GR 70 - Chemin de Stevenson
Day 1 (23.5 km), Day 2 (24.7 km), Day 3 (26.3 km), Day 4 (26.1 km), Day 5 (29 km), Day 6 (12.7 km).
One of Robert Louis Stevenson’s earliest works is the aptly titled Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes (1879). His story proved wildly popular in France to the point that the route he took was assigned a GR number.
I am now at the halfway point.
It is very much more agreeable hiking than this time last year in the Pyrenees. No scree or kast and temperatures half the 40C experienced there.
The trail cuts across the Massif Central, a vast volcanically raised region in the south central part of France. It is very fertile, has a cool climate and gets quite a bit of rain. The area is much less touristed than Provence or Bourgogne and you will be disappointed searching for a swish restaurant in these parts. The markets and local produce, however, are unrivalled - a good thing for vegetarians and those that don’t dig on swine.
I learned about this trail from a French film called Antoinette in the Cevennes. The premise of the film is that Antoinette, feeling abandoned, decides to follow her lover Vladimir on his family hike in the Cévennes with a donkey. Only the French could make that a romantic comedy rather than an intense bunny-boiling psychodrama.
More on Stevenson and why he was here later.
Self-guided Tour Organised Through: Macs Adventures: Great accommodations and track notes.
