The Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson undertook a trip as a recluse through the Cevennes (GR 70) to search for the heart of the camisards from Auvergne to Languedoc region.
On the Stevenson Trail with a donkey in the Cevennes
The Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson undertook a trip as a recluse through the Cevennes (GR 70) to search for the heart of the camisards from Auvergne to Languedoc region.
On the Stevenson Trail with a donkey in the Cevennes
At
the end of the last century, the Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson
undertook a voyage as a recluse through the
Cevennes to
search for the heart of camisarde. On
the basis of Monastier sur Gazeille
with for his only partner an ass, it will end to Saint Jean of Gard after a high
tour of and be recorded in the book " Travels with an ass through the Cevennes
". It is the lozérienne part of this tour that we invite you to follow. In car,
on foot, horse, with an ass: whatever you wish according to the time you have.
The stages suggested are of top-notch quality and will let you re-live the very
footsteps of R.L. Stevenson.
1878... it seems a long way away. And yet, today, it is always 1878. All is similar. Nothing changed. Except (of course!) the quality of the inns... All the famous places are still here, waiting! The buildings, the streets, the paths... you will lack only the Modestine donkey Stevenson rode, and we can provide you with a suitable replacement. But the spirit has not left, even without Stevenson to document it is would still be here.
It is
an extremely literary... though basically entertaining tour. That of a search
for the impossible voyage. That of an accumulation, a stacking of very Scottish
mishaps in our beautiful country of
Gévaudan. You
could not make this journey of ordinary pretenses. In hills haunted with gods
and knights, in the highest and most unforeseeable part of Lozere, at the time
when it starts to undress its luminous autumnal ornament for the first bragged,
its fogs and some pearls of rain--this is a discovery, even for we who live
here.
It is during this time of the year in harsh climate that our hero takes the road which goes down from Monastier towards Langogne. The road? Rather let us say goat paths his donkey determines through obstinacy. Because Modestine, it is a fountainhead; a crossed head of poetic, emotional, gustatory projects.
Thus the Cevennes, the winter, on foot, with an ass. And that one worthy of the English image of mischief. One which would have signed Prévert:
a frying pan to be fried
a whip with egg
a sleeping bag
cooked gigot
a spirit lamp
a bottle of Beaujolais wine
another of Brandy
and much, much ropes...
Because stowing and ropes are the two udders of
the voyage.
It is even the center of this adventure. It is the Gordian knot. And like any Gordian knot, it will be necessary to slice to advance. Good-bye stove, gigot! Beaujolais wine and bread! Vicit Asinus!
Consequently, all is ready to go, the fog and the heart of the fog. Is it well, not well with the local inn? Is it all right to sleep there? In all manners, one either is chilled there, or the object of mockeries. Both sometimes at the same time when the chance finishes by you smiling !
Of all these
misadventures, our glorious author had made only one mouthful if the quarrels
metaphysics containing monks and of converted Irishman who had come somewhat to
disturb it with Our Lady of Snows.
But how can a Scottish convenantaire can imagine without shivering, to spend one
night in a monastery papist?
It is to throw itself in the mouth of the Wolf. Dangerous with the Country of the Animal, meets always dreaded but can be always desired..."Wolves, alas! like the gangsters, seem to move back in front of the functioning of the travellers."
Because, after all, the goal of this voyage, that acknowledged, isn't it the meeting of Cévenne camisarde, mysterious, and perhaps the still dangerous one ?
GR.70 The Stevenson path 252 km
Step by
step, follow the path taken by the famous writer of " Treasure Island" from the
volcanic plateaus of the "basse Auvergne", the Gévaudan and the Mont Lozere,
through the outstanding scenery of the Cévennes to the Camisard area and St Jean
du Gard.
In preparation read "Travel with a donkey in the Cévennes" by Robert Louis Stevenson, as well as the topo-guide GR70 "Stevenson's Way" and "Cévennes" by Kenneth White.
The route is mainly at a height of about 1000 meters, from North to South. To get there you go through the Loire, the Allier, the Lot and the Tarn. The trip ends with Mont Finiels (1700 m.) and the Signal de Goudes (1400 m.).
The route begins at Le Puy en Velay and goes along the volcanic plateaus of the Velay. Afterwards you enter the Gévaudan having crossed the Allier. This is the region where, according to the legend, a monster lived, among heather, rocks and pines.
Mont Lozčre, where upright stones mark the route
for hikers, forms the third part of the journey. From this stony view-point one
can see the Cévennes and the "bas-Languedoc" and as far as the Mediterranean
Sea. The path pushes into the Cevennes in the land of the Camisards. You will be
surrounded by terraced chestnut-trees.
The richness of its flora and fauna is notable. Since the reintroduction of wild vultures, beavers, wild sheep and big "Tétras" the biodiversity is even greater.
Some areas have been recolonized by otters, black woodpeckers, Teungmalm owls, eagles, horned owls, etc
Buy the book:
Travels with a Donkey
in the Cevennes and
the amateur emigrant
Old romantic Hotel, L'Etoile Guest-House is a mountain retreat in the South of France. With a beautiful park along the Allier River, L'Etoile Guesthouse is located in La Bastide Puylaurent between Lozere, Ardeche and Cevennes. Many hiking trails like GR70 Stevenson trail, Regordane way (St Gilles trail), GR7, GR72, GRP Le Cevenol, Roujanel, Margeride loop and Allier river trail. The right place to relax.