Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes, Robert Louis Stevenson (ISBN 9781843500964)

Read this book years ago. Stumbled across it on the internet where it was a free Kindle download, converted into an ebook by volunteers. I’m a fan of travelogues, especially ones on a motorcycle but this one by Stevenson on foot with a donkey is also nice. Well written, with a good mix between the travel experience and history of the region being travelled. It relates about religious troubles in the region and the suppression of the rebellion by the King. Puts another twist on the view of France as a nation. Came across some of the same resentment of the south of France towards Paris in a biography of Napoleon later on. The travel itself is not a big deal, less than 200 kilometers in 12 days. But the talent of Stevenson as a writer is clear and transforms this voyage into something more. It also takes you back in time when all travel was an ‘adventure’ that took time and you could easily get lost in the wilderness of the south of France without technology coming to the rescue. If you like travel books and history then I recommend it, else you might want to skip it as it is not a very eventful story. On the other hand it is also very thin, reflecting the duration of the trip so not much time will be lost by reading it.