I picked up a Folio Society edition of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes recently, and discovered that one of the first villages he passed through on his journey in the 1870s was a little place called Goudet, about 12 miles south of Le Puy and beside the infant river Loire.
Fifty years ago, I and two companions spent a night at Goudet on the way south to the Camargue, and before we left it, found time to explore the valley and its ruined hilltop castle. I took half a dozen photographs (slides), and they have lain hidden away in storage files ever since. Today I looked them out, and we made copies of them. One was a view looking down on a farmyard with red-tiled roofs, over which I remember seeing my first and only crag martin flying to and fro, and another was of the ‘castle’. Stevenson seems to have been rather preoccupied at that early stage in his trek with managing his donkey Modestine and learning how to load her, but he does mention the hilltop ruin and names it as the Château Beaufort.
I still have the Michelin maps that I took on our journey half a century ago, and have been able (to a certain extent, for the roads and tracks must have changed considerably since the 1870s) to trace Stevenson’s route.
Goudet is situated in a most beautiful steep valley, and the guest-house where we stayed had been opened only a short while, a timber-lined chalet rather after the Swiss style and intended mainly for winter visitors coming to ski in the surrounding hills. Stevenson took his lunch at the village inn, but didn’t spend a night there. He found many of the local villagers rather surly and often scared of him, a weird foreigner journeying on foot accompanied by a laden donkey: they were reluctant to talk or even to point him on his way. No doubt Goudet is now a well-known, welcoming resort. I would love to be able to stay there again.
PS Having now finished the book, I find to my delight that Stevenson ended his adventure only a few miles from another place, Anduze, where I remember camping at an idyllic site on our same holiday.
Happy memories of the Cevennes
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2 comments:
Andrew,
I’m delighted to read of your hiking trip down to Anduze along what may well have been the route taken by Robert Louis Stevenson. As a Scot living in the area, I am fascinated by this trail, have walked it several times and you and your readers may be interested to read the recent article on my latest trek at:
http://www.enlightened-traveller.co.uk/pages/pages.aspx?pgId=426
For your information, Stevenson approached Goudet via Le Monastier rather than direct from Le Puy. He in fact spent a few months in Le Monastier preparing his trek and visited Goudet a few times before making his celebrated trek.
The inn where he ate is now called Hotel de la Loire and Stevenson had time to sketch Château Beaufort during one of his visits. This sketch is reproduced in the notes he made during his trip that were not re-discovered until the centenary of his trek in an American library.
Goudet remains delightful and untouched, despite the many thousands of hikers that retrace Stevenson’s steps every year.
Best wishes,
Scott
Thanks to Scott for interesting pointer to website with article, which I enjoyed. I had no idea the RLS trail was popular - I thought I had discovered it myself by accident ! As a beginner blogger I am not sure whether this reply will reach you, or where - but thanks. I hope to put a [phopto or two of Goudet on my blog once I learn how.
Good wishes, Andrew
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