the disrepute of Spain, not only in France but also in other European countries. Apparently, this may be due to various reasons, not a lesser one being the notable hyperbolic character of her discourse at various stages of the work: firstly, her increasing bitterness of character, which some attach to the sudden breaking off of her sentimental relationship to her French guide, as stated in some documents referring to her trip; also, because she did not feel happy with the treatment provided by her foreign peers, whose customs seemed to her too different to those of her own; or perhaps and not less relevantly because of the wide cultural gap existing between the Spaniards and the natives of her own country, in such questions as custom refinement, artificiality in personal treatment and so on.La escritora normanda Marie-Catherine le Jumelle de Barneville (1651-1705), más conocida en el mundo de las letras como Madame d’Aulnoy, publicaría en 1691 Relation du voyage en Espagne. En el libro narra sus impresiones de un viaje a nuestro país, que debió llevar a cabo entre 1678 y 1690. Obra muy alabada en el siglo XIX por los intelectuales franceses, es claro que su difusión contribuyó al descrédito de España, en Francia y en buena parte de Europa, por lo pormenorizado y exhaustivo, aunque parece estar provista de buena parte de exageración debido a diferentes motivos: sentirse abandonada al comienzo de su periplo por su guía francés, como narran documentos alusivos al viaje (lo cual le agriaría el carácter y le haría ver todo de un modo más exagerado de lo normal); bien por no sentirse satisfecha con el trato recibido por parte de sus iguales; quizá porque las costumbres le parecieran muy diferentes a las de su país; posiblemente el carácter del pueblo español, menos artificial, en general, que el del francés, le pareciera vulgar y poco refinado, etc. etc.