Walk Travels with a Donkey, across the Cévennes
Twelve days on foot in the south of France with a small grey donkey called Modestine. Your everyday steps follow Stevenson over the mountains, and his words unlock at the places he wrote them.
- 120 miles
- 8 stops
- Robert Louis Stevenson, 1879
Twelve days with Modestine
Stevenson bought a small grey donkey for sixty-five francs and a glass of brandy, and walked her over the Cévennes for twelve days. Nobody in 1878 walked for pleasure, so this is the book that had to explain why — and it is where the line about travelling for travel's sake comes from.
In the autumn of 1878 Robert Louis Stevenson bought a donkey for sixty-five francs and a glass of brandy and walked her south across the Cévennes, from Le Monastier to Saint-Jean-du-Gard. He slept out under the pines, stayed a night with Trappist monks, crossed Mont Lozère and walked down into the country of the Camisard rebels. Walking for pleasure was a strange idea then, and the book has to explain it.
It is where the famous line comes from: “I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move.” The route is real, and so well loved that it is now a waymarked long-distance trail, the GR 70, the Chemin de Stevenson. In Bematist you walk its 120 miles from home.
- Distance
- 120 miles (193 km)
- Stops
- 8, each with its own passage and plate
- Map
- The real world, on Apple Maps
- Text
- Robert Louis Stevenson; Project Gutenberg ebook #535
Where it starts
It arose a good deal from my projected excursion southward through the Cévennes. A traveller of my sort was a thing hitherto unheard of in that district. I was looked upon with contempt, like a man who should project a journey to the moon, but yet with a respectful interest, like one setting forth for the inclement Pole. All were ready to help in my preparations; a crowd of sympathisers supported me at the critical moment of a bargain.
Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes · Robert Louis Stevenson
This is the passage Bematist gives you the moment you set out. The other 7 wait at the places they happened, and the only way to read them is to walk there.
How long would the Cévennes take you?
Stevenson took twelve days, towing a reluctant donkey. At true scale on everyday walks it's around a month. Or pick your own finish and Bematist sets the pace from how much you already walk.
A rough guide, at about 0.75 m a step. In the app the pace comes from your own 30-day average in Apple Health, and stays fixed for the whole journey.
On the way
The words, at the places
8 passages, each waiting where it happened. You can see how far away the next one is, but not what it says.
Walk it with friends
Send a link and walk the same road together, each of you on your own streets, wherever you live.
No streak to lose
Steps come straight from Apple Health. A quiet day is just a short one, and your place on the road only moves forward.
More roads like this one
See the whole library, with a new book every month, chosen by walkers' vote.
Set out for the Cévennes.
120 miles of Travels with a Donkey, on the walks you already take.
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