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A Walk in the Cevennes
From Itchy Traveller: 2008
When Robert Louis Stevenson's mistress Fanny Osbourne returned to the USA in 1878 he was heartbroken. His affair with a married woman had estranged him from his family and Victorian London expected such impropriety to be kept well under wraps.
So, feeling low, he decided to travel to the remote and mysterious Cevennes of southern France. Ostensibly he was travelling to see the land of the Camisards - a bloody feud in the 1700's between Catholics and Protestants, but in reality he was lovelorn.
He kept a diary of his 220km trek through the sparsely populated mountainous Cevennes, an adventure that was to change his life. "Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes" was published the following year and became his first best seller and a precursor to the thousands of copycat travel books that line our shelves today.
I was amazed to discover a Robert Louis Stephenson festival (www.chemin-stevenson.org) in the Cevennes; it's strange but true - the French celebrating a Brit, more specifically a Scot, in France!........
The Robert Louis Stevenson Association has created a way-marked route called GR70 for travellers to follow but signage is a bit inconsistent and unreliable so a guide is useful. Some people just walk the trail but I decided six legs were better than two.
I picked up my donkey at the village of Chasseredes from donkey owners Marcel and Roger Exbreyat........