Modestine, the obstinate Donkey

With Stevenson thorugh the Cévennes

A descendant of Modestine

France is not especially blessed with national parks. And apart from the Parc de Port-Cros, one of the golden islands in the golf of Hyères, they are all located in the mountains. Of these the Parc National des Cévennes is more than a national icon. The reason is that the Scottish author, Robert Louis Stevenson went there in 1878 and famously made one of the first recorded tours into a wilderness, when he decided to design history's first sleeping back out of green waterproof cart-cloth and blue sheep's fur, buy the donkey, Modestine, and tour the wilderness of the Cervennes. The story is in all its sketchy details a hilarious travelogue, famous for its main characters, the obstinate Modestine, the rough peasants, and not least, the Beasts of Gevudan: "As for these two girls, they were a pair of impudent sly sluts, with not a thought but mischief. One put out her tongue at me, the other bade me follow the cows; and they both giggled and jogged each other's elbows"

Miserable, wet, cold, bug-bitten or sweetened by the "black pine-trees, the hollow glade, the munching ass", Stevenson beckons us towards discovering not just wilderness, but life along the least travelled road.

Or in Stevenson's own words: "But we are all travellers in what John Bunyan calls the wilderness of this world-all, too, travellers with a donkey: and the best that we find in our travels is an honest friend. He is a fortunate voyager who finds many. We travel, indeed, to find them. They are the end and the reward of life. They keep us worthy of ourselves; and when we are alone, we are only nearer to the absent." (Robert Louis Stevenson 1879)

Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes. By Robert Louis Stevenson.

Here is a description of the road, Stevenson traveled.

Here you may find a trail near you