Alès, ancienne cité minière ; ce terril en témoigne. Alès, a former mining town, as this slag heap indicates. Travels without a donkey in the Cévennes Inspired by the journey of Robert Louis Stevenson and his faithful donkey, Modestine, singer-songwriter and composer Julien Baer took to the road, from Le Puy-en-Velay to Alès, astride his own steed, a motorcycle. As a child, I was allowed to choose what- contemplation, to have had some dealings he immediately regretted. He finally shed ever books I wanted from my father’s large with the human race, to follow Stevenson. a tear for Modestine when he resold her library. Alongside impressive volumes like In 1879, Stevenson was 28 and not yet a after reaching Saint-Jean-du-Gard. A Universal History of Infamyby Jorge famous author. Treasure Island would be I followed this same route one summer, Luis Borges,The ManuscriptFound in published four years later, and Strange on a motorcycle. I have to admit I’m Saragossa by Jan Potocki and The Woman Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in 1886. not a hiker, though I have two perfectly andthe Puppet by Pierre Louÿs (not really The woman he loved, Fanny Osbourne, good legs; I just love bikes. Not bikes age-appropriate), there was Robert Louis had just left to go back home to the for speed, but bikes for the landscape. Stevenson’s Travels with a Donkey in the United States. He was suffering and full ofI immerse myself, I burrow into every- Cévennes. The title intrigued me a lot, doubts. To take his mind off his troubles, thing around me, taking my time. People it sounded touching and simple. I picked he decided on this journey. In the end, told me it would be unbearably hot, but up the book and tried to read it, but it he walked through four distinct regions, the air on the plateau was delightful; they was lost on me. There wasn’t anything the Velay, the Gévaudan, Mont Lozère also warned about the crowded “Stevenson spectacular in his story. Just impressions and the Cévennes; his travel companion trail”, but I only came across a few and encounters that seemed very boring. was a donkey he bought at the start of his friendly, exhausted hikers. Because Saint- I understood its immense charm years trip in Monestier. He named her Modes- Martin-de-Fugères is not Saint-Tropez, later, when I bought a copy at a booksellertine. They had a tempestuous relation- and Mont Lozère is not Mont Blanc, on Quai de Montebello in Paris. ship, as the animal stubbornly refused to I was always alone at sites that blew me You probably need to have already obey her master. Stevenson ranted and away. Not a single car on the small local had a taste of the joys of traveling and raved, sometimes lost his temper—which roads. Happiness, pure and simple. 141