L’Europe galante

How do Europeans go a-wooing? Probably in much the same way as everyone else, although obviously down the ages every country and culture has had – and still has – its own courtship manuals. Thus were born great myths, with the Mediterranean 'type' raising the greatest expectations of all, in the guise of the Latin lover, the legendary Don Juan, or the beauty and bohemian spirit of the Spanish señora, not to mention the refinement of French ladies or the rather wild allure of some Balkan and eastern peoples, in contrast to the aplomb and elegance of English lovers and the cool nonchalance of Nordic women.