The TRAVELER'S JOURNAL: May thirtieth, seeking Stevenson in the Cevennes.

In 1878, heartbroken by his married lover's rejection and dejected by his then lackluster literary career, Robert Louis Stevenson set off find himself at the ripe old age of 27. Much as Thoreau went to Walden, Stevenson sought escape from routine to restore his spirits. He undertook a solitary, 120 mile trek through the Cevennes, a then wild range of mountains in south central France.

"I travel not to go anywhere, but to go," Stevenson wrote in his book, "Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes." "I travel for travel's sake...to come down off this feather-bed of civilization, and find the globe granite underfoot and strewn with cutting flints." Published four years before "Treasure Island," Stevenson's introspective chronicle has enticed many a hiker to follow in his footsteps.

One such journey is recounted in this issue of the magazine, National Geographic Traveler, a supporter of our program. Although accompanied by his wife and brother, the author discovered a Cevennes not that dissimilar from the one Stevenson traversed.

Back then, the peaks and valleys of le Massif Central were sparse and sparsely populated, scoured by decades of harsh winters and religious strife. Today's Cevennes still feels hushed and secluded, moorlike highlands dotted with orange roofed villages and quaintly ruined chateaus, a forgotten fragment of France. Despite culinary pleasures and quaint guest houses along the way, the stony route and rocky weather still test a walker's resolve. But that's essential to the process of self-discovery, and it makes a compelling tale in any age.

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For info: Association Sur le Chemin de R.L. Stevenson based in the town of Le Pont de-Monvert at www.chemin-stevenson.org

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