Stevenson's Trail

On the 22nd. September 1878 the young Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson left on foot from Monastier sur Gazeille in the Haut-Loire with a pack donkey called Modestine. 12 days, 156 miles and a host of adventures later he arrived at St. Jean du Gard, his trek immortalised in the 1879 classic, ''Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes''

Today we invite you to recreate his fascinating journey with considerably more certainty and comfort. You stay in locally selected guesthouses, eat the best of local cuisine and carry only a light day bag. In short, a classic walking tour that takes you both through literary history and delightfully unexplored regions of rural France.

Starting from the volcanic plateau of the Velay, Stevenson's Trail takes you south through a country of mountains cut by river valleys and criss-crossed by ancient footpaths and drovers tracks through remote areas of forgotten France.

From Le Puy, by way of the Haut Loire where high summer pastures of wild flowers and yellow gorse are set off by wooded hillsides of dark green pines, you will find Romanesque Abbey Churches, fields sown with the world famous Le Puy lentils and sweet scented May Narcissi.

The  Velay gives way to legendary Gevaudan in modern Ardeche, a gently undulating landscape of enchanting woods, ancient stone bridges over mountain streams to the Trappist Abbey, Notre Dame des Neige (our Lady of the Snows) where Robert Louis spent the night.

Reaching the half-way point, you enter the UNESCO protected National Park of the Cevennes to ascend the heather-clad slopes of Mont Lozere. Guided by prehistoric standing stones you gain the highest point on the trail  -- that strange, granite rock-strewn, 'Summit of Finiels' (1699m) which rewards you with it's breathtaking panorama of the 'Sea of Mountains' stretching to the far horizon as though untouched by time.

The Cevennes of Cevennes, as Robert Louis Stephenson called it, lies ahead. Descending through the land of the Protestant Camisards (where the 17th century military road built to control their area cuts across wide moorlands) there are lichen-covered dry stonewalls, terraced hillsides, villages and hamlets with stone-covered roofs among cascading streams. Pine trees give way to evergreen oaks that cling to the dry rocky hillsides of the Mediterranean, sweet chestnut groves and myrtle bushes and your destination at St. Jean du Grad

Highlights:

• Congratulating yourself on finding the finest trail in rural France
  
• Drinking in the vast views of the Sea of Mountains and the blue Mediterranean skies.
  
• Hunting for the Black Virgins in the basalt steep-stair streets of Le Puy
  
• Soaking in the atmosphere over a glass of vin and delicious local cheeses in a field of wild flowers.
  
• Looking out over the ‘Sea of Mountains’ in the Cévennes & feeling on top of the world
  
• Exploring 2 UNESCO World Heritage Sites and the National Park of the Cévennes

Price from £495.00 - BOOK NOW

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