What do you need to pack for a walking holiday in France? This is what Robert Louis Stevenson pondered before undertaking his adventure. He settled on the fail safe combination of “a frying pan to be fried, a whip with egg, a sleeping bag, cooked gigot, a spirit lamp, a bottle of Beaujolais and a bottle of brandy”.
Robert Louis Stevenson’s French walking holiday took 12 days, although he often stopped for half days en route to write up his journals and swig from his bottle of brandy. It should therefore be possible to follow the same route on a nine day walking holiday in France.
Despite the fact that Stevenson’s book is entitled ‘Travels With a Donkey in the Cevennes’ he actually started his French walking holiday in the Velay region of France. The town of Le Puy en Velay was where he began his travels, and it’s also one of the main towns on the Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage route to visit the shrine of St James. Stevenson started his adventures here as he was keen to visit the spectacular volcanic puys of the region. With Darwin’s theories recently emerging, volcanic cones were considered evidence that the Earth had been around much longer than it was originally thought. Robert Louis Stevenson considered himself an atheist and visited these puys to witness evidence against the literal and fundamentalist interpretation of the Bible.
As well as his atheist beliefs, Robert Louis Stevenson was also fascinated by the Cevenols, descendants of the Camisards who fought and were persecuted after the revocation of the edict of Nantes. He hoped this walking holiday in France would put him into contact with these noble people.
After a month’s stay in Velay, Stevenson set off on his French walking holiday from the town of La Monastier Sur Gazelle with his lone companion, Mondestine, a stubborn and temperamental donkey, who occasionally carried Stevenson’s baggage. You will find on your French walking holiday that the first day’s walk is anything but flat; the upper Loire Valley is gouged deep into the plateau and the descent into the valley at Goudet is quite steep. The second day is a lot more leisurely as you continue across volcanic plateaux via the market town of Landos.
The next region is the Gevaudan area, known as the region of the beast, which giant man eating wolves are said to frequent. Stevenson wrote about these wolves in ‘Travels With a Donkey in the Cevennes’, and claimed to have spotted at least one of these fabled animals on his French walking holiday.
The next highlight is the region of Mont Lozère, where yellow broom announce the start of the earth’s climatic cycle, and are later replaced by the violet heather and blue myrtles of late summer. The summit of Finiels is a hiker’s paradise, from where the Alps or the Pyrenees are visible on a clear day.
The Cevennes make up the fourth region of your walking holiday in France. These rolling mountains dart between chestnut forests and refreshing riverbeds, before clambering up to tree covered summits.
After Saint Germain, the trail follows the Gardon valley and after Saint Etienne Vallée Française, the path climbs towards Saint Pierre pass, where Modestine and Stevenson had their last meal together. The market town of St Jean marks the end of a memorable walking holiday in France, whether you have a donkey to carry your luggage or not.
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