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Travels With(out) a Donkey in the Cevannes

Following the Robert Louis Stevenson Trail

It was a lucky chance that took me into the tourist information office in Le Puy-en-Velay early in the morning after my arrival by train from Paris late the previous evening. I was enquiring the time of buses to Le Monastier where RLS started his journey. There was no bus until 6.30pm which meant a lost day but in an idle moment I picked up the guide to Le Chemin de Stevenson published by the Federation Francaise de le Randonnee Pedestre, and it was immediately obvious that it was far superior to my Cicerone guide. it eventually became apparent that the English guide was well out of date (1991) and that the route (now the GR70) had been considerably modified and improved and the waymarking on the old route has not been maintained.

The French guide suggested starting walking at Le Puy and following the pilgrims route of Saint-Jean-Francois-Regis for the first 12 miles to Le Monastier so that is what I decided to do.. After climbing onto the plateau to the south of Le Puy, I was surprised to see that the hills in the far distance appeared to be covered in snow. However, the weather was warm so I hoped it would all be gone before I reached it.. The walking was mainly along tracks and grassy lanes with the occasional tiny hamlet. Arriving in Le Monastier I duly photographed the memorial stone commemorating the start of RLS’s walk and then carried on to reach Goudet for the night.

The first two days to Tradelles were across the rather bleak plateaux of the Velay and although the weather was dry the wind was very keen. When I looked out of my window on the morning of my third day there was snow on the ground. However, as I dropped down to Langogne and the boundary between Velay and Gevaudan I was quickly out of the snow and a lovely sunny day developed. Gevaudan is famous for its Beast, the ‘Napoleon Bonaparte of Wolves’ which, according to legend, in the 1760’s terrorised the countryside killing beautiful maidens or young shepherd boys.

The way went through forests and small valleys and occasional tiny villages. This century the whole of the Cevennes has suffered from depopulation and it is evident that the villages and hamlets are virtually unchanged since Stevenson’s time.

After my one really grim day weatherwise in the vicinity of Luc and La Bastide I found myself crossing the plateau of Le Mourade (1308m) with ice on the puddles and a very cold wind. However, this was to be the last of the cold weather and the rest of the walk was in warm sunshine. After Le Bleymard I climbed to the summit of Mont Loziere which, at 1699m is the high point of the route and gives superb views of the Cevennes which strictly speaking start at this point. It was also the halfway point of my walk.

The remaining five days walking through the Cevennes National Park were magnificent - lovely scenery, forest, ridges, river gorges - and staying in the gite d’etapes, where the welcome was always very friendly and the facilities excellent. As it was so early in the season they rarely provided an evening meal but there were always self catering facilities and a good petit dejeuner was generally provided.

After ten days walking I reached the small town of Saint-Jean -du-Gard, where RLS completed his walk, and the following day, which was a Sunday and devoid of public transport, I managed, by taking a tourist steam train and a taxi, to reach Ales where I took an overnight train to Paris. The Robert Louis Stevenson Way is a lovely walk, not too strenuous - about 150 miles if you start at Le-Puy-en_Velay as I did, and so can be comfortably fitted in to a fortnight’s holiday. It is easily accessible by the excellent French railway system, most of the way being on TGV routes, and if you are my age be sure to buy your Carte Senior which gives you 50per cent off all railway fares (and the French railways are cheaper than ours anyway).

The waymarking is very good and with the French Guide, which includes the route marked up on coloured copies of the French IGN 1:50000 series (not now available evidently), there is little difficulty in following it. I was carrying 25000 series and I found the two which covered the Cevennes National Park both useful and interesting.

I can recommend this walk. Apart from the Robert Louis Stevenson connection this is an area, full of history, that has barely changed in over 100 years. If you are interested in RLS apart from reading his book I suggest Richard Holmes’ book “Footsteps” as preliminary reading.

Peter Dyson

Last Modified: 7 May, 2003