The Stevenson trail in the Cevennes
The Stevenson trail 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 Gevaudan. 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 ?
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, Le Cevenol, Roujanel, Margeride loop and Allier river trail. The right place to relax.
